Cylindrical Braid (Turks Head) Knot Mandrels

Let's assume that you want to tie a Cylindrical Braid Knot (more commonly known as a Turks Head Knot) that you have not tied before. You don't have any instructions, you merely suspect that it exists. You're in luck, with instructions from the internet and one or another of the knot mandrels you can learn how make here, we can make manifest your chosen knot.

• cord (any kind, you choose)
• scissors
• optional: yarn needle, bodkin or lacing needle (DIY lacing needle)

Paper only mandrel:

• paper (and access to a printer)
• stabbing object (pen, awl, scissor tip, etc)
• cellophane (regular office type) tape

Cardboard cylinder mandrel:

• cardboard (cereal box or corrugated depending on which option you want to try)
• nails (depending how big, probably brads or finish nails)
• tape (packing, masking, or duct)
• hammer

PVC pipe mandrel:

• PVC pipe segment
• optional: set screws / hex wrench
• optional: drill press

With the cardboard mandrels, I find a needle unnecessary. Depending in the scale of the holes in your paper mandrel, you might not need needles there either. WRT the needle, you can stiffen the end of your cord using glue or starch. If your cord is an artificial material like nylon or polyester, cyanoacrylate works especially well. Also judicious application of heat can stiffen the end for a self-needle (beware fumes!). You can also whip the end of the cord and, if necessary, leash the cord to a sewing needle.

Looking at the various mandrels below, one might ask "why not use a wooden dowel?" This is a valid question. The problem is, will the dowel be the right size for your knot? Also, what are you more likely to have laying around the house: wooden dowel cutoffs of appropriate diameter or random boxes waiting to be recycled?

Note: Amazon links above for your reference only, non-affiliate. That said, I have purchased, used, and recommend them highly.

As stated in the Intro, we're assuming that you have a cylindrical braid knot that you want to tie. For the purposes of example, let's say that you want to tie a 5 Bight 9 Lead knot. Firstly go to Allwine Designs' Advanced Gridmaker. Right at the top of the page are links to detailed instructions for how to specify things. I believe that I am just using the defaults. I usually head straight to specifying Bights and Parts (leads). Based on Strand Width you've specified, an estimate Strand Lengths for how long a cord you'll need can be found.

• Scroll down for the knot schematic. Right click to save out the image. Print out and make sure it's more or less sized to the cord you're planning to use (extreme precision not required, but general ballpark is good).
• prepare your work surface: cork trivet, cutting board, folded tea towel to protect your dinner/coffee table/desk
• pierce the paper across the top and bottom, also after the first under after (or before) the edge points.
• make an extra hole above A1 (let's now call that A0) to park the loose end of our cord in.
• trim the paper: 2-3cm margin top and bottom, 1cm on one side and flush on the other
• apply tape to the flush cut edge, wrap into a cylinder, and align the image so that the lines are continuous.
• Tape cylinder closed
• re-open any holes that are now covered by tape or overlapped paper

Using your paper mandrel

• prepare your cord by making a self-needle or attaching lacing needle, bodkin, or leash
• take your cord up through A0, down through A1, and up after the first under following.
• Follow the schematic lines to the bottom edge (in this case B5), sew down through the edge hole there and back up after the first under following (the hole just above and to the left of B1)
• continue following the schematic, pay attention to overs and unders
• cords will often sag off of the schematic lines, be sure to check alignment early on until more overs and unders effectively fix the cords into place.
• when complete, clip or knot loose ends together so you don't lose them in the dismount
• carefully tear the paper away from your knot.

Paper works very well for one-offs. If you need to make 10 of the same knot for your total project, then you probably don't want to be re-making your mandrel for each one. For reusable tools look further down.

Added note: Playing with more settings, you can save on coloured ink by setting cord Colors to "white" and Shadow Colors to "black". If you want to more quickly distinguish cord from empty space, you could use a light grey for the cord colour.

Everything, of course, depends on the knot and cord size you plan to work with. I completely guestimated my dimensions when I was making them, but having done so here's some guidance based on empirical experience.

Diameter:

Consider the size of knot you are making your tool for. Since we are making things out of cardboard otherwise destined for the recycling depot, you could make one for each size of knot (bightwise) you want to tie. Alternatively, you could make one for the biggest knot you might want to make and just not use all the pegs as you tie. Draw an asterix with the same number of legs as pegs you want in your mandrel. Consider spacing you will need for your nails and the size of your cord. This will guide you to the cylinder diameter you'll need. In the case the example tool: 5 bights with 3mm cord => 3cm cylinder.

Length:

For tool length, you again must consider cord size as well as knot size (lead or part-wise). I would probably calculate:

approx length = ((cord-diameter * 2) * max-parts) + (2cm * 2)

For my example mandrels, they are 10-15cm long.

If you've seen industrial rolls of paper, even newsprint in neatly rolled aggregate is quite wood-like in density. This was the intended goal to be recreated on a smaller scale out of a to-be-recycled pile.

First and simplest attempt. Roll corrugated cardboard strips into a cylinder. It is helpful to start the rolling by laying a pencil (chopstick, knitting needle, etc) across the starting edge to wrap the first turn around. Add cardboard as needed until reaching desired diameter. Tape can help when adding more cardboard. Wrap tape around the entire cylinder when done. The example uses packing tape.

There's probably a more precise technical term for cereal box cardboard. If business cards are "light card", then "heavy card"? In any case, rolling cereal box cardboard is easier than corrugated and to add more strips, simply overlap the start of the new strip under the end of the old and keep rolling. Finish with a strong tape such as packing or duct.

Take corrugated cardboard and separate it into plies. At this point I dampened my pieces (not soaked) with a bit of water to relax the corrugation and rolled. I left the finished cylinder end up over a cold air vent overnight to be sure it was dry. I had a notion that I could apply some paper maché rice glue to my deconstructed cardboard for more firmness, but haven't executed that idea (yet?).

I also tried to use strips of used (scrunched up) packing paper that had been flattened by hand, but that was a complete failure.

Cut your planning asterix to the appropriate diameter and hold it onto the end of your cylinder. Transfer the leg markings to your cylinder on both ends. Be as precise as you feel you need to be for your peace of mind. 8-) Using the markings as a guide, apply a ring of nails to either end of the cylinder. When attempting to hammer nails into cardboard, it will be very squishy. Since I used a pencil to start my cylinders, I returned the pencil to keep the middle from collapsing and lend stiffness. Even in the doing, I considered it a "sacrificial pencil". It wasn't until my third tool that I captured the pencil with a nail. YMMV. I probably could have recovered the pencil by removing the nail(s), but chose not to.

With nails in place, label your pegs. If you've wrapped all the cardboard in packing or duct tape, you might want to put a band of masking tape above the top row of pegs and below the bottom row for better ink adherence.

I made so many tool variants, because I didn't expect them to last. I expected the nails to almost immediately tear through the cardboard structure given any lateral pressure, especially the corrugated version. This turned out not to be the case. The squishiness while hammering was nowhere evident while using. They will, of course, not last forever but should endure several uses without issue.

A while ago, I had finished a project with PVC pipes and had not done anything with the cut off pieces but to collect and set them aside, else I would probably not buy an 8 foot pipe just to do this. 8-) Inspired by Don Burrhus's Knot Tool, and actually borrowing the set screws from one of his kits, I used the family Dremel and drill press/workstation stand (I would not free-hand this, but maybe you've got steadier hands that I do) to make the holes for the set screws.

Set screw length will be dictated by the size of cord you are planning to use and the pipe you are working with. My pipe, as clearly marked, is 1/2" (internal diameter) pipe with 2mm walls. The screws are an unnecessarily beefy 19mm long and 3.4mm wide (including the threads, so 3mm screws?) for this pipe and my 1-5mm cord. The screws from the Globe Knot Kit are 10mm with the same diameter. Set screw sizes available from my local Home Depot website don't seem to have anything close to the right dimensions, so I'd probably be ordering from McMaster Carr.

The big advantage of the PVC pipe and set screw mandrel over cardboard, beyond durability, is that when the initial tying is done, the set screws can be recessed into the tool for easy knot removal. Similarly, pegs can be quickly removed or parked if part of a more general tool.

Note: a fellow IGKT member makes PVC pipe mandrels with brads directly nailed into the pipe. No exotic set screws or access to drill presses needed. The nails can be removed and replaced with pliers pretty much indefinitely. I have not done this myself, but have recently seen a number of examples.

If your cylinder is the right size, then you can wrap the schematic around it and carry on as before, but more likely you will want to use the Instructions (also called a run list). Tie a slip knot and attach to A1, the beginning of each run list line is your starting peg. The end of that line is your destination peg. Each letter is a cord segment you will encounter on the way, dots are where other cord segments eventually will be. When you reach a cord segment and the letter is 'U' go under. 'O' means over, so simply cross over.

Using a bodkin or other such tool can help, but in my laziness, I usually just fold over the end for a loop and the extra stiffness of a loop is enough to push under crossing strands.

To remove the finished knot from the mandrel, you can remove the nails from one end of the tool which will allow the knot to be compressed down towards the other nails and thus expanded off the nails on the other end. Removing and reinserting the nails will, of course, dramatically reduce the life of your mandrel. I find that carefully working the knot off of 2-4 nails will introduce enough slack into the whole knot that removing the rest is relatively easy.

Mandrels of any size can be made. For a 59B4L base for a crown of flowers, I repurposed a take-out container and wrapped it in cork strips leftover from another project. Corrugated cardboard would probably have worked just as well. Admittedly, I have not tried to make a mandrel for, say, a recycled climbing rope project, but I have faith in the scaleability of cardboard and nails. 8-)