Hardcore Geeks with Hobbies: Sean Armstrong the Knot Master

April 30, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

In this, the first installment of our Hardcore Geeks with Hobbies  series, we bring you Sean Armstrong. In real-life he performs feats of  geekiness as a wireless messaging administrator with Perot Systems, a Dell Integrated Services provider. For the past four years, his geek heroics have included the administration of BlackBerry Enterprise servers and Goodlink Mobile Messaging servers. In his spare time, he likes to play with gadgets and stay abreast of  the latest developments on the technology front. You can also often  find him on Twitter conversing with a close-knit but welcoming group  of interesting people. Yes, Sean and his friends fall into the fabled  “25% of Twitterers who constitute 75% of Twitter’s traffic” category.

While his day-to-day tech-related feats command respect and admiration, it is his hobby that distinguishes him from his fellow geeks. Sean falls  into a category of people known as the “knot-capable.” That is to say,  he ties knots. It may sound strange at first. How does tying knots constitute a hobby? Let us explain.

Sean confessed to Geek Shui Living that, as a child, he did dream of being like the great Harry Houdini and dramatically escaping rope restraints. Fortunately, to the benefit of the his employer, he chose to pursue IT, as a career, instead. A few years ago, being the civic-minded geek that he is, he volunteered to become a Cub Scout Den Leader. As any good scout will tell you, tying knots is just one of the requirements for moving up through the scouting ranks. Sean was assigned the task of teaching knots and ropecraft to the members of the pack.

The only problem was that, Sean didn’t actually know how to tie knots other than the ones that keep your shoelaces from tripping you up. So, in order to be certain the cub scouts were not ill-prepared and untrained, he set out to learn. Like any geek in search of knowledge, he “googled” it. One of the first sites he stumbled upon was the Stormdrane Blog. Since as far back as 2005, Stormdrane, a creative outdoorsman, has been showcasing his ropecraft to the connected world.

For Sean, it was as if a light switch had been flipped on in his geeky brain. He quickly became hooked on the idea that just about anything could be created with a knot or made more decorative with a healthy dose of ropecraft. When asked where exactly he started, Sean told Geek Shui Living, “One of the first things I made was a cobra-stitched keychain made from some old bootlaces I had. After I figured out how to pull that off, I went to the Army/Navy store and spent $.30/foot on a 50′ length of paracord to attempt some more ropecraft.”

After his first few successes, he quickly became obsessed (in a positive way, of course) with going bigger and better. After using up all of the paracord he had purchased, Sean turned to Stormdrane for advice, asking where a budding ropecraft artist could obtain quality materials. Stormdrane was kind enough to point him in the right direction, and from there, his hobby turned into a quest. He went through most of Stormdrane’s repertoire, practicing until his creations resembled Stormdrane’s as closely as possible.

Once he felt had mastered all of Stormdrane’s techniques, Sean’s creative geek side kicked into gear. He began to wonder what original feat of ropecraft he could create on his one. Like most techies who work with other techies, he is surrounded, on a daily basis at work, by people who have to visibly display an ID badge, access card, or smart card. The people who worked with him all had the normal array of trade show lanyards or retractable clips. While there was nothing wrong with them, Sean quickly realized he could take their lanyards to the next level, with his knot tying skills.

With that in mind, he set out to create a few lanyards, using the high quality paracord he had used for his practice creations. He told us, “After many trial and error attempts, I ended up with a good looking lanyard that I was proud of.  My dad thought it was pretty cool so I gave it to him to use. ” A short time later, his dad called to tell him the lanyard had come apart. So, Sean went back to the drawing (or knotting) board and figured out how to make the knots permanently stay tied. It wasn’t long until Sean was making scores of them to keep up with the demands of his coworkers. He didn’t charge them anything other than the cost of the materials, for the sheer fact that he enjoyed it. What had started out as a Cub Scout task had turned into a regular hobby.

Sean cites his father as being one of the inspirations behind his continued efforts to improve his ropecraft. He says his father brought him a boot knife that he had gotten from a family friend. The wrapping on the handle had deteriorated, and it was deemed unusable. Sean thought otherwise, jumped on the internet, and soon learned how to create handle wrappings with paracord. Over the past several years, he has continued to perfect his art and push the knot tying envelope.

Sean’s hobby has actually taken on a life of its own. He now has a website called Knotty Sean, where he showcases his work. It was there that I happened to stumble upon his hobby. Several months ago, I had begun to follow him on Twitter (@Sean_Armstrong). I normally make it a point to visit the websites of those people that I follow. In this case, I was very surprised to see something different than the normal tech news and blogs (Yes, like Geek Shui Living). Shortly thereafter, I contacted him and asked if he was willing to make me a custom lanyard and mail it to me. Via the PayPal button on his website, I sent him the nominal amount of money, and, within a week, I received a lanyard like the one shown in the first photograph above.

What started out as a simple task and turned into a hobby has now morphed into a full-fledged sideline gig for Sean. For the WES 2009 and 2010 conferences, he has created custom lanyards in large orders, for many company’s who appreciate his handiwork and want to provide more than just the average trinket to attendees. This isn’t to say that he is going to quit his day job anytime soon, but it does go to show that, sometimes, doing what you have to can actually turn into doing something that you love. Oh, and what ever happened to the Cub Scouts. Well, they’re still learning to tie the basic knots, but Sean is hopeful that, once they get past the required stuff, he’ll be able to teach them a little decorative ropecraft, as well.

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Last month, Geek Shui Living published an article on a  new concept designed to profile Hardcore Geeks with Hobbies. We’re proud to say this is the first installment in the series. We’re looking for more geeks with unique hobbies. We want the kind that slap you upside your egg-shaped head and make the geek in you take notice. They can be civic-minded good deeds, unique past-times, or just something plain weird. The only caveat is that it cannot relate to technology, whatsoever. Are we talking about you, or do you know someone else who is deserving? Send your submissions to: geekhobbies @ geekshuiliving.com