Accessories Motion L Series pen - do you have anything threaded through the hole?

We fly a lot, and airport security suggested to me that I also put the pen in a bin with my edge to go through the scanners (not always necessary, but I've gotten "pulled over" because of it before). So I thought I'd try putting a ribbon through the pen to make it easier to grab out of my bag.

Ribbon turned out not to be a good choice, at least the ribbon I found. It was too slick, so the knot never stayed very well (slipped open) and the ends would always catch in something and become frayed... to the point where I'd have to break strands free to get my pen out of the bag.

Some other things I found lying around were just too wide for the hole, and I'm worried that yarn may similarly be too likely to break down. Being on the road, sometimes it's difficult to come by the most basic of supplies. (I don't want to buy a bag of 100 elastics just to try using a rubber band, for example.)

I had thought a ribbon might be funky, but it just didn't hold up. Is anyone else using something fun/funky for their pen? Has anyone tried one of those plastic/rubbery coiled wrist things? Is a shoelace too wide? (We don't have any laced shoes with us.) Any suggestions?

I've not bought one yet, but plan on it. Personally I'm very partial to military paracord. It's cheap, very strong, holds knots well, has a fair bit of friction. I hope it will fit though, as I don't know how small the hole is yet. I know you can pull the guts out of paracord to make it thinner or flat.

I think it's too small for the plastic end of a shoelace (just looking again and estimating). I know most things I tried were too large for the hole. Tried to use a shoelace-type of cord that came with an around-the-neck lanyard at a conference, and that was too large. Of course, it didn't have much give to make it thinner.

One thing you could try with the ribbon - heating the ends with a lighter and melting them together. One of the girls here in the office does that to USB sticks - put ribbon on them as identification.

I threaded a 3mm wide fuschia satin ribbon through mine because I have a black case for the eDGe and when I happen to put it down on any part of the case, the gray pen is not readily visible. So fuschia ribbon to prevent waste of time in searching for it. It is not as slick as plastic ribbons and the width allowed me to tie the two ends securely. I used two variations of sailor's knots -- a bowline and some other knot that I forgot. I also sewed a figure 8 using a black elastic on the seam along the zipper of the case for holding the pen inside the case (a cheap one I bought on the high street). Not a very professional-looking solution but I'm a full-time student at the moment so I can live with it.

Very creative, Hopi! I like the idea of attaching something to the case. I had only thought of solutions involving velcro, but I know from my velcro strap traveling watch that I ruin a lot of clothing that way. Creating a loop holder might work, and my particular case has room on the inside for it.

I just picked up super glue for another project, so maybe I could try a combination of melting and/or supergluing the two ends of something together like ivan suggested. It's a nice sunny day... maybe I'll take a walk in search of interesting options. Thanks for the replies, all! You've given me some thoughts to work with.

OK, I went out to Factory Direct and looked at everything that had a string or cord. (Hair elastics, mini purses, toys...) I bought a few hair elastics/stretchy hair bands, a little mini wallet that came with a cord (I needed a mini wallet anyway), a cat toy (big stick with bell/feather dangling off it) and a $3 pair of ear buds. I also picked up a lighter at the drug store, and while I kind of wanted to tell the cashier I don't smoke, I thought telling her I was buying this to "melt stuff" might sound worse.

I tried various combinations of things but only a couple were the right size. I had thought I could trim down wider hair bands but nope, too messy and just left bare elastic threads which weren't going to be sturdy enough.

The perfect size: the wire from the earbuds! (the part from each individual earbud, before they combine to make a thicker cord.) The only problem was they were too slick to knot them, and the lighter started to char the plastic. So while this was the perfect size, and tough, I didn't have a good way (with my limited materials on hand) of joining the ends. Someone with better parts and tools could probably make this happen.

The winner: Fortunately, the stretchy material from the cat toy was the same width as the ear buds. Since the cat toy itself was just held together by knotting the thread, a very plain knot seems to be holding just fine. I did, for curiosity, light the two little ends past the knot with the lighter to see if they'd melt together. When they caught fire, though, I quickly stopped. They did leave melty stuff behind (and a smell!) that didn't exactly solidify together, but since the knot was holding fine I just cut the ends off closer to the knot.