But in doubt it's best to stay with the known.Īnother reproach often heard about the bowline (particularly from young climbers who've learned not to use bowlines as one embraces a religion) is that it can loosen, leading to accidents. Speaking with others, my feeling is that a number of "wrong bowlines" are very strong. Luckily, my "wrong" knots had never come undone. And indeed, staring at drawings of a proper bowline, at some stage I realized that I had tied an improper bowline for many years-the variation known as the "cowboy's bowline". Apparently, that's because it is easy to make mistakes while tying a bowline. So I was surprised to hear that climbers don't use it so much anymore and prefer the " threaded figure-eight".
Way back when I learned it, it was the preferred way to secure a rope for climbing. I've used it to attach a rope to just about anything. (Most people use a rabbit instead of a snake, but what does a rope ressemble the most?) The bowline is known as the king of knots. When I learned the simple bowline as a kid, it was taught to me with this verse: "The snake comes out of the hole, goes around the tree and goes back into the hole". If you get hooked, you'll probably be visiting the other pages.īest Knots to attach a rope to a tree, climber, etc. For those who enjoy learning about knots, the "optional knots" page is a wonderful second stop. I broke my "best knots list" into two pages so as not to clutter the first page for those people who want to go straight to the essentials. The link will take you to my description of the book, further down on this page. In the text, when you see a note such as "( ABOK #1013)", it is a reference to the knot in one of the "knot bibles"-in this case, it means "knot #1013 in the Ashley Book of Knots". This functional way of organizing knots sometimes overlaps with the classic knot families: loops, bends, hitches, lashings, and so on. Rather, I wanted to present what I consider to be the best knot for the job. For each question, I didn't want to list twenty options-it has always baffled me that most knots books do that. I wanted each knot to answer one question: "How do I do this?" Asking this question is how I learned most of my knots. Rather, I wanted to present knots according to their function. On this page, I didn't want to present knots in a dictionary style. There are plenty of online resources about knots, some with encyclopedic information. Many of the other knots that I saw in its depth were beautiful, but I am happy to leave them below the water. On this page are the knots I have brought back from the "deep sea of knots". In the process, I became a knotting addict-I walk around with pieces of rope in my pockets, and I am active on the forum of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. This was needed so that I could pick the knots that I liked the best for various jobs. I only wanted to know somewhere between ten and twenty knots, but I ended up looking at, tying and reading about hundreds. When I finally set out to acquire my Swiss army knife knot collection, I had to dive deep into the knot world.
I knew a few good knots, but every once in a while I'd try to do something like lashing two pieces of wood together and I'd grunt at the end because I didn't know a satisfying way to stop the rope. Why? When you're sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home, you'll sure be glad that you're able to occupy yourself with two bits of string.įor a long time, I wished I knew a set of knots that would be the knot equivalent of a Swiss army knife.
Useful knotes dave root how to#
Learning how to tie a few knots is probably one of the best ways to invest your time. I needed a collection of knots that was like a Swiss-Army knife.
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