Knots, as in bends, hitches and so on

[chickenfeet]

I'm guessing people use cordage less than was once the case what with plastic ties and sticky tape and so on. Thus I wonder how widespread the ability to tie things up. down or to each other is. So clearly a poll is required.

[Poll #1333308]

Comments

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Improved clinch, blood knot, surgeon's knot, nail knot.

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

Surgeon's knot here as well.

I also know how to splice rope, and how to do French whippings.

Oh, and Turk's Heads, but they're more decorative than anything.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

and how to do French whippings.

Was that from a previous career?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I forgot the surgeon's knot. The blood knot is essentially the climber's fisherman's with more turns.

[darcydodo]

I know I can tie a couple of those, but I don't know what they're called.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Can also tie a timber hitch and another stopper knot.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I can do the timber hitch too and the "other" that I ticked in the esoteric box was the highwayman's hitch or how to tie your horse ready for a speedy getaway. :)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I used to know more knots - I loved doing them at Guides - but I think they've gone through lack of use these thirty years. Indeed, I hesitated over whether that knot I do like so was a clove hitch or a round turn and two half hitches; I think it's the former, but I don't think about the name when I do it.

[parisbaby-2003.livejournal.com]

I answered for furious_g, actually (I can barely tie my shoes! hee...).

He says he knows many more knots, which he learned in Boy Scouts. Some of the ones from posters below that he says he knows: splicing rope, French whippings, Turk's heads, blood knot, along with a jesses knot (for falconry?), and the timber hitch.
As for the more esoteric ones, he cannot think of their names right now (he's playing a game). I'll just take his word for it, since I've seen his facility with rope while we've been doing outdoorsy things like camping. :o)

[kadenza.livejournal.com]

Weird. I found a knot book in a discount bin over the summer, got out a piece of rope and learned how to tie a bunch of them. One I use a lot for kite flying is called the Fisherman's Clinch, which is good for attaching a swivel to the end of your kite line.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

which is good for attaching a swivel to the end of your kite line.

I suspect that's the one also called a blood knot.

[kadenza.livejournal.com]

Hey yeah... those sneaky knot-namers.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

I use some specialized splices and "invisible" knots for joining yarn in knitting, as knots are one of those things we try to avoid. Examples - Russian join, Lark's Head knot, and of course temporary slip knots. I used to know more sailing knots and the Highwayman's hitch, but am out of practice.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I used to do macramé, so I can do a half knot, which makes a pretty spiral if you do lots of them; double half-hitch; mounting knot; overhand; square knot; a figure eight; and a Josephine. And maybe some others that I've forgotten now.

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Horse-packing knots: Dutchman (aka Sheep-shank), Diamond hitch, Double Diamond hitch, and a quick-release knot (name unknown) used to hold a coiled lead rope to a saddle. In addition to the usual bowlines, bowline-in-a-bight, etc.

Didn't see the taut-line hitch in there - is it known by another name?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Didn't see the taut-line hitch in there - is it known by another name?

Several others apparently including Midshipman's hitch. I have tied one but couldn't do it from memory.

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

I'd like to add the other two I can tie - the italian hitch (which is like half a clove hitch and can be used for abseiling in a pinch although I wouldn't advise it unless it's a serious situation), and the trailer hitch (which might be the same as a trucker's hitch - a two-knot, loop type setup that allows you to tension a rope over a load?).

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think the Italian hitch is the same as a Munter hitch (like a sort of half clove hitch tied around a carabiner). I wouldn't care to rap on it but it's a pretty good substitute for a belay plate, especially for bringing up a second.

Trucker's hitch and trailer hitch sound as if they are much the same.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Surgeon's knot, slip knot, constrictor, sheepshank, miller's, turk's head, climber's stopper knot (as opposed to stopper knots used where the rope is passing through a hole), noose, lark's head. I have tied a butterfly knot but not often enough to be able to remember it without prompting.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I guess a lark's head is a knot. I've used one often.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Seems to count as a knot in macramé, but it is a bit minimalist, I suppose. It's certainly handy.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's effectively what one uses when using a threaded sling as a belay or runner

[anneth.livejournal.com]

I can tie... a square knot. And a slip-knot.

True story: we had to learn to tie our shoelaces in pre-school. I was four. We were given a cardboard "shoe" we got to decorate, and when we'd successfully mastered the bow the shoe would be hung on a wall at school.

I never mastered my shoe, and it was never hung on the wall. They gave it to me to take home at the end of the year, so I could keep practicing. My mom was seriously concerned that I had a learning disability, and spent days that summer working on my bow with me. I finally got it, to her great relief.

I'm now married to a man who can't tie his shoes.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Looking at the poll results, I'm surprised that more people know a clove hitch than a reef knot. I know how to tie a clove hitch (in the bight - have to think about it a bit more with an end) but I hardly ever use one, whereas the reef knot is helpful all over the place. Is it more commonly known by a different name? Or is it just that it's a knot that is so common people that learn it before they're interested in the name?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I suspect that most people just think of it as a 'parcel knot'. They know that there is a right way (reef) and a wrong way (granny) of tying it but are a bit hazy about the difference.