The first time it had happened to me to tie the two interlocked cow hitches, was when I posted my "best 4 ends bend" problem. I thought that it was a good bend, in the case that 3 or even 4 of the ends of a bend are loaded. Dan Lehman, in a constructive reply, proposed the water bend, and I think that this is the best solution of this problem to this day.
There are two problems with this bend, that I have encounter, in a more or less pronounced way, in many other symmetric "lovers" bends, that is, bends made by two identical links.
The
first problem is what I call "symmetry breaking" of a "love" bend, when the bend is loaded. The two links are tightened differently, depending upon the particular position of the standing ends and/or tails in the particular dressing, so, at the end, we come up with a bend with identical topologically, but not geometrically, links. The two Cow hitches bend is very sensitive to this effect. (The Zeppelin X bend was also sensitive, but much less). In the attached pictures one can see a very common asymmetrically loaded form of this bend. The two coils of the one Cow hitch / link (orange/red rope) remain on two parallel planes, while those of the other (white rope) form a flat B figure.
The
second problem is more serious, I think. When the first link is locked around the other, the second run the danger to remain loose and untightened, so the bend does not close in a tight, compact form. We have to carefully dress the bend, to make the two links to lock simultaneously, to escape from this danger. That problem was not present in the simpler two interlocked Clove hitches bend.
In the case of the Cow hitch bend, I have tried to address the
first problem in a way, but I fall into a bigger
second problem !
Namely, I tied an interlocked bull hitches bend, shown in the attached pictures. One escapes from the Scylla to fall onto the Charybdis here ! The two links of the two interlocked bull hitches bend is very difficult to be forced to lock simultaneously, as this is a more complex bend than the simple interlocked Cow hitches one.
I think that the interlocked bull hitch bend might be a solution for bends tied with ropes of hugely different diameters, the problem knot4u has posed some time ago. But the solution of Inkanyezi, with the Zeppelin bend where the line of the smaller diameter rope is doubled, is also very satisfactory, and it is a benchmark against which the other solutions of this problem should be examined.
