Thank you, Derek,
It is just an OH knot made around some solid object,
I have had it fail a couple of times when I made it onto flexible instead of rigid loops, but it is still a lovely concept.
That is exactly what I had tried to stress ; When this knot is tied around the tip of the bight of a rope, it is not just an OH knot made around some object.
Right after they are loaded,
the two legs of the bight start to squeeze the OH knot from both sides, so the OH knot will remain
more tight tied and compact as long this loading remains in action. That is the big difference in mechanics that is not shown in the pictures, and makes the "
half-hitch-around-a-ring" ( ABoK#1821), and the
"half-hitch-around-a-bight" quite different things, indeed. The ring is a
solid object, it can not be deformed - while, on the contrary, the bight of the rope is a flexible object. Its width shortens when it is loaded, so its two legs squeeze the OH knot, and enhance its ability to keep the tail squeezed in between the object and its nipping riding turn -i.e. it behaves as a sort of an opposing U s, or Versatackle s lock mechanism. A very effective lock/mechanism, comparable with the nipping loop+collar mechanism of the bowline.
(Of course, if the solid ring is of a small enough diameter, I guess that the two knots will behave quite similarly.)
I had tied and tried it
a hundred times ( literally !), and I had not been able to make it fail ,
not even once ! Of course, I have dressed it properly AND loaded it only with a gradually increasing load. I have not submitted it to any alternating loading pattern.
I will publish some pictures of the most simple end-of-line loop one can made out of it - shortly. When this OH is encircled from its upper side as well, ( as it happens inthe loop I am referring to ), the danger of being accidentally untied is diminishing, I believe.