What Did You Tie Today Daddy?

[DerekSmith]

OK,  Lets get a little light hearted to cheer us up from the grief of 2013 and all the dunny matter weather we are 'enjoying'.

Only one rule - shoelaces don't count unless you tied them with something out of the ordinary.

The goal is simply to make a post every day for a week, telling us what you tied and why, then if you feel like it, embellish it a little with perhaps some ideas of how you might have done it better, or how it didn't work ...

Let's hear how boring we all are ...

Derek

[DerekSmith]

I'll kick off with my knot for today.

The recent storms have blown over a few stems of bamboo in the garden.  I tidied them up, cutting out those that had come right over.  Surprisingly they were 12ft to 15ft tall.  I trimmed them out to add to my stack of runner bean poles and was left with a pile of thin side branches from 2ft to 3ft in length.  They were incredibly flexible, so I wound them round into rings about 3" in diameter, including all the leaves.  They look good, but now I have to think of something to use them for before her indoors asks what I have left that pile of rubbish in the garden for - any ideas?

Anyway, to my knot for today, well, I did not so much as tie it, more a case of 'use it' - I will explain.

I keep my bamboo canes bundled by binding them top mid and base using the wonderful Gleipner knot.  The new canes I had just cut had to be added to this bundle, and thanks to the crazy brilliant Gleipner, I just pulled gently one of the ends into the loop to slacken it off, slipped in my new canes, then pulled the ends of the Gleipner to re-tighten them, holding my canes perfectly tight.

Could I have done it a better or easier way?  I really don't think so.  The Gleipner is in many ways a perfect knot for so many gardening requirements, you will find it all over my garden, lashing things firm that I want to be able to release easily and perhaps re-tighten.

Well, that is my knot - what was yours?

Derek

PS  Does anyone have a link to the Gleipner post for new members that won't have come across this lovely new knot before?

EDIT: http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=2981.0

[SS369]

I'll contribute.

Hauling a load of construction debris from a 110 year old house I've been renovating, I used a versatackle/truckers hitch combination. It gets me the needed force and easy tie off since the load was above the truck rails. It almost locks enough, but with a potentially dangerous load a proper tie off was done.
The house project has offered me many opportunities for interesting rope work.

Then there was the Spanish windlass I used for clamping an oddball piece of furniture that needing re-gluing.
Much knot work in one's day. 

SS

[Sweeney]

They look good, but now I have to think of something to use them for before her indoors asks what I have left that pile of rubbish in the garden for - any ideas?

Hi Derek

Why not hang these to dry then using raffia tie them together as the base for, or as, Xmas decorations. Perhaps a number in a circle to form a wreath with holly and the like or even in a vertical line as a simple hanging (some raffia Solomon bar between the rings might add a bit of "knottiness").

No knots so far today but it's early yet!

Barry

[DerekSmith]

Well, my knot for today was nothing more than a slipped bowline.

The storms had threatned to bring down some tall Laylandii, so I had taken the tops down as a precaution.  Today was fine, so it was time to haul the tops to the fire,  I passed a rope around a bunch of branches and tied a slipped Bowline.  The more the branches resisted, the tighter the noose became untill the whole bunch was hauled to the fire.

The reason for choosing the bowline in this application, apart from the fact that it was totally effective, was that no matter how much load I had put on the Bwl, it still opened as easily as a bill from the taxman.

Anyone else use a knot today?

Derek

[SS369]

Today was a day of knot tying (untying too!) for me.

I helped a friend move a huge load of furniture, household goods from a now passed parent's home.
Ultimately my truck and trailer was loaded Beverly Hillbillies style. Nothing fit just-so being all odd shaped and different dimensions. Tall chests of drawers, round pedestal tables, ladder back chairs, soft goods, card board boxes, mirrors, file cabinets, steamer trunks, headboards and rails, and even large slabs of slate from the yard.

Not just one knot, but many of every appropriate kind I knew and some, merely impromptu tangles, to do the task of securing the load for a 45 minute trek. There were three different drop off locations and so even though I tried to arrange things according to a load out schedule, Yeah right, maximizing space utilization was paramount and so stuff got crammed wherever there was a space. Over and under, around and around, I used six different ropes and cords. (And a few of the cheating ratcheting tie downs and bungees.) Round turns with half hitches, bowlines with the simple lock,  ,  frappings to snug triangulated areas of rope to tension further where I could, clove hitches around the trailer rails to lock the long lengths of cord and then continue to do it again. Tying off was a work of art, (half hitches have a certain appeal to the eye)  mostly to use up the left over length that was too short to use otherwise and to keep it from trailing along, bumping and jumping down the road, just daring my tire to reach out and grab it.

It looked like a maniac spider had cast a drug influenced web. But, it held the load and the mission got accomplished.
I'm tired and though I wanted to leave the rope, etc. till tomorrow to neaten and stow, I just couldn't.
Know what I mean?
It just would not do to leave them, those trusty work horses, to spend the night so crudely abandoned after being used and abused.
 

SS

[Sweeney]

Last evening I made a couple of curtain tie backs from 6mm white, laid polyester (very, very fine fibres so nigh impossible to splice). I used a 2 strand Matthew Walker to make an eye then a lanyard knot to join the ends - sort of long rope shackle - leaving a short tassel (the usual trick of placing the fibres in very hot water to straighten them doesn't work with this stuff, it shrinks into a ball like cotton wool and cannot be combed out - sort of looks nice but not the effect I would want).

Today I have a heavy mattock in the way in the shed so I'm going to hang it upside down probably with a timber hitch around the shaft where it protrudes past the head and a couple of half hitches on the main shaft then an Angler's loop to hang it (because I just feel like tying an Angler's loop this morning!).

Barry

[DerekSmith]

@Scott,

It looked like a maniac spider had cast a drug influenced web. But, it held the load and the mission got accomplished.

You know, you must be amongst the ten millionth percertile of people with respect to your knowledge of knots, and yet every now and then we all resort to the 'rats nest'.  I guess that the key difference is that at least you know what the components of your rats nest are doing and how they will hold.

@Barry,
You have reminded me that I have a pickaxe standing in the chicken shed and every morning when I go to let them out, they have tipped it over and partially burried it in litter.  I need to lash it out of their way.  Probably use a KC hitch on the handle using a loop of bailer twine closed with a double fishermans to give a loop to hang it by.

My knot for today : I am making a gate for my daughters new house and needed to pull it square while I nailed on the featherboard.  So out came the truckers hitch, but I made the midline eye using a slipped overhand and put a half inch thimble into it to cut down friction and save my rope from abrasion.  I pulled the frame square easily, tied off with a half hitch and got on with the boarding.  My grandfather once showed me a trick with gates to stop them rattling by pulling a slight twist onto the frame so that when catched, it pressed gently against the frame.  He would put a loop of rope around opposite corners, then using a stick he would wind the rope tight like in a bow saw.  Then he would prop the tight cord away from the center of the frame pushing the center out and the two corners down.  When he had finished boarding up, the gate held its twist and pressed obligingly against the frame when latched.  Several lengths of string and rope were always part of my Grandfather's carpentry toolbox.

Derek

[SS369]

@Scott,

It looked like a maniac spider had cast a drug influenced web. But, it held the load and the mission got accomplished.

You know, you must be amongst the ten millionth percertile of people with respect to your knowledge of knots, and yet every now and then we all resort to the 'rats nest'.  I guess that the key difference is that at least you know what the components of your rats nest are doing and how they will hold.

Can't always use only what you know Derek, you sometimes have to go with the flow. All those oddball shapes and sizes and only six ropes.  I probably could have eliminated some lengths here and there, but I did not want to crush corners or damage anything. Rope will put a nasty wood repair before your eyes real quickly.

Today's knot: I had to hang a plywood sign in my wife's store. It is an old, historic factory with makeshift walls everywhere, of which none of them are straight or plumb. Best practice was to hang it from the heavy timber rafters, although they have slope to them. The sign already had holes in the corners, I only had access to mason's twine. So I doubled the twine, shoved the bight through the hole and made a girth/sling hitch around and over the top edge. One for each top hole.

Since I needed to level the sign and creating fixed loops (slings) ahead of time would only have led to redoing them while up on the ladder, I decided to use a mason's knot around some smooth shank screws that I locked off once the sign was in position. Similar to this > http://home-building.wonderhowto.com/how-to/tie-string-line-215309/, but with the line double and the final lock more secure/permanent.
This allowed me to affix one end and then adjust the other till it was just right.

SS

[DerekSmith]

Wow, thank you, that is a new knot for me.

Even more amazing, did you notice that it takes the form of the KC hitch?  As the WE is pulled back towards the nail, three wraps ride over the other three and because the SP is heavily loaded, it remains straight with the KC garter gripping it.  The final two or three wraps around the nail are taking no load and are probably there simply to stop the WE from being accidentally pulled away from the nail and so releasing the KC.

Because of the half turn around the nail shedding some of the load, this is probably the strongest hitch available,  although a full round turn around the nail would shed even more load with least strength loss.

Trust a trade to latch onto a knot which is so easy, simple and utterly effective.  And when you are on a cold building site with numb fingers, easy to make and even easier to release...

For me, this one goes right up there alongside the Gleipner for pure elegant functionality.

Derek

[DerekSmith]

Well, so far today my knot for the day didn't happen.

The recent storms tipped over a Silver Birch to about 40 degrees from vertical towards the house, so it had to come down.  The trunk was about 10" diameter at the base, so it made some good baulks and I decided to convert some into spoons and spatulas.

The knife I carve with is from the Swedish maker Erik Frost (Mora), the blade is laminated with a very hard steel core and is sharpened using progressive grades of wet'n dry from 600 grit to 2,400 grit, then stropped to the final edge.  The result is a blade which slices through greenwood with a delicious certainty so you can concentrate on the form of the spoon you are extraction from the wood, rather than fighting to make the cuts.

The only problem with a knife that sharp is that if you are concentrating on the spoon too intently, and you let your thumb lift above the edge of the wood as you are making a cut, then the tip of your thumb gets sliced through before you even notice it...  Believe me, the embarrassment of cutting yourself when carving is well worse than the pain of the cut itself.

So there I am, kitchen towel wrapped around the end of my thumb to staunch the blood flow and I come to the conclusion that what I need is the parcel / packers knot to clamp the kitchen towel in place.  I couldn't let go of the towel, or the cut would open up and start bleeding again, so I had to try to make the knot with one hand.

After several tries, I gave up and used an elastic band...  The knot that never happened.

Derek

[SS369]

Sorry to read this Derek.
I hope you heal fast, we need your next knot of the day!   

Perhaps you should consider some of this > http://www.firstaidsupplies.org/firstaidsupplies/Main/Tapes_500046.htm?p=safety+tape

When I am using the table saw for a many piece project (say 50 - 100 pcs.), I wrap this stuff around my thumb for a little cushioning for all that pushing. The nice thing about it is that it sticks only to itself and not to the user. Done just so, it will come off with no real effort and be there to use again until it becomes too grungy/decrepit to be worth it. Then make another...

Or the finger of a otherwise worn out leather glove works, but the tape is better fitting and you can adjust the thickness to suit with wraps.

I've not tied anything useful as yet today, but have twiddled a few as I do most days. So I am in the mood as I come into the Forum. The day is young.

Got anything carved and decorated with knots?

BTW, super glue will close that gash.

Speedy healing!

SS

[DerekSmith]

Hi Scott,

Yes, I used Superglue as soon as the bleeding stopped.  I find that if I glue cuts together quickly, then I heal much faster.

Unfortunately, the Frost knife slices through leather just like skin.  The only real protection is to keep everything but wood out of its way, and make certain there is never any overshoot.  So far I am not doing too well.  Three spoons, three cuts - all to my left thumb.

No,  I don't have any carved knots.  As you know, I don't do decoratives.

The only knot I have tied today has been the Eternity knot, a pretty little decorative that Xarax is putting forward as a stopper.  I have tied it in Spectra and subjected it to force in order to watch how it morphs.  Most decorativeswill change structure most readily under load - the Carrick matt is a classic example of a decorative flowing under load from the docorate form to the functional form.  The Eternity reforms into a surprising structure, but it has virtually no intrinsic integrity under no load flogging.

It is an interesting structure but not as a Stopper.  It has been a play day...

Derek

[DerekSmith]

Yesterday my drill bit case clasp broke off, so I had to improvise an alternative.

It is one of those molded plastic cases where the hinges and clasps are simply thin sections of plastic that seem to be able to bend forever without fatigue.  Well, they do fatigue eventually...

I wanted a hitch that I did not have to unravel, so I have used the Highwayman's Hitch through the two parts of the handle.

Quick easy and it intrigues my 3 yo Granddaughter because she cannot pull it open when given the wrong end to pull.  Bad Grandad...

[SS369]

I did a little climbing today and so I used a modified bowline as my tie in loop and then fooled around with some prusik work.
Nothing major about it, just experimenting with some new cord to get a feel for the attributes of its handling and releasing.

Oh and I did tie a Turks head using string trimmer cord. 

SS