On the occasion of something I said about a modification of the very simple humble
Timber hitch ( which I think was not worth the added complexity : the addition of a 180 degrees on top of the 90 degrees turn of the
Timber hitch s bight, so it becomes a one-and-a-half nipping loop ), I had referred to two also very simple, but
tight hitches : hitches where we do not only secure the Tail End, but we "lock" the
Standing End as well, in order to keep any accumulated tension induced into the wrap(s) firmly enclosed within the hitch, even after/while this End is not pulled any more.
Let me show some pictures of those hitches tensioned with the same load ( about 100 kg, that is, my body weight when I am trying gymnastic tricks on the pole, to avoid hurting my back more...), when tied on the same pole and on a similar material. I keep my tight hitches tied on poles
for months, to see if the standing End creeps out of the locking mechanism - just in case I had not noticed it because it was happening too slowly. So far, I have not seen any release of the tension which was induced into the wrap(s) right from the first loading.
Another knote, about not tyers and the nots we prefer to use, in general, and the
Timber hitch, in particular. I think that there may be a very simple but deep explanation of the fact that we prefer nots based on multiple twists of two individual lines ( or two parts of the same line ), around each other - and the implementation of this, in the case of hitches, in the
Timber hitch : they are the first nots we learn in a very young age, when we learn to tie our shoelaces !
Then, in the household matters, the sight of the repetition of one of the Reef family of nots - most times of the wrong one ! We came to believe that this is the only way nots work : Twist the lines around each other, make tight tangles, and burry the Tail Ends into them, to secure them against slippage.
Then, at some latter age, we learn
the bowline - and some of us never understand how it works, or never tie it, because it is deemed "not safe" ! Of course, the bowline ( and, for that matter, the
Gleipnir, and the captain s Mullin s knot, and the
Sheepshank ), are safe in 99% of the cases - but people that so not really get their mechanism will continue to mistrust them, and transform well known bends into loops, to
feel safe...
So, it is not only bad teachers and bad books that inhibit any further and deeper knowledge about knots...It is also the whole cultural environment around us, which keeps believing that knots are just tangles of lines - and that the easiest way to tangle an untangled line is to
spin-spin-spin, and
twist-twist-twist it - so no wonder that the tight hitches like the two I show here are ignored, and one of the most known and popular hitches, is, what else ?- the
Timber hitch.
