I did some rough and ready testing of the slack security...
I tried a vigorous shaking of the knot for 30 seconds...
I believe we should establish a few guidelines for such tests, otherwise we would not be able to compare and evaluate any results we may acquire from them. Anybody would be able to "shake" an eyeknot differently, and "see" different things - because, as we all know, most knot tyers
wish so badly to "see" only what they had already convinced themselves they "
know" ...
A future situation, where we would have a few circumstantial, differently designed and performed, and subjectively evaluated "tests", can be worse from the present situation, where we have no tests at all !
1. What was "
vigorously shaken" ? The Standing End only, or the whole eye-knot, the eye included ?
2. Which was the angle between the eyelegs during the shaking ?
3. Was the eye free to move/rotate around the wrapped object, or not ?
4. Was the eyeknot pre-tensioned at the start of the shaking, and, if yes, to what degree ?
Any shaking, however vigorous and prolonged, will not be able to loosen a very tight knot, of course - so we should not only certify that the compared eye-knots were tightened to the "
same degree", but we should also decide/define this degree.
5. An important element that should be always decided/defined, too, is the length of the Tail. I have seen that, during "shaking", the motion of the Tail influences the behaviour of the whole nub : a longer Tail, which is shaken along the rest of the knot, can help the nub remain more compact, for a longer time.
Also, we should describe the "shaking", with more precise terms. For example, we can specify the exact location of the point of the line, and the path and frequency of its repetitive movement, which induce this "shaking". I have seen that a "shaking" of the eye-knot by the Standing End, which involves short instances of
pulling of this End, has a very different effect on the loosening of the nub, as it was anticipated.
Having said that, I wish to make clear that I am
delighted those "tests" involved some newer eyeknots, as the Scott s and the Lee s locked bowline ( re-tucked Yosemite bowline ). Although my "tests" on the same knots had not the same results
, I am delighted when people decide to tie and try knots they were not aware of until recently. The history of knot tying had not started, and we should always remember that it had not ended, with the ABoK !