I am I think the perfect novice and can say at 50 years of age I have functioned all my life only knowing one
"fancy" ( meaning I kniew it had a special name ) knot that was taught to me by my father ( not counting tying my shoes )
and two knots that I think everyone knows instintively. I have used lots of rope in my life and have a good idea
of the possible common applications.
You should find this voice called for in the thread I started entitled "Knots in the Wild",
which seeks to focus on what actual rope users actually tie. One can be surprised at
the gulf sometimes between this actual set and what is presented in knots books.
I think the two knots everyone knows instincteivly is an overhand knot and
a loop made in the end or the middle of of a rope called I think an "overhand loop".
Do you ever tie that eyeknot by using the END of the rope? (E.g., how would you tie the
knot to a telephone pole? --presumably not by making it in the bight and then removing
all the wires from the pole to slip the knot down around.
)
I have accomplished everything in my life with only half hitchs and overhand knots to lock them
along with the loops at the end of the ropes which were ok to be permanent.
But "everything" might have been limited by circumstance or simply not being aware that cordage
could be employed to solve some task (though you don't sound as though you had such feelings).
How would you join two ropes? I can of course see 2HH-ing each line to the other, but that strikes
me as a pretty unsatisfactory joint, esp. if the lines' diameters were much different. --to wit:
I always thought that was just a given constraint.
But it isn't, and a knowledge of knotting would "set you free" from this constraint.
just want to say that for knot hobbiests probably all the knots mentioned and suggested previously
in this thread are wonderful, but for the common layperson with an above average need to tie knots,
I doubt if more than four "purebred" knots need to be known. In fact I am shooting for only three and havent
decided on what my fourth important knot needs to be or why I need it yet.
Again,
Knots in the Wild takes a l :ok at what IS done, from which we might then deliberate.
(Setting up conch pots entails a stopper in the pot side usually (Overhand or some Dbl. version),
your beloved Overhand Loop in the 1-2 legs of the pot bridle, and sometimes something as klunky
as a Clove hitch of the 3rd leg to the 1-2 legs' eye & 2HH tying off its end (and THEN hogringed!),
and a Sheet Bend (or dbl) of haul line or snood to the eye --that's 4-5ish; but I've seen the 3rd-leg
attachment to the Overhand loop done by reeving the end through the Oh. and stoppering it with
an Oh. Stopper--which stays within your set.
Having spent a couple of days and many hours reading all about the dozens of different fantastic knots ...
Then go out "into the Wild" and try to find
living specimens of these knotters' fancies: it could be impossible!
(Though I did once find a most enjoyably comical use of the Sheepshank (two, actually) in a climbing anchor!)
am fascinated most by the taught-line-hitch
Which you can find so misspelled, but it's not an educated knot but one able to be used when a line's taut.
As with other friction hitches, YMMV on its efficacy. Alas, what books have yet to present is the notion of
using this hitch
in conjunction with "guard" structures such as a (preceding) Half-hitch/turn (or double)
on the line, or in tandem.
I can also see the need to be able to put a loop in the middle of a line that can be untied
because every time I ever tried it the loop became permanent. I may be wrong but I think what
I was doing was using the overhand loop. ... There are so many to choose from it would appear.
The Overhand loop is I'll guess the most commonly tied eye knot, end or middle of line.
When you NEEDED such a loop, did you know in what direction it was to be loaded
or were there situations in which you would load it in opposition to both ends at some point?
Because there is a subclass of knots known as "directional" eyeknots that have a one-way
orientation--i.e.., the eye is to be pulled in opposition to only ONE end, not either (whereas
the commonly known "Butterfly" knot can be loaded against either end). There are indeed
many mid-line eyeknots, but few are publicly known; I'd guess that most "loopknots" are not
well suited for such use.
So far these are the two additional knots I really want to learn ...
I'd suggest that the tautline H. become more of a
knotting stucture that you learn
--i.e., that some turns brought tight around an object can grip, and that there are various
ways to set and secure them--rather than "a knot" (one version, called a "Camel Hitch"
by one author, can be seen as just a 3-turn grip secured by your 2HHitches, e.g.);
the mid-line eyeknot is more suitably simply a new knot for you. (I'll suggest that you
look up "the farmer's loop", which is fun to tie and pretty easy to remember--and not
itself tied up with nautical mists/myths.)
I would make a guess that you do not know what a constrictor is, how to tie one or what it is particularly good at
-- I would also hazard a guess that once I showed you how easy it is to tie over your thumb, how easy it is to remember and
how astonishingly good it is at doing what it is best at - staying tight - that two things would happen. First, you would wonder
why no one told you about this knot before and why you have had to waste so much of your life tying multiple overhand knots
that never quite tie tight enough and ALWAYS seem to loosen when asked to do some real work. Second, you would think
- if the constrictor is so simple to tie and remember and so amazing at its job - what other knots are there that are brilliant at
others jobs that might also be quite easy to tie and to remember???
Or, you might wonder, if it's all so bloody brilliant, and was promoted so much by The Knot Tyer's Bible (aka "Ashley"),
why is it not found In The Wild, employed by actual rope users?! --after all these years, and all those knots books hyping
its indispensability!?? --as opposed to Clove & follow-on Half hitches, and other mundane structures. (But I did just put on
a whipping--nice pink braided mason line on blue half-inch arborist rope--with a Dbl.Con. version, #1253 (something else
on the other end, though--variety, the spice of life (gold cord, too)).)
--dl*
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