Harkening to
Knots in the Wild thread, one could address
"
Ten Most Used Knots[/i]" and see what that turned up.
I don't agree so much with Inkanyezi's lament at diversity (each will have
different Top Tens): I think that a survey conducted of actual rope
users --as contrast with (arm chair) "knot tyers"-- will show clumpings
of knots befitting those users' applications. For one thing, not all so
many rope users even
know (much) more than ten knots (!);
sometimes, what they use that might be seen as different knotted
structures can be seen as combinations of just a few fundamental items.
E.g., the Clove Hitch, and in more fundamental structural terms, Half-hitch
sequences, is much used in the commercial fishing knotting that I've seen
-- both with my own presence and via others' images (notably Nautile's
photo surveys of Brittany, France). I have never seen a book or on-site
source depict what I call a "Reverse Groundline Hitch", which is tied as
a back'n'forth series of Half-hitches in line typically spiral-binding some
ropes or netting or one to the other.
And re such surveying usage 'tis why I lament at the IGKT's knot tyer's
gathering in the midst of much active knotting (New Bedford & Seattle
fishermen) but turning inward to see only decorative work and museum
artifacts (whose authenticity can be doubted, even). Thankfully, we have
DFred's exploration of New Bedord's knotting wilds to look forward to.
(On my part, I've been remiss in not agressively pursuing contact with
two commercial fishers I'd had good communications w/in Cape May,
but on happenstance basis. For one of those, at least, I know his name
and I think he's pretty easily findable.)
- - - - - -
When I select produce at the market, I often place selections into a plastic
bag which I don't tie off with any of the knots I've seen recently posted;
I shop regularly, such is my fondness for eating -- several times daily.
The knot I tie off the bag with usually the Overhand, sometimes slipped.
It's an interesting dual-class knot: held in hand, it might serve qua
stopper,
opposed to my grip; but put into a larger bag and generally left to hold
the bag closed against escape-minded produce (pears, say, which naturally
resist being grouped in odd numbers), it serves I suppose qua
bend-- i.e., like the Offset Ring Bend (aka "EDK"), in unusual medium to be
thinking of that!
