The PK (positive knot) actually doesn't go around the tree. For that you use a simple slip noose, or a round turn and two half hitches, or whatever hitch you feel like using. The PK is created after the cord is already tied around the tree, to be a clip-in location for a carabiner (similar to the alpine butterfly). In that situation, it is very easy to tie and untie.
Thank you. It would seem that the Positive Knot would be in both places in your
diagram--the "running eye" for noosing the tree, and the fixed eye awaiting the
clip-in. Is it expected that one will ***adjust*** tension with the Positive Knot?
For quick untying, one could otherwise attach the line to the 'biner with a slip-free
hitch (e.g., my revision of the Highwayman's h.), and then tie to the tree with a
turn & Rolling/Tautline hitch, adjusting for tension. Untying will likely require
some relaxation of the line before the slip-free hitch can be slipped free.
But there are many ways to be simple and quick here. A bowline, e.g. ... .
So what is a knot, what is a variation, and what is a series of knots? Isn't a Killick Hitch just a Timber Hitch and a half hitch combined?
Ah, philosophical questions! That can go deep, and I've not found my way on this,
though on this forum posited some definitions years back re "knot". As for the particular,
well, that touches such depth, too, I guess; but a quick surmise on my part is that, NO,
the Killick/Killeg/K...sub-n Hitch was a SECURED COW/Girth Hitch--the end dogged
around one side, and it pressed sufficiently snug to the SPart that, esp. in nature-fibre
cordage that might swell when wet, jammed securely around the stone weight.
And only some years later, bereft of this knowledge or for whatever reason, some
knots book put is as two separate things, which got further separated just as did
its use from the account of its use/purpose. (Interestingly, maybe in Nature's way
to balance this particular case, it seems that the Water Bowline's once well separated
HHitches have been nearly fused in coming together!)
I'm with Roo & SquareRigger on this re "new": the fundamental aspect is the end
reeved back through the Overhand base, which is done as cited and in the opposite
direction in the Honda/Bowstring knot (which might be less prone to jamming);
tying this off can be done in innumerable ways, from which one can generalize
to a great many other structures where one thing can be conjoined with a myriad
of others, and "new" knots could multiply like . . . humans, overrunning the world.
Which is not to say that some rather simple cases might nevertheless stand out
in value, no matter how easily *reached* they were--and prove useful. But my
outlook for this Positive knot is not positive.
