... in the 1992 Rigger's Apprentice in which Brion Toss discusses bend strength and the famous Ashley pull-test. Unfortunately I don't own the book, which is the source of my problem. I taught myself a variation to the Ashley Bend that Toss describes, and though I remember how to tie it, I cannot remember it's name. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Toss claimed it was as strong and resistant to slippage as the Ashley.
Looking in that text, I don't see quite the match of those assertions.
He follows
Ashley's Bend #1452 with what he calls there "The Benson Bend"
(which is something I've alluded to elsewhere : it is --and ought to have been
so recognized by both Brion & Mr. Benson-- Ashley's #1421, the
Double Harness
Bend); he then presents
"the Strait Bend" (aka
"Butterfly bend"), which he claims
is "the strongest of this series" --but one testing I know of has a different result.
A bit of background: I'm an avid climber and sailor, hence my fascination with knots, and recently I've been searching for the right bend to replace the "European Death Knot" for bending two ropes together for rappel. The EDK, of course, is just an overhand bend (ABOK 1410). Even when you tie a "double EDK," it really doesn't feel that secure.
Except that there are reasons to go beyond your "feel" --you can yourself
give it sufficient testing, IMO, with body weight, a simple 2:1 pulley with
a 'biner (actual advantage maybe 1.5:1), and bounce away, convince yourself!
Beyond this, there are some other test results about. There is another, recent
post about such knots and you can find my reference to some rockclimbing
forum's ("RC.com") discussion of such offset knots, entitled "Beyond the EDK...".
A presentation is made to show
exactly how to tie and back-up the
Offset Water Knot ("EDK"), as well as a couple alternative offset end-2-end knots.
The advantage of the EDK, as compared to say a double fisherman's or a Flemish bend, is that it rolls over edges when you're pulling the rope, and is thus FAR less likely to get stuck.
So I'm searching for a more secure bend that will still roll over edges, and I think the one Toss wrote of might be it... if only I could remember it's name to do some more research.
thanks so much
Jacon
None of the knots presented by Toss is
offset, and so none will perform
as you desire --just having the tails in the same perpendicular-to-loading
direction doesn't make a knot
offset and smooth flowing!
Btw, the blurry bend that you present is a version of
Single Harness
Bend (one tail going back over its SPart then around up between
SParts, the other going directly up between). The tails could go in
opposite directions, as well. Benson's match was of the same-direction
version of the
Dbl.Harness, so you are pretty close from memory!
(But, hey, try pulling this knot over the edge of a desk, e.g., and see
how different it is from the
OWK in flowing around that.) Oh,
you also have a likely unusual dressing of this knot vis-a-vis the
placement of the tails to each other --normally they'd be on the other
side, I think (i.e., e.g., of lower pic the tail on the left would be
on the right, turning around only the opposite SPart, not also
surrounding the other tail's turn).
--dl*
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