Best reference books for knot tying and rope work?

[mcjtom]

Apart from free ABoK on Internet Archive (there is a second free version too), there is also A. Hyatt Verrill book on Project Gutenburg.

I have also recently discovered that there are hundreds of books on knotting and rope on Internet Archive available for borrowing: all you have to do is to create a free account and 'borrow' (i.e. be able to read online) a book, if available, for a limited time period (then borrow again).

[mcjtom]

I have an interesting find: the Russian equivalent? (maybe not) to the ABoK by Lev Skryagin - Nautical Knots.  I don't read Russian but there are illustrations and the text could be auto-translated to get the jest of it.

I can't be sure, but I don't think the book was ever translated into English or has been well known (has it?), which may be interesting as there may be some constructs there that are either unique or at least obscure to the English-speaking audience, but since the author has been surely familiar with ABoK, maybe that's not the case. 

Somebody more familiar with knotting than I am would have to make a judgment on it...

[Dennis Pence]

I would add to this discussion the excellent web site maintained at PACI by Mark Gommers (who frequently contributes to this forum). 
  http://www.paci.com.au/knots.php
In addition to his technical paper early in the site, scroll down to the "Historical Content" part for some nice old books, including a copy of the Russian book mentioned in the previous post.

[Dan_Lehman]

I have an interesting find: the Russian equivalent? (maybe not) to the ABoK by
Lev Skryagin - Nautical Knots.
I don't read Russian but there are illustrations and the text could be auto-translated to get the jest of it.

I can't be sure, but I don't think the book was ever translated into English or has been well known (has it?),
which may be interesting as there may be some constructs there that are either unique or at least obscure
to the English-speaking audience, but since the author has been surely familiar with ABoK,
maybe that's not the case. 

Somebody more familiar with knotting than I am would have to make a judgment on it...

Thanks for remarking; I just had a long browse, selectively
dropping texts into a translator (with some of the 2 B expected
comical translations).

1) I'm puzzled that it cites Ashley's #1452 as having long been
known to "furriers"!?  And, as indeed the author IS aware of
ABoK (though yet not awarEnuff to not parrot the nonsense
count of "3900 knots"), he gives no hint of this knot being
among those it presents, apparently as a then new discovery!?

2) Hunter's bend is directed by synonymy to the realm of hunters,
and he alleges that Edward got a British patent for it!?  Huh, I'm
pretty sure that the knot was relatively quickly enough found to
have been presented by Phil Smith some decade plus prior to
Hunter's even discovering it that such a patent wouldn't occur.

A lot of the illustrations appear to have been copied, though
not all --or not by sources I'm familiar with.

--dl*
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