An upside down taut line, or adjustable, hitch makes a very satisfactory binder. It holds well. It can be loosened and tightened to enable adding or removing items from a bundle. It requires only one pass of the binding cord around the bundle. It is tied with an end onto the bight. It is about as economical of material as a binder can be.
The taut line hitch, ABoK 1799 and ABoK 1800 (and some other ABoK numbers) is formed by tying a rolling hitch onto the standing part to form an eye knot around the object hitched to. (1799 is also known as the midshipman's hitch.)
The two versions of the rolling hitch are pictured in the attached photo. The taut line hitch may be formed with either of these variants of the rolling hitch. In each case the initial two turns of the rolling hitch are made inside the eye loop, and the final half hitch outside the eye loop. The taut line hitch provides an adjustable loop which does not collapse when the loop and standing part are pulled away from each other, as when used to hitch a tent guy to a tent peg.
An upside down taut line hitch, shown as a binder but not named in ABoK 1230, is made with the initial two turns of the rolling hitch outside the eye loop, with the final half hitch inside the eye loop. An upside down taut line hitch provides an adjustable loop which does not expand when ring loaded -- a binder.
In my trials with 1/8 inch (3 mm) hollow nylon braid and 550 paracord, these binders held very well. I could not detect a difference between the two versions of the rolling hitch, although various authorities say that ABoK 1735, the version of the rolling hitch in which the first two turns bind the working part as well as the standing part, should hold better when tied on cordage than ABoK 1734. The version with 1735 was considerably more fiddly to tie, and much more fiddly to dress than ABok 1734, and as I say, seemed to hold no better in these two materials.
EDIT:Replaced "taught line" by "taut line", thanks to DL, See down thread.
