Hi, djh860, and thank you for the new pictures.
Congratulations, djh860. This in a pretty, most interesting knot - and also it teaches us some valuable lessons about knots, in general.
This bend is not an Easy bend (1), of course, because both links are topologically equivalent to the unknot ( i.e., none is an overhand knot ). You can transform the Easy Bend shown at (1) -and at the third attached picture - into the one you show here, by passing the working end of the black/right link
over the standing end of the same link ( and not
under, as you do at this bend ). However, I argue that it has no relation with an Easy bend whatsoever - as it often happens with simple things, even one little change does change everything.
So, this bend is even simpler than an Easy bend - and, I dare to say without having tested it, at least as secure as an Easy bend. Why ? Because it utilises a locking mechanism we have seen it works perfectly in the case of the Zeppelin bend - that of the tails being loaded and secured in place, like pivots in a rope-made hinge, by perpendicularily acting forces ( sheer forces ). I would go as far as to argue that this bend is, in fact, a simplified Zeppelin bend, just one step more complex than the Symmetric Sheet bend ( or, just one step less simple than the SSB ). Moreover, it is very stable, even when it is not loaded, while the SSB is obviously not. So, it is much more "practical" than the SSB. Easy to tie, to dress, and very secure, what else would one have wished for a bend ?
The only shortcoming I see is the lack of symmetry. I suppose that, probably, the one link would be much weaker than the other, just as it might happen with the Sheet bend. It lacks the symmetry of the Zeppelin bend and of the SS bend, but this does not mean it is not pretty. It is, because it is a most simple illustration of a rope-made hinge - and a hinge is a pretty thing. independently of the material it is made of !
( You have replaced the white rope with a black one, where the self-crossings can be distinguished even less... at least by people with less acute vision than the one they used to have during the last century, like me. So, if I was/am talking about another knot than the one you show, you now know why !
But if you keep inventing such pretty knots, I guess you can use any colour you wish !
An advice : when you wish to show the back side of a knot, it is better to rotate it around its axis, so the left link remains at the left side of the frame, and the right link remains at the right side. I believe that this way the human brain understands more easily and quickly that the apparently "two" things are, in fact, one and the same thing - because we are accustomed at paying attention to bilateral, "face" symmetry. I think that most people will understand a 90 degrees rotation around the horizontal axis, than around the vertical axis. )
1.
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4076.0
