Beyond the Reef family. A Thief-Zeppelin and two Reef-Ashley hybrid bends.

[xarax]

Beyond the Reef family. A Thief-Zeppelin and two Reef-Ashley hybrid bends.

[Dan_Lehman]

As was remarked elsewhere (by Sweeny, IIRC), the Fig.8 bend can be seen
as a securing of the Thief.

--dl*
====

[xarax]

  I knew I had left some loose ends on the subject, but, as this thread was proven to be not so earth-shaking and popular, I decided to leave it die in peace... However, a recently presented very strange Zeppelin-bend-looking simple knot (1), and a variation of a bowline - where the tail is squeezed between the standing part and the rim of the nipping loop, i.e., the tail is secured, without even having to pass through the nipping loop (2) - persuated me to study again, and more carefully, the knots of this thread. Here, we have re-tucked members of the Reef family of knots, and the specific way the tails are re-tucked and exit the nubs of the knots, makes those knots resemble Zeppelin or Ashley bends. The retucked tails do not pass through the two bights of the two links of the Thief knot, but they are situated in between them.
   See the attached picture, for three more variations of the Thief-Zeppelin family. Notice that the first curves of the standing parts are wider here, than they were in the previously presented variation.

1)   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3204.msg19281#msg19281
2)   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=1202.msg19317#msg19317

[xarax]

   A third Reef-Ashley bend. I call it ZED 2, because it is a variation of the A 21, "ZED bend", published by Roger E. Miles : Symmetric Bends (How to Join Two Lengths of Cord), 1995. (p.84, p. 105). It combines the advantages of the other two Reef-Ashley bends, with those of the Double-Harness bend  ( See the characteristic arrangement of the tails, at the "top view" of the attached pictures )

[xarax]

   All the possible variations of the bends in this thread where the Tail Ends are leaving towards opposite directions, are shown at :
   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4445.0
   Among them, I find the " oru Bu " particularly interesting / nice - perhaps because the locking mechanism is hidden inside the nub !  An easy to tie but still tricky bend, that deserves some attention during dressing, to "close" in its most compact and "fluid" form. Starting from the images of the finished, only, knot, without paying attention to its descriptive name, a novice knot tyer may find the puzzle of "deciphering" / reverse engineering the knot quite intriguing. 
   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4445.msg29585#msg29585