. I've tried the highway man's hitch before, but ...
I'm quite dismayed that any "knot tyer" would recommend
the treacherous
highwayman's hitch --that knot's problems
were revealed over a decade ago and given some promulgation.
Expressly on account of that, I developed (and saw published)
a simple variant that takes the full force of the S.Part off of the
"toggle bight" and so both avoids the risk of capsizing from
that force and offers some easier freeing of the knot under load.
Cf.
http://notableknotindex.webs.com/tumblehitch.htmland note the rationale:
This hitch's stability makes it far superior to the related Highwayman's Hitch,
[which] rightly draws the scorn of knot tyers, tending to capsize to the point
where the draw loop no longer functions, or coming undone under strain
or motion, depending on conditions.
Now, I see that you have come to this (and the offending) hitch,
and found it wanting. I'm not terribly surprised, depending upon
the relative diameter of the tree to which you hitched --the greater,
the more problematic. But I wonder also how well you set the hitch,
for with the slip-bight/toggle part drawn firmly, there shouldn't be
much room for the twisting "into awkward positions" !? (I should
remark that Grog & I had an exchange about the stability and
effect of this "slip-free" hitch and he remained unhappy with its
behavior in some cases, and maybe he doesn't present it --I forget
where we left off.)
So tried the tumble hitch, highwayman hitch, and andy753421's hitch.
I attached a 9mm static rope to a tree with these 3 knots and I tensioned
... well over 400kg/882lbs. They all held this time, but the tumble and
highwayman both settles into twisted and awkward positions, ...
But you are anyway right about the force against spilling the knots
when desired --a common mistaken belief : that putting in a slip-tuck
renders the knot easily untied(!)--, and are on the right approach
to redress this by building a structure that first reduces force/tension
in the rope,
and then working in the release. (This is like the
parachute-release mechanism in which a stout ring is pulled back
and held by a smaller ring, which itself is similarly held by a ring
smaller and with then only mild force involved --and releasing this
smallest ring is thus easy, and from it go the others.)
--dl*
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