Author Topic: Single Locked Cow hitch II  (Read 21830 times)

xarax

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Re: Single Locked Cow hitch II
« Reply #30 on: May 16, 2015, 02:01:45 PM »
   Sometimes I tie a "tight hitch", I pre-tension it as hard as I can do ( either by using my hands and feet, as a rower, or by hanging it upside down by its Standings ends from somewhere, and then jumping on the pole !  :) ), and I leave it tightly tied on the pole for weeks, even months, to see if it will loosen its grip on it - if it "creeps", because some parts of the nub are perhaps too tensioned, and will "give" / release some portion of the accumulated tensile forces after some time.
   See the attached pictures for the EEL Single Locked Cow hiitch, tied on two braided marine ropes ( next to the superb Locked Double Cow hitch, which is tied there for months, without any sign of loosening ). Both those "tight hitches remain as tight as the first day I had tied them.
This is not a knot.

xarax

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(Single) EEL Locked Cow hitch
« Reply #31 on: May 21, 2015, 10:23:13 AM »
   OK, I have made up my mind now - I decided that I prefer the version of (single) EEL Locked Cow hitch presented in this thread, in Reply#11 (1), and tied by the TIB method shown in the attached picture (*).
   I have seen that the other candidate, the Locked Cow hitch (B), presented in a response to squarebanksalaska s ingenious Alaskan hitch (2), although it is also TIB, it is also very tight, and it is also EEL ( Either End Loadable ), it is not so stable when loaded by the "other" end : when this is the end which is pulled, the nub of this hitch revolves around itself a little bit ( but much more that I would had wished ) and disturbs the arrangement of the segments of the rope in this area, which belong to the "locking mechanism". This motion does not unlock any end, but it does deform the nub, and, if nothing more, this transfiguration of the nub is not a nice sight. We expect a genuine EEL knot to remain stable when loaded by the one, by the other, or by both ends, and retain the same form always. A knot which, when loaded differently, changes forms, like a chameleon changes colours, may be also secure, but it does not offer the "feeling" of security - and the twisting and other motions of segments of the nub when it is heavily loaded, can hurt and wound the rope...

(*) I now follow the quickest, probably, possible tying method for this hitch : I Just form a Cow hitch in mid-air, with its ends "under" the tip of its U-turn, and then grab the one end, bring it "under" the other, then over and around the wrap of this other end, then in between the two wraps, and then out of the Cow hitch again. By just looking at the attached picture, the interested reader can understand the sequence of moves I describe, for the end of the initial Cow hitch which, at the start of the tying procedure, was at the right. 
   
1.   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=5250.msg34820#msg34820
2.   http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4739.msg30595#msg30595
      http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4739.msg30666#msg30666
« Last Edit: May 21, 2015, 10:36:08 AM by xarax »
This is not a knot.

xarax

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The simplest Locked Cow hitch of them all.
« Reply #32 on: August 16, 2015, 10:43:24 PM »
   For a reason I can NOT understand, just one turn of the one end around the tip of the bight of the Cow hitch is enough to "lock" it - and lock it very securely ! I had met the hitch shown in the attached pictures by accident, while I was searching for something else - I could never imagine that it will hold, because its "lock" does not seem to involve any of the known to me locking mechanisms... ( So much for my knowledge of them ! ) Been almost crippled recently from pains in my spinal cord, I could nt pre-tension it by hand, and I had to do a trick I often use, that is, do not pull the rope, but step on the pole instead... :) I was quite surprized that, after some small initial slippage, the knot "locked", and became rock solid ! I was almost angry with this uexpected behaviour ! I started to jump up and down on the hanged pole, unable to believe that this round turn would not nwind and release the lock - but it did not !  And, on top of that, as one can easily see this miraculously simple locked Cow hitch is TIB : one turn around a TIB hitch ( as the initial Cow hitch is ) does not cancel the TIB-ness of the "wrapped", within this turn, TIB knot...
   Fortunately for me :), when I hanged the pole from the "other" end, the lock opened up :  this hitch is not either-end-loadable ( EEL). And so I was saved from the burden to have one more tight hitch to consider - because, when the hitch is TIB, I will always prefer it be EEL, too.
   " I supposed that everything of so simple a nature had already being discovered... ", etc. :)
This is not a knot.

xarax

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The simplest Locked Cow hitch of them all.
« Reply #33 on: August 17, 2015, 11:48:54 AM »
   It seems that those three segments in the innermost part of the nub, in contact to each other and squeezed in between the tip of the bight of the Cow hitch and the surface of the pole, form a "lock" which can not be explained in the way we were used to explain the locks based on the opposing bights mechanism. I just do not know.
   See more pictures of this unexpectedly tight and secure hitch, taken during daytime.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2015, 02:10:32 PM by xarax »
This is not a knot.

 

anything