Other people build Knot Boards. but I'm starting a Component Board.
Derek
R U bored?

I should hope that we can come to easy agreement
about the aspect of classification concerning --I'll just
grab a word"-- "classes" of knots, per my remarks of
simple denoting "knot" with a circled 'X' and then the
appropriate (2, 4, 6, ...) number of "ends" (parts going
out of the knot "nub"), and an indicated loading profile
(which ends are tensioned, which are free --and perhaps
irrespective of their possible connections beyond this
simple graphical representation).
Of a single piece of material --just two ends, i.e.--,
there are just these "classes":
1. both ends free
2. one end loaded, the other free; and implicitly there
is something to resist the force, hence "stopper knot"
3. both ends loaded.
Ah, yes, then comes the case where the *knotted* material
is around an "object" (of maybe #2 above should come here
--presence of object, though not "around"), and you get thus
a binder & a hitch.
With TWO pieces of material
in the knot (nevermind whether
ends connect!), there is:
knotted pieces 1-2 & A-B
1. all ends free
2. end-1 loaded vs end-A
3. " " end-B
4. end-2 ... end-A
5. end-2 ... end-B
6. end-1 ... end-2 ?
7. end-A ... end-B ?
8. end-1 ... ends-2+A
9. end-1 ... ends-2+B
10. end-2 ... ends-1+ A
11. end-2 ... ends-1+ B
12. ends-1 + A ... end-B
13. ends-1 + B ... end-A
14. ends (all) generally opposed (think : "net knot")
<whew : is this all?>
Many cases above will evaporate into equality
with knots having some symmetry, but I think
that they are potentially real variations (unless
my thinking is lacking, ...).
The cases 6 & 7 where one piece's ends are tensioned
and the other's not is certainly one in which I haven't
a practical example. --musing : some case of a "long line"
into which are knotted "gangions/snoods" which lie w/o
tension until some fish takes the bait!? --so, a case
that stands in function to one in which those snoods
would be
hitched onto the longline, usally.
--and, as is the case with various knots, this shows that
loading profiles can change per physical *knot*.
- - - - - - - - - -
Now, more to putting out aspects if *knot*, let me grab
another term --viz., "type"--, and again suggest that there
are general ways in which knots work, per knotted components:
A. *halves* are tied and then
pulled together to bind
B. a knot is formed in one piece and then that form is
traced by a second "piece" --which might belong to same physical rope--
to form the final knot
C. (of two or more pieces) components are interlocked
For examples of the above, I've noted
A. fisherman's knot
B. water knot
C. Ashley's Bend #1452
--dl*
====