The fun of knowing knots

[breadwild]

I practice my 24 (remember, I'm a newbie) or so knots all week long, but today I got to tie a couple in the wild. I had to tie a stack of lumber to the top of my car. The problem was which of the several anchoring hitches to tie, and then which of the 4 adjustable hitches to use. I went with the classics: buntline to anchor and trucker's hitch with the Alpine butterfly and double half to finish. It was brilliant. All that practice paid off. I condescendingly wondered how many of the folks around me, tying things to their cars, were using legit knots. Anyway, love those real-life opportunities.

Brad

[blgentry]

I'm fairly new to knots myself.  I've only been pursuing this for less than a year.  ...and yes, knowing knots is fun.  Like any hobby, we spend a lot of time thinking about it that other people wouldn't.  Looking at how others have tied ropes to their trucks, packages, garage doors, etc, etc.  In many cases imagining the knots we would have tied instead.   There's an overhead door in a building I work at that has the ugliest nasty piece of poly rope tied to the door so you can pull it back down.  I think it's been there for at least 12 years.  It's unraveling and I can't really tell what the knot was originally.  I keep thinking I should replace it.... maybe I will.

On the truckers hitch:  Have you tried the "auto trucker's hitch"?  If not, you need to.  The auto trucker keeps tension automatically.  You don't lose any tension when you let go of the working end.  It "auto locks".  It's really easy too.  Just make one extra pass through your loop.  Pass the working end through the loop once.  Immediately pass it through again in the same direction.  Now those two loops on top of each other will lock together as you put tension on the working end.  It's great!

With all that tension held in place, it makes it easier to tie it off more securely with some half hitches, or whatever your preference is.  Oh a video is worth a thousand words:

Brian.

[breadwild]

Thanks Brian, I actually just saw that variation on Saturday...after I hauled my lumber home. Next time!

[Groundline]

I wouldn't get to casual with short-cut knots; a slipped half hitch in the bight of the zeppelin will lock it tight and be untieable.