As best I can discern of the knotted rope,
you might have a
round turn & 2 half-hitches.IMO, the clearest part is going backwards,
from the tail reeved through the eye bolt,
leading back to the FINISHING half-hitch
at the top (left side of image) --which rules
out the
buntline, and suggests the above.
One cannot see the "round turn" part,
buried under the tail and presumed first
half-hitch (which might show just in the
small bit on left side parallel to outer HH).
A cleat hitch is nowhere here but in some ropey
shapes, mimicking the absent cleat.
(You might try just CROPPING YOUR PHOTO
so that what uses the precious bytes on this
forum is mostly knot vs. mostly not (knot) !!
And, "cutting" ?! Surely you might find something
long & thin & firm enough to tease out the tail from
the metal and then untie that not-very-tight (-looking)
half-hitch to reveal, IN SITU, the mystery below!
As for
"
a noose knot or a Bolin on a Bit (a self tightening Bolin knot)",
that indeed is some wording to work out!
(let's sub "bight" vice "bit" or "bite")
Your critique of the latter is right on --gotta wonder what
the writer was thinking--, but RT & 2HH is a noose, by
which *I* mean "a knotted structure that surrounds
an object and hitches to itself. The 2HH = clove hitch
and that can slide down noose-like to close to the object
(often, though, just getting closer to it).
--dl*
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