Hello Mr. Smith,
it is a beautiful thing no matter if it is the strongest knot or knot. Would it be no stronger than perhaps another knot since any knot is only as strong as it's most load bearing crossing? ie either the entrance of the standing part into this knot's braid or where it returns into the braid at the loop. I hope you don't think I am knotpicking here. How do we test it?
Scott
Thanks for starting off the discussion Scott,
Yes it is a pretty little loop knot, but like most of our knots, this is just the face that it presents to the world of knot tiers. But some (most) knots have a business side, their working side, and when they go to work they tend to take on a totally different structure -- this is also true for this little knot.
Load the knot up to +80% of line breaking strain and its shape changes into this :--
The tension on the line tends to make it want to stay straight. This forces the adjacent lines to take a longer path and thereby expands them. In turn the adjacent lines press back against the loaded line.
As the loaded line enters the plait, through the first loop, there is virtually no squeezing force, only a gently sideways pressure causing some tension to be fed to the next crossovers and adjacent plait lines. Some of the tension is transfered into the two white lines. The loaded line continues virtually straight through the knot, passing load into the two white line by friction (there are no bends, so only friction can be at work) right up to the last turns, when so much of the line tension has been shared with the white lines that the red line starts to bend and follow the same curvature as the white lines. By the time the red line emerges, it has shed 50% of the load into the white lines, through a series of 16 encounters of either lateral pressure or scissor grips, that is sixteen steps on average each of ca 3% transfer.
Of course, neither the emerging red, not the returning white are likely to break, because they only carry 50% of breaking strain load, and as they enter the knot without any fierce bend or constriction, they are highly unlikely to break at 50% load.
So, should we expect this knot to exhibit at least ca 97% strength?