[TowerTalk] Knots

[Charles Gallo]

On 2020-08-07 09:41, Dave Sublette wrote:
> Everything I need to know about knots, I learned as a boy scout.  I 
> have
> been climbing for 63 years and the knots I use are, bowline, square 
> knot,
> two half hitches, clove hitch, pipe hitch, square lashing (not often),
> sheet bend (not often) and any of them on a bight.
<snip>

Yeah, those are the basics - two you MIGHT want to add, as they are just 
darned useful

1)Prusik knot - useful for adding a bight in the middle of a line 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prusik
2)The Figure 8 knot.  Not really used to tie things off, but as a 
"stopper knot" - to prevent a line from falling through a pulley (or 
your hand for that matter)

Then there are some of my favorites, one of you MIGHT know Dave, from 
the scouts, where they often called it a Woggle - totally decorative - 
the turkshead knot

And if you are working with laid rope (the ones with strands) - a 
Matthew Walker or a Wall and Crown as a stopper knot.  Not really more 
effective than a figure 8, but a lot better looking.  The other thing is 
learning to splice (particularly laid rope) - a spliced loop or a splice 
between two lines is WAY stronger than a knot

(disclaimer, I used to be a member of the International Guild of Knot 
Tyers )



-- 
Charles Gallo
http://www.thegallos.com