Knot Again
 

This is embarassing to ask, but here goes.

Assume you can only remember THREE knots for all your life's needs.

Which should they be?

The half hitch and the various derivatives of that seem to get me through.

Mind you I can always manage to do what I call a "truck drivers knot" that give a 2:1 (gearing) purchase when you pull it tight.

I use the one on the right often. Two half hitches to join two bits of rope.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503213694.jpg

square
bowline
clove hitch

Yup these threee are about the earliest taught in scouting, and usually the most common.

There are a few climbing knots I love too, but those three cover it.

You are a knotty boy!

Somebody had to say it.

I use the knot to tie my shoes every day. Then mostly likely timberline. Lastly Clove Hitch.

Our troop did a booth on Knots at the local Scoutorama. 50% of our troop were handicapped boys.
So sometimes those knots came in handy. :)

I don't even know what to call it....but the knot I use the most hasn't been mentioned yet...

How do y'all tie on a fish hook? Serious question btw...do you have one or two sections of line going through the eye of hook....the knot I use has two....the "common" way, only one....

Depends on what kind of line.

For monofilament, one loop through the eye, bunch of twists, loop through the space between the bottom twist and the eye, tighten. Kinda like a hang mans knot, learned it at 4 as "fisherman's knot" and that is what I've always called it, but it is basically an improved clinch knot.

http://d2r5da613aq50s.cloudfront.net...405.image0.jpg




For braided line, I use a palomar knot. A traditional fisherman's knot (above) will actually cut itself when you tighten it, OR the braided line won't have enough friction against itself to stay together and will just pull apart.

http://sportfishingpanama.com/wp-con...s-1000x500.jpg

Being a retired Boatswainmate, I know lots knots, sailor knots. I can also do quite a bit of fancy work knots. I retired and moved back to my family cattle ranch were I also use a heck of a lot of knots.

The three top knots I used at small boat stations, and here at home are the clove, bowline, and square. The bowline is probably the most important for everyone. I can tie those behind my back and in the dark. The downside of a square knot is both lines have to be equal diameter in size or it can get easily fussed up.

Now one easy extra knot I never used as a Coastie but should have..a Prusik.
I tie prusiks on stuff all the time now. You can even use the prusik to climb up a standing rope, which is actually was it was kind of designed for. It's a pain and slow but yes you can climb up a hanging a rope with it.-WW

If figure out a way to use some version of a half hitch for just about everything. Never was a boy scout, and I think I missed a lot for it. There ought to be a "life skills" class taught in school that would teach kids stuff like knots and how to use basic hand tools.

There is an app for this site you can use on your phone. A knot for every occasion! If you get into fly fishing, you have to use a lot of different knots for different applications.
Animated Knots by Grog | How to Tie Knots | Fishing, Boating, Climbing, Scouting, Search and Rescue, Household, Decorative, Rope Care,

Square knot
Bowline
Clove hitch
Cleat hitch
Double half hitch
Figure 8 (stopper) knot

My vote:

Square knot
Bowline
Tautline

I would need 4 knots and 4 hitches with variations

Knots:
Square knot/overhand knot and variations like surgeon's knot, EDK (European death knot), water knot
Figure 8/9 and variations (figure 8 on a bight)
Alpine butterfly
Double fisherman's knot

Hitches:
Clove
Prussik
Klemheist (I use a common variant called the autoblock)
Munter/Munter Mule

Seems to me the most common needs for a knot are:
1. Join two rope ends together
2. Make a loop in the end of a rope (rarely in the middle of a rope)
2. Tie a rope to a fixed object - like a post, D ring, or a loop in another rope

For 1 I usually use a fisherman's knot. I suppose something like a sheet bend would be easy to remember and faster.

For 2 I usually double over the rope then make an overhand knot, for a quick and dirty loop.. (That's also how I make loops in the middle of a rope.) I know I should use a proper bowline (and a proper dropper loop) but can never remember which way the rabbit is supposed to run around the tree. I used to use Perfection loops for fishing, but can't remember them now.

For 3 I usually use a clinch knot. For some reason the standard clove hitch seems insecure to me. If the connection needs to be tensioned I use a truckers hitch.

I learned a few knots for fishing so those tend to be the ones I remember today.

John, what are most of your knots used for? In my case, 95% of my knots are for sailing, with the remaining 5% used to secure/cover loads in the bed of my pickup truck. I find that the trucker's hitch is useful then.

Securing tents and tarps, tying loads on vehicles, mostly. Rope is usually some variety of cord, sometimes that cheap slippery plastic rope stuff.

Oh, here's a related question. Suppose you have to tie something with a rope that isn't strong enough for the load. But you have a lot of rope, so you can run multiple ropes in parallel. Would you bundle four ropes together and tie the knot as if using a single rope, or would you tie a separate knot with each rope?

I got interested in this yesterday because I was hanging a hammock at camp but we only had paracord. I didn't trust the paracord to hold the load, so I used four lengths in parallel.

square knot
bowline
millers knot