Which Knots To Know?
 

In a lake cabin for the coming week, figure I should cut some cord from the hank I keep with the kayaks and practice knots. And learn knots. But which knots?

So, here is my PRIMARY question for you all:

If you could only know FIVE knots, which knots would they be, and for each knot you’ve chosen, what task(s) is it used for and why did you choose that knot as best for that task?

And if you will, a SECONDARY question:

What are the five knots you would know for
- General daily life
- Outdoors
- Fishing
- Boating

I ask this as someone who can only seem to remember a few knots. When I was a kid I had a knot book and learned many knots, but they’ve all gone like dust in the wind. As I sit here today, I could probably tie a bowline, a figure eight, a clove hitch, a trucker’s hitch, a fisherman’s knot, a dropper loop of some sort. If I had to splice two lines . . ., I’d probably do repeated overhand loops with each line around the other; I don’t know a splicing knot. If I had to make an emergency rescue sling . . . I’d probably make a big bowline on a bight and watch the victim fall to their death; I don’t know a real sling knot. If I had to tie a fly on a leader . . . i’ve got that covered. If I had to tie a package . . . I’d make a big old mess.

Barrel knot for connecting two ropes of the same size.

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Double barrel or " fisherman's bend"

We use these all the time in rope rescue

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1755998197.jpg

If the Chapman Book of Knots is still around I'd suggest getting a copy.
John Rogers

I taught knot tying to Scouts. Have owned a sail boat or two. Went fly fishing today. So you might think I knew something about knots.

Not really. (pun intended.)

I think you have a very nice inventory listed above.

I do like a prussic knot / loop (foggy memory here...) to make a recovery line with 2:1 advantage. (talking out my backside. No idea the actual advantage.)
I use a surgeons knot, nail knot, and Albright knot for my fly line leader.

Square knot is essential...

I have pretty much faked it this far. Don't plan on learning more.

You are good!

Oh I recognize that knot, used for building a tapered leader for fly fishing.

I use this one alot

<iframe width="263" height="467" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TR6Zt44JwAg" title="Tying Two Half Hitches" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

and this one too

https://www.animatedknots.com/clove-hitch-knot-rope-end

I was a boyscout and knew a bunch of knots. I maybe remember 4 now, square, clove hitch, 2 half hitch, and maybe bowline (the fact that I'm not 100% on that one surprises me). I am also a little surprised that I can picture a sheepshank, but not sure if I could tie one.

Probably 15 years ago, I stumbled across a website on knots and got some line and started practicing. I had a bunch down, but stopped and have forgotten all of them. THere are a bunch of cool knots out there. I think this was the site. It is an excellent site with categories of knots and how-tos on how to tie them all.
https://www.animatedknots.com/

^^^I have used that website. It is fantastic!

Can't go wrong with a good ol Bowline.

https://youtu.be/Q9NqGd7464U?si=z3xCKPrMidm2CyQm

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Square knot
Half hitch
Trucker's hitch
Bowline
Clove hitch

And always remember, after tying you need to proclaim "That's not going anywhere".

That one was considered super important in the Boy Scouts because with that one you could put a loop around someone and pull them up a cliff or let them down from someplace high without the rope tightening around them.

I'm from FL. I moved to the gulf coast of Texas. Both places are damn flat. About the highest place that I'd ever have to raise or lower someone from is a curb. I've NEVER needed a bowline. But I can't get out of my mind that it's a good knot to know. LMAO!

The rabbit comes out of the hole, goes around the tree and then goes back into the hole, or something like that.

fify

Anybody have one of these? Specs about anything and everything…love looking through it!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1756034189.jpg

About 10 illustrated pages of knots and their usage.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1756034278.jpg

For tapered leaders blood knot is the cleanest, on the water a double or triple surgeons knot is easier to tie.

Someone gave me one about 20 yrs ago. I was hooked. Always got the updated versions after that.

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Just like kids with their velcro shoes I've forgotten my knots because of my ratcheting straps

Story about the most impressive knot tying I've ever seen.

My Dad got involved with some guy who was buying a mothballed ship from the Navy. It was up in the mothball fleet up in SF area.

As we got it to a dock in SF right under one of the freeway bridges going into SF, we tossed a line to a guy drinking a cup of coffee on the dock. The line was easily 3-4" in diameter, maybe bigger. He caught the line with his free hand, and while holding the cup of coffee proceeded to toss the line up and around with the other hand. He ended up with a perfect bowline which he dropped over a cleat on the pier.

He didn't spill a drop of coffee.

I use a Palomar knot to tie on hooks and lures. I had to look up the name and I tie it my own way .... but ya do gots to wet it an cinch it properly :).

And a few of the others already mentioned....

I cheated and had to ducksearch for the name too :D

A Bo-line ain't goin' nowhere...

Do you tie up the stern with a bow-line?

A Bolin might just go somewhere :D

How do y'all pronounce it?

If you want to fish someone out of the water a bowline does the trick.
To get rated for sailboat rentals, you need to be able to tie that knot floating in the water.

The marriage knot will usually cost you about $300K to untie that sucker.

Clove Hitch
Square (or Reef) Knot
Sheet Bend
Bowline
Double Fisherman’s Knot (grapevine)

A trucker's hitch is a good one to know. It effectively doubles the tension on the rope.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1756065258.jpg

I did knot know that. ;)

Am not commenting on fishing knots (haven't been fishing in ages); I think I generally get by with just these:

- Two half-hitches
- Square knot
- Figure-8
- Bowline
- Taut-line

And ratchet straps for any load in the truck... :)

buddy was an industrial painter, said "If you gotta trust your life to a knot make sure its a Bowline"
HI HO!

Had an uncle that knew Don. I never met him.

The only guys that were taught knots in the Nav back in the day were the undeclared SA’s that went through general shipboard school after boot or Boatswains.

I was a little jealous actually.

THE knot book is the Ashley Book of Knots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashley_Book_of_Knots

And it's available online and downloadable in several formats (including PDF and ePub) from the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/TheAshleyBookOfKnots
PDF link - https://dn790008.ca.archive.org/0/items/TheAshleyBookOfKnots/the%20ashley%20book%20of%20knots.pdf

Another knot for joining two ropes together has the best name: the European Death Knot.

I prefer tying a Gordian Knot. Difficult to untie, but Alexander the Great showed us the way.

We have pretty much phased out the bowline in the rope rescue world, years ago. It isn't a life safety knot. We will use it to connect a tag line on a litter or something similar., but thats about it.

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What do you use instead?

My buddy says the double figure 8 (figure 8 on a bight) with a double overhand safety knot on the tag end?

Exactly my thought, you can't drop a bomb like "we haven't used the bowline as a rescue knot in years" without telling us what the replacement is.

Lol. Sorry..

The figure 8 and it's many variations are our main go-to.
They are pretty much always our main tie-in knots. We have about five or six other different knots that are the primary ones we use, but a ton of others may come into play.

One of the issues with the bowline is security integrity, in that it can self loosen when load is removed. A figure 8 never will.

There are ways to secure a bowline a little better , one is what's called a "Yosemite finish" , which is a couple additional turns around the rope to secure it.

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So one or more of these?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1756871364.jpg

My top five for boat work:

-Bowline: Extremely useful loop type knot
-Cleat hitch: Most obvious sign of a boater hack if the boat is not using a proper cleat hitch
-Clove hitch: Great for hanging stuff up on a rail.
-Figure eight: Easy stopper knot
-Reef (square) knot: Tie up bundles, reef a sail, etc.
-(Bonus #6) Gasket coil: Neatly stow coils of rope.

If you can master those you can do most boat rope work without looking like a hack.

Side Note: I need that "Pocket Ref" book. Surprisingly, the cheapest place to get it is Harbor Freight of all places. On HF's website its listed under Home/Home Security/Toys/Childrens Toys/Building Toys. LOL!



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Yep! That's a couple of them.

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The most useful knot I’ve learned since starting this thread is the Alpine Butterfly Loop (a dropper). Previously I tied droppers by tying a bight into an overhand knot - very crude and hard to untie.

I still need a fast-to-tie , hard-to-screw up bend knot.