gettin' hitched

[WoodchuckCanuck]

Hi folks,

Don't know if you've ever saw this or knot  ;D

http://www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42kttimb.html

It's from this page http://www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktmenu.html

[Tom]

Good site, Woodchuck.  I've always liked knots.  We used to have speed contests  in scouts.  I could beat anybody in the troop tying a running bowline.  ;D

I tried to learn decorative knots but could never find anyone to teach me and most books are difficult to understand.  I used to make "monkey's fists" in the navy. They are fun when you're sitting on the porch, doing nothing.

Actually, it would be to everybody's benefit to learn to tie correct knots for safeties sake.  I wonder why they don't teach stuff like that in public schools?

[WoodchuckCanuck]

I wonder why they don't teach stuff like that in public schools?

Probably the same reason why they don't teach kids how to save money or know the value of money...or balance a check book...or how important an RRSP is (registered retirement savings plan) same as 401K I guess.

[L. Wakefield]

   Actually, in our school system, they DO teach a class called 'living skills'. My boys made many grumbling comments about having to learn to sew something- but they go over all of that, and I think it includes checkbook balancing, baby care, cooking. All the things that used to be segregated to 'home ec'- remember that? They don't make auto mechanics and introductory shop mandatory, but I think it's good that the classes are more nearly gender neutral now. No reason why women should be the only ones cookin, cleanin, and changing diapers- and no reason men should be the only ones changin tires or doing the plumbing. I like the school curriculum reflecting that reality.

   They also have a childcare center in the school now (back in my day if you got pregnant they did not make any allowances for continuing education and family life)- and they talked about an on-site health clinic. Dunno if they've done that yet.

   (BTW, don't take any of the foregoing as any kind of slam..I know from the posts that youse guys take back seat to NO ONE as far as cookin goes. Button sewing, diaper changing.. I myself avoid the first, and evolved past the 2nd except in my nursing job, in which case diapers (we call the 'incontinence briefs') are an across the lifespan item nowadays.) lw

[CHARLIE]

I already know all the knots required to get me through life.
1. A granny knot if it ain't too important.
2. A double granny knot if you don't want it to come loose.
3. A triple granny if it's important that it doesn't come loose.
4. A quadruple granny if it's REAL important that it doesn't come loose.
  8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[Kevin]

I use this pipe hitch along with a good snatch block to get my logs out to the skid trail.

[L. Wakefield]

   You tweak my memory- I can't remember when I saw the left hand side of this without the terminus on the right side, but I remember it was quite useful and I think it was for pipe.
   lw

[Kevin]

You can pull a post out of the ground with this hitch.
They should have called it the ...

GRIPPER

[L. Wakefield]

   It might have been firefighter 1 class and hoisting a pike pole. But I remember the all purpose hoist knot for non-living thangs was a clove hitch, so I'm still wondrin..also learned a clove hitch for hoisting a rifle into a tree- that was back before i got an actual strap for it. There's a way you 'take the clove hitch apart' into two loops that you turn kinda backwards to each other and then slip them down together over the thang you want to fasten to. I have to figure it out all over again every time.  lw

[RavioliKid]

Uh...I teach kids how to tie a square knot - and how to sew. In fact, my most enthusiastic sewer is a boy!

But, they are on their own when it come to 401(k)'s and balancing their checkbooks!  :D

[SwampDonkey]

This is an interesting thread about knots I had to bring forward.

[Phorester]

Thanks, SD, for digging this out, and to Woodchuckcanuck,  for originally posting it.  As a Scoutmaster, I think this is a good marriage between old technology (knots) and new technology (Internet) that the boys will be interested in. 

This site "ties" them both together nicely............

[WH_Conley]

Never hurts to know to tie a knot. Most common knot shown that I use much the is the bowline, very good for tieing a tagline on something to be lifted as it can be undone very easily but won't slip. Works on any size line, even barge rope, course ya run a tow with it you will need a sledge hammer to get it loose.

On a variation of the "pipe hitch" you can hook a chall chain to a cable, be careful on this one, used to bring cable to you, not hard pulling. I even used it once to pull 200' of electric line through black plastic pipe or underground conduit, couldn't push it through. Shopvac and a piece of string with a plastic bag for a tail. ;D

Don't mean to hijack this thread, just showing how handy knots can be, I should have learned more of them.

[Phorester]

I use the tautline hitch quite a lot.  Perfect for tieing down Christmas trees on the truck.  You can put a lot of strain on it to tighten down such a springy load and it won't slip. 

Use the timber hitch for dragging big Christmas trees through the field behind the pickup.  When camping, we use it for dragging logs up to the woodyard for firewood cutting.

Use two half hitches a lot.  Use the clove hitch a little.  Tie my boots with a square knot.  Very occasionally use a bowline for something. 

When I learned to splice rope a few years ago, I started splicing every piece of rope I saw.  Eye splices are really neat in the end of a rope.  People think the rope came from the factory that way.  They can't believe I did it, or that they can do it themselves.  Impresses the Scouts to watch me do it,  but most of'em don't have the patience to learn it.

[WH_Conley]

As much as I have been around ropes and lines on the river I never did learn to splice rope. Can splice a molly in a cable in heartbeat but not rope.

[sawguy21]

I learned to splice rope making fuel barrel slings for helicopters. It's a great way to take the callouses off but sure tenderizes the pinkies. Also found that pipe hitch very useful over the years. It's funny, I could never master the bowline when in Boy Scouts. I still stick to the reef knot, right over left, left over right, and the half hitch

[Scott]

 Kevin, I learned the "pipe hitch" from my dad when i was about 8 years old. Only difference is he called it a timber hitch 

[Saki]

Looks like a nice site. I help teach an introductory river rescue class that has some of those very knots in it. In recent years seems like the figure 8 based knots are more popular than some of the older ones, although I still like the bowline for a lot of uses. One of my favorites for securing a load is the linemans loop, I have also seen it listed as the alpine butterfly loop in some texts. Gives you a non-slip, but easily untied loop in a rope so that you can take the remaining end down to a ring, or hook, then back up to through the loop, pull and it cinches the load very well. Even this handy knot may not be as popular since the use of those ratchet straps became so popular, but it never hurts to know a trick or two.

[Dan_Shade]

i use the lineman's loop quite a bit too, it's fast to tie, and easy to untie.

gotta watch the square knot or reef knot can be notably dangerous if used to tie to lines together.  I've read in text that it has probably accounted for more accidental deaths than any other knot.

if you are into knots, check out Clifford Ashley's Book of Knots

[sawguy21]

I use the lineman's knot a lot but never knew it's name. I find it works better  with nylon rope than with poly as the poly won't pull through the loop smoothly.

[stumpy]

I used to be a Lineman for the power company. we used that knot often. Mainly for pulling items up a pole.

[isawlogs]

 When working the high steel , we used many of those knots .  Thanks for bringing this back up . I'm gonna get me a peice of rope and get familiar again with some of the ones I have not used in a long time .