* A knot that attaches a rope to a rail, bar or any object is called a hitch.
Back view (aka reverse 2 half hitches)
-:- Alpine butterfly -:-
Front view
The alpine is a mountaineering knot. It’s other name is lineman’s loop.
Back view
-:- Simple Simon over -:-
Front view
Developed by Harry Asher and published in 1989, this knot is used to secure 2 slippery cords.
Back view
-:- Ring and Prusik -:-
Front view (L:Ring, R:Prusik)
The ring hitch is a common way of looping a string on a ring. The prusik, which is also a mountaineering knot, is named after Dr. Karl Prusik, an Austrian music professor who initially came up with this knot during WWI to mend broken strings of musical instruments. He later published the tying instructions for mountaineers to be used for self-rescue.
Back view
Thought I’ll end this week with more pictures of the knots I like to use, not for climbing though .
Chinese knotting is an old and traditional art form developed in the Tang (618 – 907 BC) and Song (960-1279 AD) dynasties.
Many Chinese knots are identical both sides. They are decorative and functional, able to hold things securely.
Knots were a form of communication and a means to express good wishes and blessings.
This ancient art was on the verge of being lost due to the effects of industrialization and the Cultural Revolution. The how-tos were passed down from one generation to the next through word of mouth.
A series of articles on Chinese knots was published in a Taiwanese magazine after its publishers sought out the few remaining elderly women knotters in Taiwan. That was in 1976.
It is believed that the Japanese (hanamusubi) and Korean (maedup) knotting originated from China.
Almost every known knot has a name, some have more than one. The simplest knot we ALL tie is called an overhand knot (that’s the one you see above).
Records show that the knotwork go way back to more than several thousand years ago.
In ancient days, tying knots was a way to keep track of events, genealogies and stock.
According to expert knot tyer and author Geoffrey Budworth, knots are divided into 3 groups:
A knot joining 2 ropes is a bend.
A knot that attaches a rope to a rail, bar or any object is called a hitch.
Anything else that is neither a knot nor a hitch is a knot; which is subdivided into stopper knots, bindings, shortening, loops and nooses.
Even weaver birds tie different types of knots (with grass) to make their nests.
There are certain life-support knots that are specifically used by those who have to scale heights and depths.
As an early Scandinavian form of birth control, when a couple decided they had enough children, they would name their last-born boy Knut, which means knot.
[Source: ‘The Complete Book of Knots & Ropework’ and ‘Knots (Collins Need to Know?)’ by Geoffrey Budworth]
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