Ropecraft

Knots, hitches, and bends

The ones we know

  • Knots
    • Overhand knot
    • Figure-8 on a bight knot
    • Figure-8 follow through knot
    • Bowline knot
    • Alpine Butterfly knot
  • Bends
    • Water knot (ring bend)
    • Double-fisherman’s knot (bend)
  • Hitches
    • Clove hitch
    • Trucker’s hitch
    • Prusik hitch
    • Munter hitch
  • Combinations
    • Munter mule hitch
    • Radium release hitch
  • Formations
    • Eye
    • Bight
  • Skills
    • Rope
      • Flake
      • Coil and secure warp
    • Rope rescue system – RRS
      • Anchors
      • Progress capture
      • Mechanical advantage
    • Toboggan
      • Securing the load
      • Towing
      • Stabilization

The “Eye” – the beginning of all (most) ropecraft

Eye
The “Eye”

Overhand knot

Overhand
Overhand knot – make an eye, pass the end through

The clove hitch

Clove hitch – make two eyes and cross them

The bight

The bight
The bight – double back on itself – not an eye, the other foundational shape

Overhand-on-a-bight loop

Overhand-on-a-bight loop
Overhand-on-a-bight loop – a bight and then an eye and …

Double Fisherman’s Bend

Double Fisherman's Bend
Double Fisherman’s Bend – what is this but a bunch of eyes with the ends passed through?

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Water Knot, Ring Bend

Water Knot, Ring Bend – what – 2 eyes in the same space!

Wrap-3, Pull-2

Wrap-3, Pull-2
Wrap-3, Pull-2 – a knot is used to make a loop.

Wrap-3, Pull-2, with a staging knot – overhand-on-a-bight

Wrap-3, Pull-2, with a staging knot - overhand-on-a-bight
Wrap-3, Pull-2, with a staging knot – overhand-on-a-bight

Bowline

Bowline
Bowline – the answer to the question: Which knot is made of an eye and a bight?

Mechanical Advantage: 3_2_1

Three-to-One Mechanical Advantage – putting it all together.

Alpine Butterfly Knot

How to make a knot (loop) when the ends are far away.

When to use which knot?

Drawings by Matt Strauser

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