| Sheet Bend (Flag Bend, Common Bend) |
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- The Sheetbend is commonly used to tie two ropes of unequal thickness together. The thicker rope of the two is used to form a bight, and the thinner rope is passed up through the bight, around the back of the bight, and then tucked under itself.
- The knot should be tied with both ends coming off the same side of the bend, as illustrated here. However it can easily be accidentally tied with the ends coming off opposite sides of the bend, when it is known as the Left Handed Sheet Bend. The Left Handed Sheet Bend is to be avoided as it is less secure.
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| Tip. If the ropes are of very unequal thickness, or placed under a lot of tension, use a Double Sheetbend. |
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- The Sheepshank is a shortening knot, which enables a rope to be shortened non-destructively.
- The knot is only really secure under tension, it will fall apart when slack. (See tip below.)
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- Tip. Use up to five half hitches each end of the Sheepshank to make the knot more secure, and for fine tuning the shortening.
- Tip. Never cut ropes to shorten them! Always use a shortening knot such as the Sheepshank, or coil the excess.
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| Round turn and two half hitches |
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- Used to secure a rope to a pole, or to start or finish a lashing. Pass the running end of the rope over the pole twice. Then pass the running end over the standing part of rope, and tuck it back up and under itself, forming a half hitch. Repeat this for a second half hitch.
- This knot has a redeeming feature – it rarely jams!
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- Tip. Superior to a Clove Hitch for starting and finishing a lashing as the half hitches prevent this knot from unrolling, as they have the effect of locking the knot. The Clove Hitch looks neater (!) but it has a tendancy to unroll, and can be difficult to tie tightly when tying off.
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- An excellent general purpose knot for tying two pieces of string or twine together, the reef knot is possibly the most commonly used knot for the job, and is easy to learn. However, it cannot be overly stressed that the Reef knot is not a long term or secure knot, and it should only be used to finish parcels or bindings. In other cases, use a more secure method of bending two ropes together, such as a Sheetbend, a Double Sheetbend, or a Fisherman’s Knot.
- Unfortunately, the Reef knot can easily change into a slipping Lark’s Head (see below), so it should never be used where life or limb are at risk.
- Holding one end of each rope in each hand, pass the left rope over the right, and tuck under. Then pass the same rope, now in the right hand, over the left rope, and tuck under.
- It is common to chant “Left over Right and Under, Right over Left and Under” when tying the knot. (This can also be performed as “Right over Left and Under, Left over Right and Under”.)
- The reef knot can easliy be undone by gripping one loose end, and pulling it back over the knot, in the opposite direction, thus straightening the rope which is pulled. The other rope forms a Lark’s Head knot, and slips off the tugged rope.
- The knot gets its name from its use on sailing ships, when the sails were “reefed” – rolled up and tied to the cross spar with a reef knot. To release the sail, the sailors would climb the rigging, and work their way along the cross spar, pulling the top end of the reef knot down. They only had to use one hand, holding on with the other. The weight of the sail would cause the reef knot to slip, and the sail would be released.
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- Tip. If you want to tie two ropes together of similar thickness then never use a Reef knot. Only use it with string and twine when tying parcels, whippings and bindings.
- Tip. Never use this knot to join ropes of two different thicknesses.
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| Fisherman’s knot (Angler’s knot, English knot, Englishman’s bend, Halibut knot, True Lover’s bend, Waterman’s knot) |
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- The Fisherman’s knot is used to tie two ropes of equal thickness together. It is used by fishermen to join fishing line, and is very effective with small diameter strings and twines.
- Tie a Thumb knot, in the running end of the first rope around the second rope. Then tie a thumb knot in the second rope, around the first rope. Note the Thumb knots are tied such they lie snugly against each other when the standing ends are pulled.
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| Tip: When tying knots in monofilament line, moisten the line before pulling the knot tight. This helps to stop the line heating up with friction, which weakens it. |
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- A commonly used knot to tie a loop in the end of a rope. It has the advantage of not jamming, compared to some other loop forming knots (for example when using an overhand knot on a large bight to form a loop).
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Form a small loop (the direction is important), and pass the free end of the knot up through the loop, around behind the standing part of the rope, and back down through the loop.
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A chant used by many to remember this knot is “The rabbit comes out of the hole, round the tree, and back down the hole again”, where the hole is the small loop, and the rabbit is the running end of the rope.
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In the same way that a Left Handed Sheet bend is a Sheet bend that has the running end of the rope coming out of the wrong side of the knot, a cowboy bowline is a bowline that also has the running end of the rope coming out of the wrong side of the knot. It suffers the same problems as the left handed sheet bend.
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- Tip. Don’t be afraid to use this knot to form a loop of any size in rope.
- Tip. To quickly identify if you have tied the Bowline normal or left handed, check to see that the running end exits the knot on the inside of the loop.
- Tip. For added security, finish the knot with a stop knot such as a Figure of Eight knot to remove any possibility of the Bowline slipping.
- Tip. If you use this knot in a man carrying situation – perhaps a rescue where a harness is unavailable – then you MUST use a stop knot as mentioned above.
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| Figure of Eight knot, Flemish knot, Savoy knot |
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- A useful “Stop” knot to temporarily bulk out the end of a rope or cord, the finished knot looks like its name. It is superior to using a Thumb Knot, because it does not jam so easily.
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| Tip: The Figure of Eight is useful to temporarily stop the ends of a rope fraying, before it is whipped. |
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- One of the most underated knots in Scouting and Guiding, the Rolling hitch is used to attach one rope to a second, in such a manner that the first rope can be easily slid along the second.
- The knot can be considered a Clove hitch with an additional turn.
- When tension is applied and the ropes form a straight line, the rolling hitch will lock onto the first rope. When the tension is released, the hitch can be loosened and slid along the first rope to a new location.
- The tension must be applied on the side of the knot with the extra turn.
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- Tip. Use this knot if you have a guy rope with no adjuster. Create a loop on the end of a second rope which is slipped over the peg. Use a rolling hitch to attach the second rope to the guyline. Alternatively, take the guyline around the peg and tie the Rolling hitch back onto the standing part of the guyline, above the peg, thus forming an adjustable loop. This is known as the Tautline Hitch in America.
- Tip. Use this knot when constructing camp gadgets such as a suspended table. A Rolling hitch in each suspension rope will allow easy adjustment and a level table!
- Tip. When adjustments are complete, lock the rolling hitch into place by using a stop knot such as a Figure of Eight in the first rope, below the Rolling hitch, to stop it slipping.
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As well as being used to start a diagonal lashing, a timber hitch can be used as a temporary knot when you need to drag, tow or lift a log or pole. (see second diagram)
timber hitch
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K Ramasamy's Blog for KVS Scouts 