[HN Gopher] Learn How to Tie Knots
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Learn How to Tie Knots
Author : say_it_as_it_is
Score : 99 points
Date : 2021-03-15 14:27 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.animatedknots.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.animatedknots.com)
| heelix wrote:
| We do regular trips up to the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) -
| an area between northern Minnesota and Canada. Fantastic camping
| where you paddle in and basically only get a fire pit and shitter
| - the rest is wilderness.
|
| As is tradition, we always will get a bit of rain (or sun). We
| pack in a small collection of tarps and generally engage in
| building out some of the most half assed structures ever seen.
| Those who have done this a few times have a small collection of
| effective knots. Others end up with something touched by His
| Noodly Appendage. Always good fun to see a 20-30x20-30ish
| structure try to survive the winds/rain - more often badly.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| Disappointed it didn't include a category for the type of knots I
| was looking for.
| rektide wrote:
| > Disappointed it didn't include a category for the type of
| knots I was looking for.
|
| Disappointed you didn't share what it was you were looking for.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| I'm just being cheeky.
| nosianu wrote:
| Elvish knots as seen in The Lord of the Rings, which are
| secure but auto-open when the user needs them to...
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| They've got categories for Boating, Fishing, Climbing,
| Surgical, Arborist, Scouting, Horse & Farm, Decorative, and
| several other groups of knots.
|
| I would suggest starting out learning the basic bowline as the
| most generally useful knot, and go from there:
| https://www.animatedknots.com/bowline-knot
|
| What category of knots are you looking for? ...oh wait,
| nevermind, I just got it. Be aware that the bowline can slip
| loose when the load is repetitively applied and released.
| otabdeveloper4 wrote:
| Sewing knots are far more useful than any of those other
| categories and are conspicuously missing.
|
| I wonder why. Is it because the list only picks the meme
| "manly" types of knots?
| anonymouswacker wrote:
| Best way to learn to really tie is to tie up a person.
| aerovistae wrote:
| I've had this damn site bookmarked for longer than I can
| remember. At least 4 years, I think, and maybe as long as 9. Idk.
| I always tell myself "someday I'm going to sit down and learn
| knots from this site," but someday never seems to come.
|
| Maybe because in reality I have almost no use whatsoever for
| knot-tying, as cool as it is.
| narag wrote:
| _Maybe because in reality I have almost no use whatsoever for
| knot-tying, as cool as it is._
|
| A long time ago I learned "as de guia", let me see the
| translation... bowline. It's the only knot I've ever needed. I
| know there are a lot of specialized knots for different
| situations. But this one in particular is like a swiss army
| knife. Clothes lines, anything to lift, packaging...
|
| If I needed something more specific I'd be happy to learn more.
| carabiner wrote:
| Favorite and forget. I'm a climber and use a handful.
| unixhero wrote:
| Do you use any other knots than the 8 knot for climbing?
| Thrymr wrote:
| You will almost certainly want to know the butterfly knot
| and a number of hitches and bends:
| https://www.animatedknots.com/climbing-knots
| scarecrowbob wrote:
| Can't comment for parent, but I agree. As a climber I only
| know a couple of knots, and don't usually need anything
| outside this set, in order of utility:
|
| - figure 8 - clove hitch - klemheist - overhand bend -
| girth hitch - munter hitch - prussik - ring bend - double
| fishermans - bowline
| breatheoften wrote:
| This is a good selection of climbing knots.
|
| I went down a rabbit hole recently surveying the "current
| internet wisdom" regarding the use of the double bowline
| with fisherman as a tie in knot for the climber ...
|
| To recap briefly -- figure 8 follow through is the
| standard tie in knot that everyone is taught. It's easy
| to tie, easy to verify visually, and secure -- but it's
| hard to untie after being weighted by a fall.
|
| That last fact matters a lot when sport climbing when
| taking big falls a lot is expected. Hence the several
| different versions of the bowline ... which is also
| secure if tied properly, easier to tie wrong, harder to
| verify visually, but extremely easy to untie after
| weighting ... Unfortunately there's a bit of a
| controversy in the climbing world regarding "what people
| are likely to do wrong" and whether those kinds of risks
| should guide people towards not using the double bowline
| as a tie in ... there are also multiple variations of the
| bowline -- some of which actually are less secure ...
|
| Personally I've been using the double bowline with a
| fisherman finishing knot for years now when sport
| climbing -- but it's a bitch to say it ... -- but I think
| a worthy addition to your list (or at least a
| clarification that the regular bowline by itself is not
| really used for anything in climbing)
| unixhero wrote:
| That prussik might save your life, that's for sure:)
| heleninboodler wrote:
| I end up at this site about once a year trying to refresh my
| memory on a good knot for securing a load, but their
| categorization system makes that particularly hard to find.
| Once you do, their presentation is pretty good, but I find the
| site navigation very frustrating.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Betting that's the Trucker's Hitch[1] which is a knot (or
| more like a combination of knots, really) which everyone
| should know! I tend to use an Alpine Butterfly[2] for the
| loop, but that's partly because it's a personal fave.
|
| 1: https://www.animatedknots.com/truckers-hitch-knot 2:
| https://www.animatedknots.com/alpine-butterfly-loop-knot
| leephillips wrote:
| Seconded. The trucker's hitch is super useful, but most
| people have no idea that such a thing exists. Knots are
| good technology. Everyone should know a few, and this one
| is in the top four. But I agree with others here who've
| noticed that you need to practice frequently to keep from
| forgetting them.
| aidos wrote:
| I love this website. Having spent a bit of time on yachts I
| already had a reasonable grounding, but it's easy to forget
| knots you're not using. For a while I found the easiest way to
| get to sleep each night was to try to picture how to tie the
| tumble hitch and visualising where the forces were held.
|
| https://www.animatedknots.com/tumble-hitch-knot
| ashishuthama wrote:
| same here. Was excited to see "Knot of the Day", thought I
| could add that to my RSS reader and look at one each day..could
| not find a way to do that.
| smhinsey wrote:
| This is the key, as with many things it's hard to get momentum
| established without some external motivation. It was always
| interesting to me but I could never keep a knot in my head
| until I picked up fly fishing.
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| I've used it for a long time as well. I love learning new knots
| and it provides very through instructions on how to tie them.
| My problem is that, if I don't continually practice, I quickly
| forget. Fortunately, I have 4 or 5 goto knots that serve nearly
| every conceivable situation where a knot is required.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| Can you name them ?
| JshWright wrote:
| Not the parent comment, but you'll get a long way with a
| figure-8 (both on a working end and on a bight), a clove
| hitch, and an alpine butterfly. I'm sure others have a
| couple more favorites.
|
| (this is omitting a few "foundation" knots like the
| overhand)
| travisjungroth wrote:
| I've taught a few dozen ropes course leaders over the years.
| Knots fall out of people's minds surprisingly quickly. It
| isn't like riding a bike.
| nosianu wrote:
| If I were to venture a hypothesis, it is because riding a
| bike really requires "rewiring" inside the brain, as an
| all-body activity and involving a large amount of muscles
| and coordinating them. Which also is why it takes a while,
| unless you already trained to get the required balance
| control through some other means (the Asian martial arts
| fantasy movies come to mind, people running over easily
| rolling tree trunks floating in water - if you can do that
| you probably need less time to pick up riding a bicycle).
|
| Knots on the other hand probably mostly only use the
| existing wiring scheme, so unless you have really bad
| hand/finger coordination you don't need to change how the
| muscles (of only arm - slightly, hand, fingers) are
| activated and used.
|
| Purely intellectual knowledge is easily forgotten unless
| used, but activities that required certain neurons for
| proprioception and muscle control to find new connections
| remain much more easily - also takes a lot longer to gain.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Knots are easy to forget unless you actually understand
| the knot.
|
| For example, I can tie a bowline as well as most bowline-
| like knots (ex: sheet bend) without a recipe and even
| come up with variants on the fly, and I don't think I
| will ever forget that. This is, of course, after tying a
| lot of bowlines and forgetting recipes dozens of times.
|
| I think that's for your "riding a bike" analogy. Really
| understanding a knot takes time and effort, but allows
| you to remember and even improvise. Memorizing a recipe
| is faster, more efficient, but easier to forget.
| lemonberry wrote:
| I have almost zero use for knots, but use it as a kind of a
| meditative practice and as something to do when I'm watching tv
| or a movie. I think it's analogous to crocheting or knitting in
| that regard.
| repiret wrote:
| Well, crocheting and kitting are both tying knots in yarn.
| amenghra wrote:
| Ian's Shoelace Site https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ is a
| classic. Discussed a few times here, including
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16454796.
| vinw wrote:
| I started using that since seeing it here and it's great. Also
| just tried this Surgeon's shoelace bow [0] and it seems good
| for walking boots, will be testing it out!
|
| [0]: https://www.animatedknots.com/shoelace-bow-knot-surgeons
| dang wrote:
| If curious, past threads:
|
| _Animated Knots: Learn how to tie knots with step-by-step
| animation_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20074496 - June
| 2019 (65 comments)
|
| Also:
|
| _Andy 's Most Useful Knots_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1558169 - July 2010 (22
| comments)
|
| _The Most Useful Rope Knots for the Average Person_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=828539 - Sept 2009 (49
| comments)
|
| I've left out Ian's Shoelace Site since that's its own specialty.
| PureParadigm wrote:
| This being HN, does anyone have any knot suggestions for computer
| cables? For example, I have several cables that are too long and
| I tie them up with a twist-tie, but maybe there's a knot for
| that.
|
| Some features that a good computer cable knot would have:
|
| - No sharp bends (could damage cable internals)
|
| - Stable but able to untie easily by pulling (like shoelaces)
|
| - Can tie with one end still plugged in
| merlincorey wrote:
| You're looking for "Cable Lacing", a somewhat lost art in
| general that is still useful in large data center deployments
| as well as whatever you are trying to do, of course.
| t530 wrote:
| Maybe a Sheepshank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheepshank ?
| dmarlow wrote:
| For me, it's the lack of consistent practice in order to retain
| the knowledge. I rarely tie knots frequently enough to remember
| how to tie a few, let alone dozens of different kinds of knots.
| Maybe I need to do more mountain climbing, camping, boating!
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Same here. I retained enough knowledge from my Boy Scout days
| to know that there are different knots that are useful for
| different purposes, but aside from tying my shoelaces, a
| Windsor knot, and an occasional square knot I always have to go
| back to references.
| dfee wrote:
| Is there a guide to tying shoelaces? Figure it's easiest to teach
| my child with an animation.
| js2 wrote:
| I think Ian's Shoelace Site[1] is famous[2] and you're one of
| today's lucky 10,000[3]:
|
| 1. https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/
|
| 2. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ian%27s+shoelace&type=comment
|
| 3. https://xkcd.com/1053/
| cbsmith wrote:
| Yes:
| https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes
| mkslwsk wrote:
| There is also Knots3D with a good Android app.
| https://knots3d.com/
|
| As a climber what I see is that in general you learn your knots
| and practice them until you can tie them blindfolded, sometimes
| single handed, sometimes with gloves on!.
|
| As a beginner you need probably two or three knots (fig. 8 for
| tie in, prussik for a rappel backup, double fisherman) As you
| progress you learn other knots for other purpose and some
| alternatives. (alpine butterfly, bowline, other friction hicthes,
| munter mule and so on) Then you stick with the ones you like most
| or are most versatile and you probably won't need no learn any
| new knot unless you start doing any new stuff (like start ice
| climbing if you never done that).
|
| So, those resource are good for visual learners but once you
| learn it and use it regularly you'll probably never forget.
| dylan604 wrote:
| If only it was practical to shove rope into one's pockets. The
| resulting knots are always fun to untie
| [deleted]
| rektide wrote:
| Spent a lot of time on this site this summer.
|
| Both good instructions & good materials to understand each knot,
| some background on it & it's uses. The "knots by type"
| (categories) are a good split of general function. Still, it was
| a bit difficult to find what the really good knots for any given
| application were, to know what to pick.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| Yes, I have run across this before. And I'm not talking about
| the Ashley Book of Knots, either. I think there's room for a
| sensible book that is like a flowchart.
|
| 1) What are you tying to what else? 2) Do you have a free end
| or not? 3) Is this a synthetic rope? Is there a size
| difference? And other factors that might determine which knot
| you want to use.
|
| I got a couple of books on knots and this sort of thing wasn't
| coherently addressed, which I thought was a shame.
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