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Tie the Knot(s)

By Mary Reed

An overhand knot. Photos by Mary Reed.

Tie the Knot(s) photo gallery

An overhand knot. Photos by Mary Reed.Sheet bend. 1. Push the tail of one rope through a bight in the other rope. You can use just one rope if you're making a loop. 2. Thread the tail around the bight. 3. Cross the tail under the standing part of itself. 4. Cinch down the sheet bend.Clove hitch. 1. Make a loop in the rope (cross under standing part). 2. Make a second loop (cross over). 3-4. Push the two loops together - tail end(s) inside the loops. 5. Slide the loops over whatever you are hitching to. 6. Cinch it down.Figure 8. Make a bight (1) in the rope; it looks like a head. Wrap the rope around the head as if you're going to hang it (2). Then, poke it in the face (3). Pull the tail (4), flatten the knot into a figure 8 (5). >>>>To make a loop, particularly to attach to a harness, return the tail to the figure 8 (6) and carefully follow the figure 8 from the opposite direction (7). This will take some practice. Cinch down the figure 8 follow through (8).Bowline. 1. Loop the rope over itself, roughly in the shape of a lowercase e. 2. Take the tail and, from underneath, push the tail through the loop. 3. Cross the tail under the standing section of rope. >>>>4. Bring the tail around to the top and push through the original loop, from above to under. 5. Grab the tail and the standing part of the rope. 6. Cinch it down. 7. The bowline.

Tying your shoes will get you out the door, but once you’re in the great outdoors, it’s best to have a handful of knots in your repertoire for both safety and practicality. “You’ve got to use the right knot in the right situation,” advises Stephen Harvey, an Eagle Scout and volunteer for the Tecumseh District of Boy Scouts of America, Troop 12 in southern Ohio. Stephen once tied 205 knots from memory, but you don’t need to know that many. Here are a few of the most useful ones:

Sheet bend. “It’s the most useful knot there is,” Stephen contends. He counts it as his favorite all-around knot because you can use it for pretty much anything, including making a loop or connecting two ropes (a bend knot by definition connects two ropes). It’s good for connecting ropes of different thickness, but not so to the extreme. Stephen eschews a more popular bend knot, the square knot (“counted as a great knot, but it’s not a great knot”), which can come undone with ropes of different thickness.

Clove hitch. As the name suggests, this is a knot for hitching. For example, you need to attach your boat to something on shore or you want to wrap your tent fly guy lines around your tent stakes. Once again, Stephen eschews the clove hitch in some situations – where there is or will be tension on the rope (“The clove hitch only works if the knot is constantly under pressure”), so once you’ve mastered the clove hitch, move on to two half hitches and the taut line hitch.

Figure 8. The figure 8 is a classic stopper knot – that is, it will stop something from sliding off the end of a rope, for example, a rappeller. Even if you’re not a rappeller or a rock climber, it’s still necessary to know this one for the climbing gym and it’s good to use as an all-around stopper.

Bowline. The bowline is a classic looping knot; you use it to make a loop out of a section of rope. It’s great for hanging bear bags, looping a rope around a tree or throwing a rescue line to someone.

With all knots, Stephen notes, it’s important to tie them correctly and to cinch them correctly. So practice these knots at home – and if these knots aren’t in your repertoire, put them there today. “The best way to practice is to do it repeatedly, and you know you can do the knot if you can tie it behind your back – or blindfolded,” Stephen says, “If you can tie it without looking, you know you know the knot.”

Useful Knot Terminology

Bight. Pronounced bite, the rope folded back on itself, like the first step in a sheet bend.
Standing part. This is the inactive part of the rope that essentially stays put.
Running or working end. The end of the rope. This is the part you actively use to tie the knot.
Overhand knot. “The knot everyone knows as the first knot they tie, but rarely know the name for,” Stephen says. Also the knot in the large photo at the top of this page.

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