Knots

When you tie your knots you will want to tie them as tight and neatly as possible.

Knots in General Knots are invaluable for various things, including tying your shoes. But which other ones should you know? Depending on your age level, these are the knots that you should be working on: Brownies: overhand knot, square knot, half hitch, clove hitch, sheet bend Juniors: overhand knot, square knot, half hitch, clove hitch, sheet bend, whipping the ends of a rope, and lashing Cadettes and Seniors: overhand knot, square knot, half hitch, clove hitch, sheet bend, bowline, fisherman’s hitch, sheepshank, whipping and lashing

Bowline 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). 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. 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 lop, and the rabbit is the running end of the rope.

Reef Knot (Square Knot) An excellent general-purpose knot for tying two pieces of string or twine together, the reef knot is possibly the most commonly used to 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 finished parcels or bindings. 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. Gripping one loose end, and pulling it back over the knot, in the opposite direction, thus straightening the rope, which is pulled, can easily undo the square knot. The other rope forms a Lark’s Head Knot, and slips off the tugged rope.

The overhand knot This is not really a knot but half a knot. An easy way to remember this is to say the first half of the square knot: right over left and under. Those are the actions that your hands take.

The Square Knot This knot is also called the Reef knot. It is used for tying knots, which can be easily untied, especially first aid bandages. It is not meant to carry a lot of weight so it is generally used as a temporarily knot. If the ends are knot pull through all the on the last half of the knot, then the knot is called a slippery square knot or a shoestring tie.

The steps for tying a square knot: right over left and under; left over right and under.

After you tie the square knot, notice that it lays flat: the ends are right on top f the standing part. (If the ends and the standing parts make the shape of an X or a +, you’ve tied a granny knot instead. Go back and reverse what you did on the last half of the knot.) Take the end and standing part that is together in each hand and you can slide the knot apart and tighten it. This is what makes the square knot easy to untie.

Half Hitch This is the knot to use when you are putting up your tent. It is similar to an overhand knot but it slips. The slip is what makes it good for tents; you can tighten or loosen it easily.

To tie a half hitch, leave the standing part hanging over your shoulder. Pass the working end thought a ring or around a post; wrap the end around the standing part and through the loop. To continue tying half hitches, repeat the instructions going in the same direction. You can leave a bow on the last one if you like.

Clove Hitch The clove hitch is one of the most widely used and most useful knots. It is used to start any lashing, to tie a clothesline up or to secure a boat to a dock. Wrap the working end around a post twice, slip the end under the cross over and pull tight.

Clove hitch poem: ‘Around the post cross over behind The post duck under a head, legs arms What do you get – A ballet Dancer’s Pirouette’

Sheet Bend The sheet bend is used to join two ropes together (usually they are not the same size or thickness’).

There is a story too help you to remember how to tie it. How the Sheet Bend was invented – a likely story! One night a snake came up the plughole. It went down behind the bath, Wriggled underneath, and came up the other side. It ate the soap, and then tucked its head under its body and went to sleep. In came the man for his bath. He saw the snake. He ran outside, grabbed the snakes tail (by the way this snake was so long his take was poking out still the drainpipe outside!) and he pulled! And of so of course the snake couldn’t move ‘cause he was tied in a sheet bend.

Try it out. Use the sheet bend to tie ropes together. If one rope is thicker it should form the ‘bath’ and the thin rope should be the ‘snake’.

Sheepshank The sheepshank is used to shorten a piece of rope with out cutting it. You are bending the rope and tying a half hitch or a clove hitch around the bends to keep them from coming loose.

Bowline The bowline forms a loop, which will not slip or jam. It is used in lifesaving and first aid, sailing and climbing. TO tie this knot, loop the standing part over a shoulder so that it comes down in your front like a tree trunk. Make a small overhand loop (this is the rabbit’s hole) but leave a long tail. Use the under (now called the rabbit) to come up and out of the rabbit’s hole, round around the tree and go back into the hole. Grab hold of the rabbit and the trail he make heading out of the hole in one hand and the tree in the other and pull the rope tight. There should be a loop at the bottom that won’t slip.

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