I am not nearly as versed as I should be in various knots. I am working on a design for a survival pack cloth. Likely to be a large size. Waterproof and uses only limited by your imagination. The amount of usable information you might find on such a thing is somewhat limited. One of the key elements that I think could be of huge benefit AND could be shown in text and/or pictures is knots. There are so many variations. So, what are the important ones? If I go listing 25 knots, its going to take up a huge amount of space. That might be okay if there is really need for 25. What are the "need to know" and would be "handy to know" lists. Bends - Joining two ropes together Figure 8 Bend - Strong and secure joining of ropes the same size. Not Easy to remove Double Sheet Bend - joining two ropes of different size securely Carrick Bend/Pretzel Knot - Joining two heavy lines Water knot - Temporarily secure joining of two rope ends the same size Zepplin Bend - possibly cut all the rest for this one? best all around Lashing - Structure Building Ties Double Constrictor - Basically permanent lashing around round objects Diagonal - Clove Hitch, wrap, clove hitch Square - Clove Hitch, wrap, clove hitch Tripod - Clove Hitch, wrap, clove hitch Shear - Clove Hitch, wrap, clove hitch Hitches - finishing attachment and mechanical advantage Trucker's Hitch - Mechanical advantage on lines that need to be very tight Timber Hitch - tying temporarily to a round object to create a hold Barrel hitch - Keeping an open container upright for hoisting Buntline Hitch - Small and secure end attachment knot. does not create a roomy loop Tight Line Hitch - Load bearing lines with the ability to adjust them periodically Loops Figure 8 Follow Through - Secure End of rope loop Bowline - fixed loop at the end of a line - prob cut this for the figure 8 Prusik Friction hitch - creating a loop on a line with a new line Marlin Spike - temporarily in line toggle Alpine Butterfly - Adding an in line loop good for unidirectional loading Fishing Clinch Knot - line to lure attachment Blood Knot - broken fine line mending Stoppers Simple Double Overhand, Figure 8, Slip knot, Ashley Some redundancies here I suppose. Stuff that should be removed? added?
The latest issue of Backwoodsman magizine has an article by Creek Stewart on this very subject, I'll post up his recommendations for knots to know later.
Creek's 6 favorite survival knots Half hitch Double half hitch Arbor knot Figure eight Trucker hitch Timber hitch
The half hitch is like the clove hitch to me. Its only valuable as a component of other knots so it seems wasteful to show it. An arbor knot is simply made up of two overhand knots where the second overhand knot is just used as a stopper. I'm surprised he didn't pick anything more complete in those spots.
Palomar knot for fishing super easy to tie can be done in the dark with absolutely no light and has near 100% knot strength
Albright knot for joining smaller diameter line to larger diameter line. Tough to tie at first but once you've done it a half dozen times its easy. Its good for when you don't have a barrel swivel handy for a shock leader
Two must haves are the Bowline and Clove Hitch. The figure 8 loop seems like a good one, but the best knots don't just hold, they also can be untied without having to work too hard at it. The Bowline holds well while still being fairly easy to untie even after being under great strain. Must have the Bowline.
True enough. When I wrote the list I was thinking between the figure 8 pass through and the buntline hitch, the bowline seemed redundant. The figure 8 pass through isn't as susceptible to jamming as the figure 8 loop, but it's also more difficult/time consuming to tie than the bowline. The buntline is smaller, easy to tie and more reliable than the bowline, but but can jam up as it gets tighter under Stress. The bowline stays. It's a different animal. The buntline hitch
I have used the bowline as a loop. The buntline looks useful, but not as a loop as it appears to tighten up when you put a strain on it. But then it isn't called a hitch for nothing.
I'm surprised a Sheet Bend is not on that list. Very useful for tying together two dissimilar size cords/ropes. I think a Munter Hitch is very important to know for lowering heavy loads. I also like the Scaffold knot for hard tying a rope to an attachment point since it doesn't flop around like a bight will.
Bowline (regular and on a bight) Clove hitch Butterfly Munter Hitch Water Knot Overhand (regular and follow through)
Tensionless Hitch Retains 100% of the ropes rated strength. BombProof rope anchor. http://www.animatedknots.com/tensionless/index.php
Just completed a whole bunch of testing between nylon and polyester ropes/cordage and their friction coefficients to aluminum, stainless and sandstone. Results are pretty interesting. The “tensionless” hitch is our preferred single rope anchor.
The tensionless hitch is based on the Capstan Equation. The size of the pole/tree/whatever you are wrapping around, nor the size of the cord matters in it's ability to hold. The only things that matter is the degree of contact in radians and the coefficient of friction between the materials.
My grandpa (Navy Veteran, WW2) was big on knots. If we had something tied up with a knot that couldn’t be untied easily, out came his pocket knife to cut the cordage.
it reduced the amount of gear i needed to carry for SRT. Simple quick wrap or three. Weave the rope thru the rappel rack, clip in an drop .
Depending on the coefficient of friction, here's your holding power (ratio to 1). In other words, if you have a coefficient of .50, then 4 complete wraps can hold around 287,000 pounds with only 1 pound of force. Of course you rope will break long before you reach this