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"For example, a granny knot is much easier to undo, as its configuration of twists creates weaker forces within the knot. For centuries, sailors have observed s
by elektromekatron 11y ago
"For example, a granny knot is much easier to undo, as its configuration of twists creates weaker forces within the knot. For centuries, sailors have observed such distinctions, choosing certain knots over others to secure vessels — largely by intuition and tradition."
This author does not know knots. Granny knots are weaker, but are generally harder to undo than a reef as they pinch themselves up, whereas a reef can be undone by holding both lines securely with their tails and just pushing, and it is the combination of how easy they are to undo after being under strain and the fact they lie flat, that makes the reef generally the preferred knot to the granny.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoAgreed. In fact Ashley (definitive work: the Ashley book of Knots) requires a knot to be easy (or at least possible) to un-do.
- clort 11y agoWell, you get my upvote just for mentioning that massive tome .. but do they not recognise knots which just cannot be undone? I can't check as my copy is in storage but I'm thinking specifically of the fishermans blood knot, or knots like a monkeys fist which aren't designed to be undone though perhaps they are considered something else? I have a turks head on a pole on my boat which I made some years ago, I'm pretty sure it could be undone, but not easily as I think the end is tucked in to hide it.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoI seem to remember an essay in there, about how to be in the book it has to be easy to recognize and easy to untie. Your observations give lie to that; but most knots are not of the massive sort, so maybe he was speaking about knots in the main. I'll check tonight (book not in storage).
- clort 11y agoI remember watching a documentary on TV some time about 20 years ago, about a tribe in the Siberian wilderness still living their traditional life and who had a knot that they used to tie up their animals with. They could tie it and untie it with heavy fur mittens on as it was $ridiculous cold there in the winter, and it did not jam or slip. Unfortunately, the documentary was about the social constructs of the tribe and how they interacted with the communist era government (who supported them, to the extent that they provided helicopters at vast expense to bring the furs they produced out of the remote wilderness) and not about the knot itself though I remember playing the section back and forth a few times trying to work it out. Never found it in the book either.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoMaybe the 'Marine hitch'?
- blacksmith_tb 11y agoYes, the constrictor knot comes to mind, for example. I am surprised there isn't any discussion of the weakening of the line caused by the knot - in fact, the 10 knots requiring 1,000 times the force makes me wonder why that doesn't cause the line to fail (though I suppose the initial amount needed is very small). I am also a little nonplussed by their dismissal of sailors' knowledge as mere 'tradition', which seems like saying that the builders of Notre Dame didn't really understand their engineering, but were just part of a tradition of building...
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoGlad you mentioned the 'constrictor' - one of two knots invented in the 1900s (all others of course documented in the 1800s and before) and by Ashley himself (as I'm sure you already knew). What is the other knot?