I believe knot-tying would be a great, life-long skill to have, especially being able to know which knots work best for different situations, like when the rope is thick and not very flexible or bendable.

I have lots of nylon rope and fishing line of various diameters, but don’t know where to begin and/or the best way to get started. My goal is to make this a long-term hobby and spend 1-2 hours per week improving my knot-tying knowledge, skill, and speed.

  • potate@lemmy.ca
    29·
    19 hours ago

    animatedknots.com - amazing step by step on how to properly tie things. The downside is that there are a lot of knots that are either hyper specific or more decorative than anything. I climb and sail - both are knot-heavy. 95%of the time I use one of five or six knots/hitches. I’d focus on the utilitarian knots personally. These are the knots that can accomplish real stuff - but if you get them wrong, could be fatal in the wrong circumstances.

    • Simple overhand - great for keeping a loose end from flopping around, connecting two ropes (need long tails or a secondary knot to keep it from moving), or joining webbing (known as a water knot in this context)
    • bowline - great for tying around things like if you want to anchor something to a tree
    • figure 8 - the go-to for tying yourself into a rope when climbing. I rarely use it anywhere else as it’s bulky and difficult to untie if loaded hard. A bowline can be used in its place for tying in, but the big advantage of the 8 is that it’s easy to visually check. Every few years a miss-tied bowline kills a climber.
    • clove hitch - this one is super underrated. It looks like you just wrapped a rope around something but it self tightens thanks to the way the strands lie over each other. It’s also super easy to adjust.
    • trucker hitch - it’s really just a couple of overhand knots, but this one is my default for lashing down loads because you can get the rope super tight. This is how I tie my canoe down to the roof of the car.
    • fisherman knots - killer for connecting ropes - or making non-load-bearing adjustable loops (bracelets, necklaces), or tidying up loose ends.

    Bonus knots *alpine butterfly - gives you a load bearing loop in the middle of a rope without requiring access to the ends. An overhand on a bight also gives a loop, but the overhand can move when loaded. Alpine butterfly stays where you put it, looks cool, and is fun and easy to tie. *prussic - this hitch can slide along a rope when unloaded and then locks when you apply weight. This let’s you move up or down a fixed line. A Texas Prussic involves one prussic attached to your harness and one free but with a foot loop. Hang on the harness prussic, slide the unloaded foot one up the rope. Stand up on the foot one (locks in place) and slide the unweighted harness loop up the rope, sit back down in your harness. Congrats, you just ascended 100mm up a rope. Rinse and repeat until you get to the top or reverse the process to go back down.

    • UnspecificGravity@piefed.socialEnglish
      5·
      18 hours ago

      The midshipmans hitch (or the inferior scouting version called a taut-line hitch) is technically less useful in almost all cases to the Truckers Hitch you mention, but it is pretty good for tying down tarps and shit for camping, so the point that the people you are with will think you are some kind of amazing outdoors genius for whipping it out like its no big deal.

      Also for camping: Tying a tight ridge-line using a truckers hitch across the top of your site and then using it to dangle lamps or to anchor tarps or hang clothes to dry or whatever using sliding prusik knots tends to impress as well. I like prusiks for this over the alpine butterfly because you can just tie the loops ahead of time and they are easy to slide around along the ridgeline.

    • pageflight@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      18 hours ago

      I mostly use:

      • square knot (generl tying a rope around something; learned it earlier than memory)
      • bowline hitch (loop at the end of a knot that won’t close up, like I need a handle or want to attach the end of a rope to something; learned it in boy scouts maybe)
      • taut line hitch (clothesline, tent to stake, something that I can tie loose and then cinch up for tension; learned it from a cousin while camping)

      Sounds like there are some other ones I could learn too! But as many folks have said, learn a coupe and use them frequently.

    • whimsy@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      18 hours ago

      Oooh thank you very much for the list. A friend showed me a knot once which allows one to transport stuff from end to the other, something akin to a rail like system. Maybe it was this alpine knot you mentioned. Very cool!