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.
https://dn710009.ca.archive.org/0/items/the-ultimate-encyclopedia-of-knots-and-ropework/The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework_text.pdf
Fill yer boots mate!
Top three that I use on a regular basis
Bowline (quick knot that’s strong, a common error is that when you try to pull it tight it falls apart, dont panic, you just went the wrong way through the loop you make in step 1)
Sheet bend (a bowline that’s gone horribly wrong somewhere (you’ll get that joke after a bit of practice)lmao but theknot can attach two completely different ropes together)
Figure 8 loop (like a bowline but no matter how much weight you put in the loop it’s still easy to undo)
Reef knot - the most common way to tie two ends together
Monkeys fist (impractical unless you’re throwing ropes into trees, but real fun to make out of old climbing rope if you’ve got pets.
If you want to save your hands and your floor from being shredded and filled with tiny shards of nylon fiber, pick up some of the stuff that has a core and a woven cover from a local hardware store or talk to an outdoor shop to see if theyve got any unusable lengths.
I picked up some Dyneema offcuts dirt cheap from a local sailing chandler’s on ebay (Dyneema’s the brand name for an often overpriced rope made from UHMWPE - “Ultra high molecular weight poly ethylene”, same material as plastic bags but DENSE and as a result hilariously strong- my 3mm thick rope can pull 1 ton before breaking, shit’s WILD)