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The Essential Knots

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Which are the Essential Knots:

Boating: The Boating Knots are listed roughly in their order of importance, at least in our opinion. Which ones are vital? We would love it if every person we took sailing knew how to tie a mooring line using a round turn and two half hitches. They often don't! Certainly many successful and safe sailors know little about the knots further down the list (with the regrettable exception of the clove hitch which still sees far too much use).

Climbing: Similarly with the Climbing knots. For beginners it would be a start if a student knew at least the figure eight and its derivatives. However, serious climbers would add the munter/mule, the double overhand stopper, the double fisherman's, the alpine butterfly, the Prusik, and the Klemheist.

In both the Boating and the Climbing sections, the first ten knots would seem to be worth learning: they serve different functions; none of them should jam; and none should be too awkward to untie - at least when the load is off.

Other sections: The Fishing knots are just listed in alphabetical order. The knots selected for the Scouting Section were determined after consulting Scouting authorities in the US and the UK. The selection in the Search and Rescue section was suggested by Greg Felton. The remaining sections were prompted by frequent requests about tying neck-ties and shoelaces, tying loads on trailers, hanging children's swings, making decorative knots, and enquiries about how to coil ropes and whip their ends.




Disclaimer: Any activity that involves ropes is potentially hazardous. Lives may be at risk - possibly your own. Considerable attention and effort have been made to ensure that these descriptions are accurate. However, many critical factors cannot be controlled, including: the choice of materials; the age, size, and condition of ropes; and the accuracy with which these descriptions have been followed. No responsibility is accepted for incidents arising from the use of this material.

Copyright © 2010 Grog LLC
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Updated Jun 30, 2010

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