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Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Qld (Inc) |
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Get Knotted Part I |
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Part 1 - Knots - The BasicsTo start with, I suggest that you get yourself a piece of dowel approximately 500mm long and two pieces of rope, one about one metre long and the other about three meters long so that you can work out how to tie these knots and then practice. Before we start, you need to understand some of the basic terms that I’m going to be using. A Loop - This sounds straight forward enough. It is simply a bend in the rope that crosses itself.A Bight - This is less complex. It is simply a bend in the rope that does not cross itself.A Half-Hitch - This is simply a loop around something, like a pole, or a tie-down rail or a rope. They are usually used in multiples or in conjunction with other knots.
OK, Lets start with some basic knots: Overhand KnotProbably the first knots we learnt to tie were in our shoelaces. The first part of this is the granny knot or overhand knot. Start with a loop and then pass the end of the rope around the rope and back through the loop. Figure-EightThe Figure-Eight is only marginally harder to tie than the overhand knot, but it easier to undo because the turns in the rope are not as tight. Start with a loop and pass the end around the rope below where the loop crosses over and then pass the end back through the loop (from the same side as the free-end crosses the initial loop). The difference in tying this knot from an overhand knot is that instead of going around the rope above the loop, you go around the rope below the loop. I have found that describing how to tie a knot is much more difficult than actually doing it. Here’s a picture that will help the words make some sense:
In Part II I’ll look at the two most common knots used to secure a load on a trailer or roof rack – the clove-hitch and the truckies-knot. Greg Conlon |
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