Simple but powerful knot

[Jadit]

I'm sure many have already figured this one but mentioning anyway. This is roughly the idea of the knot:

knot.jpg (14.54 KiB) Viewed 6674 times

I found myself using that very regularly because it really is the strongest and simplest i know. It is very very hard to open with 1 hand, and if something is put through the loop, it won't open or loose at all.

You can make these knots in the middle of a rope to quickly make loops for attachments such as locks or handcuffs, or poits for another rope to pass through. Maybe one for your crotch rope behind the back...

You can use it to connect 2 ropes together and never fear for it to open up accidentally.

Lastly it is used with making segments to for example body harnesses.

[lj]

an alternative is the figure-8 knot. No idea how to do a drawing of how to make it, but no doubt there is a diagram somewhere on the interweb!

The advantage is that you can easily loosen it, however tight you got it, by bending it back and forth across the centre-line. You need two hands to do it, so it satisfies the OPs criterion for being difficult to untie with one hand. It is often used as the means to secure a climber to a rope, so it is seriously secure - I've used it many times for that purpose.

[ponylady]

an alternative is the figure-8 knot. No idea how to do a drawing of how to make it, but no doubt there is a diagram somewhere on the interweb!

there sure is. which of the 4 versions do you mean ?

[alpha1xstacy]

EDIT, this is incorrect, it is an overhand on a bight, not a figure of 8 on a bight, thanks Audrey_CD. Original left for shame. The knot shown in the first post is called the "Figure 8 On A Bight". It is the same as the Figure 8 knot, but done on a loop of rope, rather than a single strand. It is a very strong and fast knot to tie, but it is not easy to untie, especially after taking pressure.

The Bowline is also an easy knot for making a loop in a rope, it's also very strong and easy to tie, but it is easier to untie than the Figure 8 on a Bight. Learn that and you'll have an easier time.

The Figure 8 on a Bight, and another knot, the Alpine Butterfly, are two knots with a special purpose: they can be tied in the *middle* of a piece of rope, without access to either end of the rope. They both create a loop; the former creates a loop with two strands that run back the same direction; the latter creates a loop perpendicular to the two strands.

[lj]

I said I wasn't an expert !

to PonyLady, it is the knot in the second photo that I meant, I use it as a rope-end to snap into a carabiner for my safety rope, or as a fixed belay, in the climbing context. I'd also put a half-knot or another that I don't know the name of, to keep the spare "tail" out of the way and as extra security.

[Audrey_CD]

Ahem.... LJ is correct. The knot in the first post is an overhand knot on a bight. The second photo in the third post is a figure of eight on a bight.

In a climbing context, the figure of eight should tied directly into the harness if used on a safety rope not via a carabiner . Tie a loose figure of eight with a lot of spare rope in the working end. Take that around the harness and then feed it along parallel to the rope in the original knot.

[url]http://www.animatedknots.com/fig8follow/index.php[/url]

Audrey

[alpha1xstacy]

Ack... Audrey_CD is correct, and I was not. The first post is an overhand on a bight, not a figure of 8 on a bight.

[lj]

Ahem.... LJ is correct. In a climbing context, the figure of eight should tied directly into the harness if used on a safety rope not via a carabiner . Audrey

I'll have to argue that point. It may or may not be relevant, but I am a qualified Instructor for climbing and abseiling. We use a screw-gate carabiner as the link between the figure-8 and the harness. When dealing with a group of students already harnessed and checked by an assistant, it would be time-consuming and of course add another potential element of risk in making a knot for every student. You would NOT use a standard carabiner, for the obvious reason that they could be forced open accidentally. Pehaps that is what Audrey means?

PS bear in mind that when I started rock-climbing, the "harness" was about 25 feet of hemp rope, wrapped very tightly round the waist and knotted, with a carabiner clipped on for the climbing rope - we didn't have "safety" ropes, just the one, and abseiling was done by looping the rope around a convenient rock and leaping off the edge using the "classic" abseil, no figure-8 "descendeur or other mechanical assistance, just the rope!

[Audrey_CD]

I won't counter your argument lj, that's just what I was taught. However as I was fifteen, it could have been that the instructor didn't like the idea of kids idly twiddling the screw gate on the carabiner. I always used to tie my safety line on that way from there on.