ISSUE 60 SUMMER - JULY 1998ISSN 0959-2881

Guild SuppliesPrice List 1998

Item

Knot ChartsFull Set of 100 chartsIndividual charts

Rubber StampIGKT - Member, with logo(excludes stamp pad)

Guild Tye

Price

£10.00£0.20

£4.00

Long, dark blue polyester, with knot motif £8.95

Badges· all with Guild LogoBlazer Badge £1.00Enamel brooch £2.00Windscreen Sticker £1.00

Certificate of Membership £2.50parchment membership scrollsigned by the President and Hon Secfor mounting and hanging

Cheques payable to IGKT. or simply selld yoor cred~ card detailsPS Don1 forgello allow 'or Postage

Supplies Secretary:- Bruce Turley19 Windmill Avenue, Rubery, Birmingham B45 9SP

emall 1060n.1156@compuserve.com.Telephone: 01214534124

11KNOTTING MATTERSTHE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OFIN1rEEtNAl.l A"'.". ""-" ...... GUILD l'T''-JT:1 TO, Cl

ISSUE NO 60 SUMMER 1998

11

PRESIDENT Rohert ChisnaUHON VICE PRESIDENTS

.or Vaughan Jones FRS and Mr. Frank BardsPAST PRESIDENTS

Blandford .. Geot'frey Budworth ... Franklin .;JanStuart Grainger .. Glad Findley .. Des Pawson

SECRETARY:Nigel Harding

EDITORS:Lonnie& Margaret Boggs

Marlborough AvenueKIDLINGTON

OXford OX5Tel: 01865 378104

Knotting is reserved to theInternational Guild of Knot1995.publishedr''''''''r',u'ti toreprint Should sought from the authorand editor. All sources of quotationsprinted in Knotting areacknowledged.

KM61 07 AUG 1998KM62 22 NOV 1998KM63 07 FEB 1999KM64 07 JUNE 1999

Cover design produced by stuart Grainger

Ad'verl:isirlg r2ltes:M<~mtlers Non Members£49

Ta},pa,rers in the UK - we woulda covenanted subscription.

Guild Annual SU1JSC1"iption rates:

THE IGKT IS A UK REGISTERED CHARITY NO 802153

KNOTTING MATTERS 60CONTENTS

The Editor apologises for the delay in publishing this

Man!Ian Williams

Owen K NuttallMary CombsMike Storch

MikeCharles Warner and

GriendDaveWilliamsBernard Collins

Edward GreenF.C. BrownRichard HOlpkulSRichard HopkinsBruce TurlcyMariann Palmborg

Pile wayMembership Celi;ificatf~s, C()l11Inenlts

Chest BecketsHard Laid Twisted Cord?Edmund Fitzgerald Bell RopePyramid Loop"Joumal of Nodiology" cont1m(~nts

'NEW' journal, commentsBoat Show, report

New Supplies SecretaryKnotting on Mustique, CarribeanAGM Portsmouth Part 1, report

Pylon HitchesRope Beds (from 'Knot NEWS'The Improvised Ridgepole (from 'Knot NEWS',P.A.B.)

Portsmouth AGM, comments

Prehistory of Knots Part 2

47

3435

30

1820

232426

0506

2 KNOTIING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

3

nounce, that in the absence ofany volunteers, Bruce Turleyhas agreed to take on this role.Our thanks, and wholeheartedsupport go to Bruce, whoal...ready devotes much of timeto the Guild in helping Linda tokeep the accounts, and prepareall the various financial dataand indicators for the Council.

I won't say too much aboutAGM, as there no doubt willothers reporting on it, however,I did undertake to invite amembership debate on theits of a postal ballot for theelection of Council membersincluding the President. At pre­sent the recently amendedConstitution requires that onethird of the Council eachyear, and an election must takeplace at the AGM for the suc­cessors, who will in turn, beelected for a termThose retiring, can of courseoffer themselves for re...election.The current ballot arrangementshave been in place since 1982when we became a registeredcharity, although in previousyears a postal ballot had beenattempted, and had failed. Wedo have more members now,and it is possible that it time

NOTES FROM THESECRETARY'S

BLOTTER

They say that as one gets oldertime passes more qUickly, andcertainly it seems to have flownby late. I have now been in

new house a year, and whatwith decorating, building ashed, greenhouse and a conser...

going to work, andtempting the. Guildticking there has not beenmuch time for any sleep.

In order to check the evercre,aSUlj~ work load, Sylvia hasresi~led as Supplies Secretary

order to spend more timeme with the routine

administration. Not before timesome might as we were justbeginning to complaintsabout the time taken to despatchsome the orders. This is notreally our fault, as some of oursuppliers ate not particularlygood with delivery dates.eXllmlclle, we ordered a quantityof Guild brooches in February,

for the AGM, it is nowthe end of June, and still no signof them despite a can tothat they would arrive a fort...night However, an that

we are pleased to an...KNOTIING MATIERS -

that we should consider a returnthis method. If we did, the

logistics would need carefulconsideration, for example itwould be necessary to receivenominations at least threemonths before the AGM in or­der to print and issue ballot pa~

pers, ·aU of these difficulties canbe overcome, if there is a wilLThe principal argument in...volved the fact that there areonly about a hundred members

at the AGM, whereasthere are nearly a thousand eli~

gible to vote. We could have anopen discussion here in thepages of KM, or I could simplyask those who are in favour towrite tome, and I can assess thelikely response.

A final note on this subject isto report that the Council for thecurrent year comprises of Rob­ertChisnall, Bruce Turley, JeffWyatt and Ken Yalden who allretire in 1999, Linda Turley,Brian Field and Colin Grundy,who retire in 2000, myself,Charlie Smith and DavidWalker who retire in 2001.

Enough of that, on to some...thing a little more interesting. Ihave received a fascinatingvideo from Jack Grice in New

Zealand, showing his restoredsteam boat The Ernest Kemp,sailing around the beautiful vol­canic lake Puriri, in what canonly be described as the mostidyllic surroundings. TheErnest Kemp is quite a touristattraction, and the bodywork (isthis the right term for a boat)includes a great deal of woodpanelling. Following on fromthe millennium concept ofmembers making a knot boardfor 'exchangeable pUblic dis...play', Jack has offered spaceaboard the Ernest Kemp to pre~

sent a display of knotboards.Moving on, if you are theSec~

retary of a local branch, and ifyou have a newsletter, couldyou include Jeft Wyatt, The Li~

brarian, in your mailing list. Healso compiles the Diary ofEvents, so if you know some~

thing is happening, let himknow and he will include it.These need not be exclusivelyIGKT events, but anythingwhich the membership may beinterested in, such as theWOOden Boat ShoW, or a Pesti"val of the Sea.

If you are a UK taxpayer,would you like to considercovenanting your subscription.

4 KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

I was unsure

to100publisheddersley ISBNPrice UK£10.99.

Iuse and inten~stjlng

~-'p-,,~~~-- 'lo>~ ""~

,.,.;:j~CC--_.- \ ..'"';~~ S,u.ot. tor.<. ~l'

- 1o,,.M ""'loT0(. tu ""().".,,~

~'1"~ At< ...,." ~"'t f.v.l.U t~..~

from Owen K Nuttall - Hud­dersfield.

Reference the letter by me inKM59-30, for security in tyinga Dolly Knot use a DIVERSHITCH not a 'Drivers Hitch'(This should have raised a feweyebrows looking in books forthe missing hitch).

each other and the rope taut.The problem I have is that therope I use is slippery and the

knot slips. (This ropeis optimal and doesnot snap so I wouldlike to continue to useit.)

I use a surgeon's knotat present which is farfrom optimal. Unfor­tunately the non slipknots that I know suchas the vice-versa can­not be tied whilekeeping the rope taut.

I have drawn a diagram to illus­trate.

laid out, helpfulwell worth buy-

mmm

Choose knots for fishing, camping, sailing,climbu,.gand general or decomtive use

wi#l the ~clP.of quick~t'eference symbols•

Select the correct rope for the job by assessingthe different types ofrope and their fUnctions

and.breaking loads

6

HELP PLEASE: for Ian Wil­liams, Derby UK.

I have a problem concerningknots and I am writing in thehope that someone can give mesome advice. I string medita­tion beads for a Buddhist Cen­tre. This involves stringing 108beads and tying the rope to­gether at its ends to form a cir­cle with all the beads touching

KNOTIING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

book is wellarid certainlying.

Ed: Joy is a Venture Scout andwas asked to do this review asthe book is aimed at youngpeople just like her, so pleaseforgive us not using a knownexpert.

Ed: reference your com-ment Dwell, maybe KM notreally read by anyone, as noone has comm,ltnied.iflg.

from MikeWilson, Virginia,USAThe new bell lanyard for theUSS Constitution (KM58) is abeautiful piece of art. I extendmy sincere congratulations tolames Doyle for this achieve...ment. And, I learned somethingnew by studying the lanyard'sspecifications. I have alwaysbeen under the impression thatstrict maritime tradition statesthat the lead of a Turk's headknot goes around 3 times only;no more and no less. In anyevent, was the wooden doweltreated, in any way, before itwas encased? Incidentally, theT.W. Evans Cordage Companywas very gracious. It sent me aSaInple of cord

Reference Roger Miles'on repetitive knots.

had previously men­tioned in KM43-3Z aboutchanging Little Beauty to Cor-

Bend (tied the reverse way)but forgot to mention that thereverse tied Corrick Bendturned into a Crown Bend. IfRoger had been more observanthe would have noticed that myHarmonic Bend not the sameas the Double Eight Bend.Firstly the configuration of theknots are different (slightly Iadmit> by comparing the twoknots When tightening them, thedifferences become apparent.

Harry Asher's bend Open Ses­ame might only differ fromAshleys #1453 by a simple in­terchange, so does the SheetBend differ from a Reef Knot

a simple interchange asmany knots do. (seeartides onTrambles by DesmondManderviUe). The late Harry

was a knowledgeable in­knots and an informa...

7

Pieter van

PART What's

to

and

medium

pOsisible I11atc:ria[s are listedUnmodified media include some

vines and creepers, surface roots,grasses and rushes

bambooshoots, rattan and canes, and witheswhich can all be used as found,Modified media include the fibrescoconut husks Or around the seeds ofcotton and siIllilar plants, the fibres splitout from the inner bark of many treesand shrubs, from the latge leaves from

we propose to use

termsuseful applications. in the

of how knots arehow they are tied or how

EARLY KNOTTING MEDIA

It that knots Were use altmg time before there was anything thatwe would recognise as rope or cordage,

the materialsthat may have been used to tie theest andhave were

attempts tomateri.als to other things. We

found a need to adopt a number of termsnot often found in the knotting literatlllrc,

In next Part we will onstandard knots, the bin.;..

hitches, stopper knots, bendshave been developed

to a numberstr111cture within a knot and to

later.

8KNOTIING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

some plants such as most of the lilyfrom leaves, stalks or trunks

of many palms; long thin branches,roots, vines, bamboo

stemS etc. can be split to give morematerial. Some of these thiIlgs

can be made more suitable by pounding,with or without prior soaking in cold orhot water, aIlq then separating the fibrousfrom the non-fibrous fractions.

Often single •plant stems are tooweak or too short for the job and a suit-able medium must manufactured. Ifseveral stems are in parallel,stre:ng1:h is gained but is

Twisting the steIllS provides somestability aIld, if ends are overlapped,allows lengthening. The resulting strandsare longer and stronger than the originalStemS still quite flexible though

to unravelling. Braidingstems together also provides extra

but is not so applicable tolengthening the material. The extra corn­plication of using twisted strands tomake braid, or twisting them togetheragain to make laid rope, allows long,strong, tlexibIeand more stable cordage,and must have been fairly obvious earlyin the development of nlanufacturedmedia. A few short fragments of Z­twisted plant fibres were found in a 19thousand year old excavation Israel,and were thought to have been used infishiIlg nets. Two $-twisted strands Wereconlbined as Z-laid rope mm diam-

in Lascaux Cave, perhaps 17 thou­sand years old. While only the simplestof stone tools would have been

Ill2mufa(;tUl:e of cordage, a con-sid<eralble amount of co(}perati[on betW€:en

people, planning and discussion of pastand future activities would have beenessential. It is often held that this kind ofbehaviour could only be found after thedevelopment of full language.

Animal products were probably alsoused, either as found, as modified ormade up into rope etc. Hair, tendons andwhole or split intestines would all havebeen used. It is possible that tendonsmight have been used as long as 1.5million years ago: Some cut marks onfossilised bones been interpreted bysome as meaning that skin and tendonsrather than meat were wanted. There isalso suggestive evidence that hides mighthave been split into thongs as much as100 thousand years ago, in the 'cuttingboards' already mentioned, scored withparallel cuts.

The nature of the Inedia available forbinding, suspending 01' supporting objectsin the early days would have influencedthe first knots tied. Such properties asflexibility 01' brittleness, SUrface frictionand strength would all have influenccdthe selection of the first knots.

ENTANGLEMENTS AND KNOTS

We can now start speculating all how thecraft of knotting might have started, whatcould have suggested to the early homi­nids that the process we caU knottingcould be profitable.

Tropical forestS have many plantsthat wrap around other plants, sometimesstrangling them, splitting them, or pullingthem over. Spider webs can be andthick, to net and trap large insects;Some nesting birds and todents can shred

9MATTERS

toto select

renleITIOer theithlll to tie it, and to manipulate theknotting medium into the knot in theappropriate place.

It should be noted that by farmajority of knots tied would have beenput Into immediate use in some practicalapplication. Very feWkIlOts would havebeen tied just for their own sake or evenjust for teaching. Experimentation to find

the units of structure tightly packed on toone another so that would be mini-­mal slippage When loaded. The averagemodern person with little training orinterest in knotting is much more likelyto make a conglomerate on parcels or thelike than anything

Composite Knots aresequences two or more units

Because the whole thing isWe usefully talk an

algorithm or detailed method of makingthe knot. When using \lines or othel'

media socan't always put in a tU111 orstructure where you wantalgorithm would have to berather than the sequence ofof structure would be but not

exact ornumbeL Once a com-knot is found by someone to be

suitable fora given pUitpose,is 'Veq' likely_ try • tiemM wfrene~ need isnised, to teach tbe knotto others in the sameWe

asnormal tendellcymore units until

secure. It is unlikelywould repeated when

tbe need arose for a similar knot, evenby the same person: the procedure Wouldbe to simply add tucks, twists and hitch-­es until tneknot seemed secure. Themore efficient conglomerates would have

con1Pound knots:ConglOmerate Knots are ha!)haizaJi"d

or morestructure. units are often

the fibres in palms and bark to weaveinto their nests. Entanglements of vines,brambles or saplings can be found in

JUllt;IC1>, obstructing movement.things could inspire a

making of entanglements, am~

bushes, snares and traps, using at firstother media naturally presentbut eventually collecting

materials where they were common andto a At some

and places, and snares maymuch more animal food than

10KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

con-

knots. Apes display a lot more skills andactivities in laboratories than they do inthe wild, in part at least because they aregiven opportunities and incentives. In...deed, it has been suggested that through­out human evolution, populations werecapable of more sophisticatedculture than they used; what was lackingwas a perceived need to increase theiraffectiveness or a social acceptance ofnew and different behaviour. Tocomposite knots rather than conglomer'"ates requires incentives.

The first knots tied must havealways been conglomerates (except byaccident), and eVer since then somepeople seem to get on all rightonly or mainly conglomerates, neVer orrarely composites. But others, particular­ly those in some specialised oroccupations (including members of theIGKT), only andwould be almost to be foundtying What areadvantages over cOllg1orn,'"erates that would encourage. our remoteancestors to take a lot of time

must beknots

difficult toto

such as tetldons,have been a lot better. It seems to us thatuntil manuj[ac1:ur<~d nleO,W--S'DUll.

beenthe

novel knots seems more likely to havebeen· on the job or as part of a practicefor the final job rather than any system­atic study of knots isolated from theirapplication. Construction of dwellings,scaffoJ.ds, watercraft the like would

social cooperation andplanning and may well have been pos­sible only after the development of fulllanguage, even though the actual tying ofthe knots might not itself have requiredlanguage or cognitive abilities.Modern hunter....gatherers act in coopera­tive groups much more than isfound in our individualistic capitalist

so that it seems likely thatancient humans such as

binding spearheads or even makingnecklaces would also have been under-

1998

that tying, untyingretying--elothing, tenlpClral'y screens etc

a sails On a

'first aid' etc.We are inclined to think that one of

isin part, glorious historyin which it is possible to feel one issharing.

Non....working knots. All theabo\ieapply to working knots, but knots havebeen used for a very long time (howlong we have little idea) for other pur....poses, decorative, l';Ymbolic, nlystical 01'

magic, or as aids to measurement, com....putation, communication or memory, orjust for games. In most instances, thespecificity of composite knots wouldhave been useful or essential-'conglomerates, or even just any oldcomposite, would often simply not havedone the job.

Conclusions. Perhaps, sOme delibet...ate composites appeared quite eadyandwere tied by specialist practitioners. Ifso, cognitive abilities and

the

secure (non-slipping) than a conglomer­so that the tier may have confidence

it is a to

neater, often more dec:oral-than a conglomerate.

Untying. In general, a compositemuch to untie after loading

than a conglomerate. When we lookthe earliest knots we have evidence for­--binding knotl';, guys, lashings,hends--at first glance we might say thatit would be rare to need to untie them.But further thought might suggest thatwhen using the kinds of knotting nledia

in early days, it might often havebeen necessary to untie (and refie) theknots to adjust a fastening, after stretch­ing or shrinking of the medium. If themedium was used to help carry loads,occasional tying and untying would havevery probably been needed.

But there are some ""ti.,it,i",,,

a bit

KNOTTING MATTERS 60 1998

haveand

tiOTl of notuntil some 10 thousand

or later. All theseneeded knots

or

Our guess be thatc01nplDsille knots would

erectusover the whole of the old world

in the course of a few hUlldll'iedthousand years, We do not

can soor manufacture for amore. So we can

JULY 1998

twists in17.

~9 TWiSt 10 Wrap 11 Turn

Overhands and Shadows

The simplest knot containing theTwist unit of structure is the OverhandKnot. Its shadow is ShoW11 in 18, and theZ and S forms in 19, The otherfOIDls, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26 have thesame shadow but are obViously nOD"""knots. It is usual to omit such formsWhen interpreting the shadows of knots,though the possibility of their existencemust be bome in mind.

FolloWing Harry Ashet (A NewSystem of Knots, IGKT 1986, Vol U,pS), we distinguish the spine (the twistedpart of the knot), the belly (opposite the

knots are made up of onlyone unit of structure, Examples includethe Overhand Knot, the HalfHalf and (Ash....

knots containtwo or more units. of and wemust say what we mean by that

of cantWisted in one

the second

Shadows and Unksinlagine chain links over....

lapping each other in four different ways(1, 3, 4), then it can be seen that theirshadows (5, 6, 8) are identicaL Notethat overlaps 2 and 4 are really inter....links, that is, nseful, whereas 1 and 3 arejust one thing on top of the other, andnot usefuL

Comnlon of structure aretwists, where two knotting media are

together, wraps, where onemedium is wrapped round another with"""out otherwise and turns,

the wraps are made more rounded,core medium may be omitted,

THE STRUCTURE OF KNOTS

notice.

KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY t998

re

We recognise in 33 the directiontowards the standing end as the proxi­mal direction (p<l) (proximate meansnear, near the btllk of the medium, theunattached or unavailable end) and thedirection towards the 11lnning end as thedistal direction (d<l) (distant meansfar from the unavailable end).

If a reference point R is(34) along standing

for aor is to be tied, we can dis:tinguish

the proximal standing partsection of the standing part nearest

and the·distalsmndingpart (dsp), furthest from that end.

Belly

the central space of theOverhand Knot

@~29 Z-Pa.rallel 31 S-Parallel

-e.28 Centre-Pierced Overhand

~~Rpsp

35

later.

of the

when the medium is takenand brought back to

stand:ing part at the point R, wecan the proxi!nal standing

(psp) as the distal stallQl11gpart (dsp) immediately distal to R; thesubterminal standing part (stsp),ptoaching R from the distal

the terminal standing partbetween R and the end

are whenhow to tie a number ofllW;i1<;;:>, as we see

se

34

PARTS OF THE STANDING PART

30 Z-Transverse 32In many knots is an Overhand

Knot structure pierced (28) by anothermeJdiUlffi through the Theplereirlg may be either parallel, that isent<enrlg and leaving the central space onthe same side of the knot as the two

31) or transverse, andon opposite

TUCKS

fotI11atiOl:lS areof the mediun1 and puned

tight, we one tuck inthere are two tucks needed for

despite the fact that if the knot Weretightened completely it would collapse toa non~knQt,

Whenever one of a knottingmedium passes oVer Or undet another,there is a crossing POltlt. Thus there isone ctossing in 36, two 37, three38, 39 (43, 47, 51) and 40 (44, 48,four in 41 49, 53) and five in(46, 50, 54), These crossings atescriQedas alternate if there is a regularchange parif}' (the type of crossing:over or under) as you move along themedium, Thus there are alternate cross~

ings in 38; 43, 44, 45; 47, 48, 49;51, 52, There are non-alternatecrossings in the remainder, Note, how.....ever, that the alternation of patity ofcrossings as they are m<lde, rather than

the ronning end will not be nipped;however, there is now one tuck in 46, inthe final Half Hitch,

~~~so47 48 TuckS

When the same areround an object and drawn up tight, itcan be seen that there is now one tuck ineach of 47-49; 50 has two tucks, onebetween the object and subtermillalstanding patt, the secondtelminal and subterminal standingparts,

~·~.~54~Tucks

becauseTucks

There is no tuck inthere is no

It seems to be impossible to find a singledefinition of a tuck that meets an theusages modern We use thefolJlowinl! in these papers:

A tuck occurs when a ronningend isinserted into a space between a knottingmedium and another object (which maybe another medium or another part of thesame or something else), such

when the knot is tightened, the ter-minal standing is nipped betweenthe medium and the

.~.~t)).~39 40 Tucks 42

there are no tucks in thealtan~~enlen.ts of where the knot-

media are simply down in for-'without being inserted in any

space, These are an non-knots,

1k)~~j~:;43 44 Tucks 46

If fOr111atiolls with the same shadowsas are made, but with differentcrossings as shown in 43-46, and eitherusing two different media as if for abend, or to form a long loose loop (notdrawn up) as indicated by the brokenlines in 43-46, then it can be seen thatthere are still no tucks in 43~45 because

16KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

as they appear in the finished knot maybe different. Thus the crossings in 46,

are made alternately (over, under,over, under), though the crossings asseen in the finished knot are non-alter....nate. The other fortnations retain their

or crossingswhether they are regarded while beingmade or as Consequently, it isessential to state the crossings are

when they betWeenaltl~mate and non-alternate. If no quali­fication is made, it is to be understoodthat the order of in finishedknot is meant

Note the number of tucks need-to. make a knot depends not only on

the nature o.f the knot but also on thealgorithm used to. make it. Thus, the knotshown in needs only one tuck (<D) iftied starting from 0, but needs tWo tucks

Q) if tied starting from a,

Tucks and Algorithms

FURTHER READING

K R. Gibson and Ingold (eds) Tools,lAnguage and Cognition in HumanEvolution Cambridge UniversityPress, 1993.

R. Graves Australian J3ushcraft Child &Associates, Sydney, 1989

J. Kingdon Self-·made Man and hisUndoing, Simon & Schuster,London,1993.

J. Wiseman The SAS Survival HandbookCoilins, London, 1986.

V"rnT'TT1'.1n lVIA11E:RS 60 - JULY 1998

Woody's knots (1)

Reef Knot

I believe a knot is tied bestwhen its structure isunderstood, and nothy recitinga magic formula such as "leftover right and under, right overleft and under". So here is thestructural approach to the knotof that quotation.

A reef knot lies flat so thateach end points back towardsthe direction it came from. Areef knot is practised best bytying it round something" andin order to get it correct, youmust look at it from on top(which is the only waypossible if it is tied roundsomething), The knot is tiedwith the "ends", The part ofthe rope on the other side oftheknot, which takes no part in thetying" is known as the"standing part".

So start your reef knot with ahalfknot (which has the samestructure as the overhand orthumb knot). This half knotmaybe made by either left

18

over right or right over left.For the purpose ofthese notes,it does not matter which.

If you are tying it aroundsomething (these notes weremade while I tied it round mythigh!), notice that when youhave pulled the overhand knotup tight, the two ends fallnaturally at an angle to thestanding parts, just as I haveshown in the diagram.

Now take one of the ends (itdoes not matter which), andfold it gently so that it liesopposite the other end andbeside its oWn standing part.This folding is what knot tyerscall making a bight

KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

Next take the other end andbring it across both the flrstend's standing part and thenthe flrstend itself.

Tuck the second end throughthe bight you made with thefirst end.

Finally, tighten the knot bypulling both ends.

At this stage, let's try toexplain some terms.Obviously, a piece of cord,rope or string has two ends.The part of rope between theends is the bight. This isdifferent from a fold made inthe bight of the rope whicha bight! I have alreadydescribed how the parts of acord may be distinguished onthe basis ofhow they take partin the tying of the knot, asworking and standing parts.In the case ofa reefknot whicheffectively joins the two endsofthe same piece ofcord (afterit has been wrapped round aparcel), both ends are workingendsaI1d the bight is thestartdiI1gpart. When tying abend which is a knot which isused to .•• join two ropes, oneworking end is supplied byeach rope, whose standing partincludes the bight thestanding end.

T?"r.'FT'''U' MATTERS 60-

I FROM OUR POSTBAG Ifrom Bemard Collins-Somerset,UKFormer for Holding Portuguese

Sennit for Light PullsFor some time now Richard

Hopkins has been pushing me

scouts, guides and adults on themaking of light pulls.

It is very useful, as I can havea group of 8 or 10 at anyonetime and get them in a half cir­cle around me. It's much betterthan hanging the cord around achair leg etc, also it can be put

to let other knotters know of myFormer. I have been using it forquite a few years, to teach cubs,

aside onbreaks.

the former during

20KNOTIING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

The assembly is qUite a simpleone, the 2" x 1" xl" block isglued and screwed to the 3.' )( 2"x plank and the cup hookscrewed into it. The oppositeend has to be drilled. There arevarious ways to drill, but makesure the holes line up. The x1" xl" block is to be glued andscrewed. So do the drilling firstthen you will see where to putyour screws. That's an there isto it.

It can be laid on the table foryounger members of a group,also for guides when wearingskirts. Most people sit OIl chairswith the former held betweentheir knees. I usually use it tomake light pulls, but it has asmany uses as one wishes to ap~

ply,

from Alan KiIlg~Worcester, UKI wrote some years ago when I

thought that I had diSCOveredoldest member of IGKT,

unfortunately it proved only toa misprirtt in KM.

I think I am now onsurer ground, how about the

potential member?My grandaughter, Amber, was

born with her umbilical cordtied in an overhand knot(Ashley#514). We were toldby the midwife that although itwas unusual, it was not unkownfor this to ocCUr.

Could this explain the fanati~

cism of the members of IGKT?Were we all born with this dis~

tinctive anatomical feature, arewe all programmed from birthto tie knots?

lam watching my grandaugh­ter very carefully to see if sheexhibits unusual knotting abili­ties as she gets older and I willreport further should this occur,

On a different matter can Idraw· the attention of gardeningmembrs to the Espalier knot(Ashley #363). 1 was somewhatsceptical as to the efficiency ofthis knot on reading about it inAshley; but when I tried it, Iwas greatly impressed andfound it an easy and verytive way of tying roses, dema~

tis, vines and the like to bothwires and trellis.

from Bill Holt~Bucks, UKConcerning the Portsmouth

weekend, the venue in the olddocks was magic, the display

211998

was happlamng

it seems people found us by

somefrom astart back early the

I am sure this was true insome but not alL

I don't want this letter toread as a negative criticism, IJust wonder if the event was ad...vertised in the local paper ornot? I am sure you know aswen as I that an craft fairs areplaced in the paper weeksbefore the event and certainlyright up to the event takingplace. Is the problem that wehave a lack of funds for thiskind of advertising and, if so,why not at the next meeting

were

the craft was brilliant,was something

at

work

come SUJrldalY filOrnin,gout

makingtSl~;ge;st Turks Head

one for record. Thiswould have at...

tracted a lot people but no, therewas myself, Tony, Charlie and

one other guild member.worked on it until 5.30prn

and nobody came. We leftknot tH the Sunday morning

and repositioned it towards thedouble doors. Come Sun...

day I think it was then more. sothat I realised the lack of publicawareness of the event.

On a personal basis I wasn'taware the guild's sign out;,.side the dock gates, and I hadnever seen one inside either and

KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

EUREKA! My birthday ar­rived On the 12/3/98 and with ita present from my Mary myWife. .A pair of socks? No. Apullover? No. It was a copy ofGeoff Budworth's New KnotBook. Well written, gooddrawings, infonnative and veryinteresting. The knot that drewmy attention was the IcicleHitch. Devised by John Smithand shown on pages 70171 ofGeoff's book. Little did I knowthat 10 weeks later, I wouldneed to use this hitch for real,and not just once but twice.

One evening in mid May,while busy in the back garden,Mary called me and told me shehad found one of those treethings growing in the bushes.The tree thing turned out to be ayoung self setting sycamore thatwas growing in the middle of aPieris shrub. 'What are yougoing to do' asked Mary. Dig itout? 'I'll get a trowel'. 'NoMary, digging it out is not anoption, as I may damage theother shrub, light chainsand a and I canout that ancientbloke 'I wrapped some

around

have an open forum where wecan get some ideas together toraise cash for advertising futureevents.

r as I am trying to beconstructive. I think we haveenough brains in our guild tomake more of an impact nexttime we display our crafts. Ifeel a little sad those whowere displaying and teachinganybody who to knowhow, a shame though that theycould not sell their crafts.. Stillit was a good weekend, and itwas good to see everybodyagain.

One idea I had wa.s perhaps toeverybody to make one

knot, display them all on oneboard and raffle the board to

the public. Providing this iswell advertised it should makesome funds for us.

Accordingguards whole docks were

that weekend. I amsure Ken made every effort

ifpeople are notnothing can make

come out. More

VM{YFf'TMr: MA1T1:!:K::ioU - JULY 1998

sycamore and shackled it to acrowbar, a good heave and Inearly went flat on my back.Oh dear! (censored) The chainhad slipped off. I'll get a trowelsaid Mary. No said I, I will useplan B. A rolling hitch tiedwith some parachute cord and aChinese hitch round the croW­bar will do it. Heave! No good,the rolling hitch had simplystripped the bark off the tree,leaving the young sycamore in­tact. I was now left with asemi-ridged perpendicular ta­pered and very slippery objectto remove. Dig it out? No!Remember Robert the Bruceand the spider. I decided to trythe Icicle hitch that is in Geoffsbook. The Icicle hitch was dulytied with the parachute cord tothe sycamore then the Chinesehitch to the crowbar. A cau~

tious heave, it held, then a goodheave and, yes, out it cameroots and all. The Pieris shrubundamaged. Two days laterMary spotted another sycamorein the back garden, this time itwas eaSY. The Icicle hitchagain. Job done.

My congratulations to JohnSmith for devising that hitch

24

and good thinking by GeoffBudworth for choosing to put itin his new book. The Iciclehitch works and ifs great. Amust for all knot tyers and nowgardeners.

C8Jfrom John Smith-Surrey, OK

Here is an offering for Knot­ting Matters. Are you going toget an email address soon?Anything that makes it easierfor lazy people like me to sendstuff can only give you a greaterchoice of materiaLKnot another Pile Hitch!

Here's heresy. Throw out theMarlingspike Hitch. So it hasbeen used for hundreds of years.So there is nothing new aboutthe Pile Hitch. When did con­siderations like that stop a knottyer from trying anew tech­nique?

I confess that developing thisapplication of the Pile Hitchw.as just as a result of 100kiIlgfor yet more ways to use thissimple structure to replace,however tenuously, every knotin existence.

What I saw, however, was ause that was:Every bit as quick as an experi-

KNOTIING MATIERS 60 • JULY 1998

enced forming of the Marling­spike HitchStrong and secure while doing

workEntirely un-Jammable, no mat~

ter what the strainMuch kinder to the line, with nosharp curvesThis is how you make it. Catch

a bight with your thumb as inFigure 1. Make sure that thetwo parts are right wayround. In the illustration, thepart marked with an arrow is thepart you are going to haul, What

shown as the end of the linewill in reality lead to the yetunused line.

Sweep the spike under yourhand and the line, away frortIyour body. Use your forefingerto guide the two parts.

Twiddle the spike over andunder, to arrive at Figure 2.Now just touch the point of thespike to your thumb. At thisstage, the hitch is quite looseand a subtle forward and up~

ward movement of the spikewill allow the loose hitch toslide a little down the spike.

This hitch will draw up all byitself. Just pull and a perfect

Pile Hitch Will be on your spike.After you have hauled on yourline, the Pile Hitch will fall offyour spike and disappear.

2

25KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

From Mike WilsonAlexandria, VA

A couple of comments aboutKM56. A Guild Flag of burgee

a idea? Sign me upnow to receive one. If you needa supplier, I recommend Mr StuFried. He is the owner of Pres­tige Flag and Banner located at7052 Orangewood Ave, #2Garden Grove CA92641. Hisproducts are ex(~eHent

r was surprised membershipcertificates were not given outas a matter of course for joiningor renewing. Of course IGKTmust initiate issuing member­ship certificates - the cost ofwhich included in the amountof dues. Wallet sized versionsmight be made available forpurchase.

from Joe Barry, Brockton, USAI am a new member of IGKT

in the past year. I am doing re-u",,,,',,,u on chest bel::k€ltS.

teH anything hasbeen published in

1\..n.mtmg Malue.ts and whichsues so I can order COIJles.

KNOTTING 'A "." ........'"

I would also appreciate hear­ing from anyone with any inter­est or expertise in this area. Ican be contacted at: Joe Barry,

Kent Street, Brackton, MA02402, USA.Ed.' We have sent this letter On

Richard Phelan and MrsWyatt jor their help; can any­one else help Joe? We also re-

a similar fromRenholt Berg, USA re seabeckets, so have alsothis one on t60.Meantime,Mr Berg would alsolike help re KM56 page 47mention of Australian HardLaid Twisted Cord, I beleivethis is available from RayMCLaren PO Box Moonbi,NSW 2353. Mr. Berg has beenunable to find hard laid cord forabout five years and has beenusing medium laid. The hardlaid he has left is brown andrequires painting, It would benice Mr Berg as you say, youcould attend a General Meeting,the enthusiasm of members is

infectious. ED

JULY 1998

From Jerry Cronan, Michigan,USA

I tied this Bell Rope for theEdmund Fitzgerald, 7.10.95.The ball is a Diamond andCrown Knot, doubled. (Thereis one on display at the US Na­val Academy) The stem is cov­ered with coach whipping, and asix strand Turk's Head at eachend. A round brass thimble forwear and a bronze screw pinshackle to attach to the belldapper.

The Edmund Fitzgerald waslaunched in 1958. She wentdown in Lake Superior with all29 hands 10.11.75. The ship'sbell was raised from 530 feet ofwater, 4.7.95. I attached thebell rope 8.2.96.

The five point Star Knot isjust for comparison and to see

how it would look in 1f4 blacknylon line. A friend, Ken Ste­phens (master metal finisher)removed the paint type finishthat had been put on the bell atMichigan State University, andbrought the bell to the beautifulgleaming finish displayed todayin the Shipwrech Museum, al­most within bells toll of theships resting place, at WhitefishPoint Michigan. A point of in­terest; the c1apper on a ship'sbell swings on a rod that isathwartships, in the top of thebell. That permits the bell to berung ONLY in a fore and aftdirection. This prevents ringingas the ship rolls in a heavy sea.

~~~

From Edward Greene, NewYork USA

In KM58, Mr Wolfe ends hisexcellent article on the pyramidloop by asking if anyone hasseen this knot. As it turns out, Ihad never seen it before andliked it very much. Imagine mysurprise when at the WoodenBoat Show in Maryland, DanMachowski of the IGKT dem­onstrated the very same knot! Itwas made in an alternative

27KNOTIING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

manner which I will attempt todescribe as follows:1. FOrll1 bight 1 by crossing end

A over BForm bight 2 in end A andslip it UNDER end BBring endB UNDER bight 2and pass it UP through bight1Finally, pass end B DOWNthrough bight 2 alongside it"selfTighten and shape.

From Karl Bareuther, GermanyIn KM59 Charles Warner said

that he really cannot see that theDitty Bag has much relevanceto knotting, I am sure if anysailor from the old days coulclread this he woulcln' tagree atall. Beside the sea chest theditty bag has been the dailycompanion of the sailor. Hetook pride in making the verybest of a ditty bag and espe~

dally in tying an intricate lane.yard for it.

From ship to ship and duringhis whole life he saved hishighly valued tools in it and atsea it hung very close to him Ona hook on his bunk in thefocs'le. Not only some tradi~

tional mariners made ditty bagsin ther spare time but able bod­ied seamen who were familiarwith knotting, splicing andsewing did them.

The ditty bag didn't stand JUStfor knotting, that is right, but ishad much more relevance to themen at sea and the ropeworkthey were used to. It. stood forseamanship and sailor's pride,At the moment I am sailing inthe German Barkentine 'LilliMarleen' as a .watchkeeping

asnote.

presents 'serious' articles'.These could include Taxonomy,Test Results, Forensic reports,Structure analyses, Knot theory(mathematic.al) etc.

I would Charles'suggestion be taken up theinitial publication a periodi­cal (annual?), bulletin/journaldevoted to the techni­cal/scientific. aspects of knotsand ropework. theconcept of a magazine asgested by Charles couldconsidered later, one new public.cation will reqUire considerableplanning and or~~anisatioln.

In cOrJlsideritlg

and of course, I have onemy ditty bags (probably

made by an old sheUback) withme. Where would I keep

highly valued tools. mysay thank you to Louiswho told us so much

the history of the dittybag inKM58.Ed: the

KNO'ITfNG 60-

k8Jk8JAnd on.the same subjectFrom Richard Hopkins, Bristol,UK

What fOllows is my commentor reply to the articles in KM59about the .direction of futureIGRT publications.

Discussion in KM and theAGM covered the way aheadfor the Guild. There seems tobe a move among those withi?flated egos and limited pa.;tlence to create an elite branchof self styled 'experts' with newpublications of a 'high profes~

sional standard'. This I believeto be a mistake as far as theGuild concerned because itwould destroy the relaxed butserious and enthusiastic ap­proach which works so well atpresent.

It would also be difficult tofulful the aims of the Guild asan educational charity if the selfappointed 'elite' are restrictingor diverting the flow of infor­mation to those that they con-

worthy, or to those whoan additional sub­a 'technical' maga­professional, expert

or acadet1l1ic, thus implying that

the rest of us could not under­stand what was being published.

I am reminded of the expres~

sion:-The product of science isKnowledgeThe product of scientists isreputationReputations are notoriouslyfragile.

Furthermore, a divisionamong the membership wouldremOve access to the vast poolof knowledge held by the rankand file members.. It alwaysuseful to attend Guild meetingsbecause you can invariably finda member with specialised ex­pertise that he or she is happy toshare with anyone that shows aninterest. The elite, to their loss,would be cutting themselves offfrom this wide ranging data.;base, and assistance from thoseWho can initiate, through per­sonal contacts, research amongnon-members,

We must not forget that thereare many people who havemade Cl living from knottingwho have no interest in joiningthe Guild but are happy toadvice if asked in the ,,"~"'r>'

fashion by interested members.

JULY 1998

As examples of this, I knewsomeone, now retired, who usedto get, amongst other knottingwork, regUlar timed contracts tomake 350,000 grommets asammunition box. handles. Idon't know how fast he had towork, but another acquaintanceused to produce 50+ eye splicesan hour. Neither of these menwished to join the Guild, butwere undoubtedly professionalknotters whose income de~

pendedsolely on their digitaldexterity and knotting abilityand had a fund of anecdotes andinformation to impart.

If some members have such ahigh opinion of themselves andtheir abilities, why don't theyform their own Society. Theproduct of their deliberationscould then be offered to theknotting world as and whenthey think we are capable ofassimilating it. This would ofcourse require a lot of organisa~

tion and probably some expensebut would save the rest of theGuild membership haVing tosUbsidiSe a piggy-back 'elite'.However, as so many membersare in regular correspondence,why not continue to exchange

acad~ic . views by post, andthen publish, or submit for pub­lication to KM when ideas havebeen sorted out.

We are an educational charity,not an academic institution, andour magazine (or newsletter)reflects this by filling its pageswith knotting news. The publi­cations of most academic bod...ies, from architects tozoolo~

gists, rely for much of theirfunding on commercialadver~

tising, So that the relevant tech...nical information is sometimeshard to find, We do not havethis problem with KnottingMatters.

As a final thought, and with..out a copy to hand, lam notsure if the Constitution of theGuild caters for funds beingused to diversify in this faShionon the publication front. As acharity we cannot afford tobreak any constitutional rules.Perhaps I misunderstood thegist of the articles ill KM58 &59 and these wonderful newpUblications would be indudedin the Current subscription to allmembers. This would pre'"sumably satisfy the constitution,but since we are getting the ar~

31KNOTTING MATTERS 60 • JULY 1998

ticles anyway in KM, I do notsee any benefit to the generalmembership,

It has not been my intention tooffend anyone during thiscommentary, although I believethat some of my statements may

construed, The commentspart are based upon conver~

satjofls with many Guild mem-bers and I have tightened(and cleaned) some thethoughts to me.

were the only com:..on proposal, even the

AGM Were totally unimpressed.Can we presume apathy or are

all still thinking aboutanyfnore comments on

such a huge proposal would beappreciated, Or do we take thelack of interest asa nO and theidea dies a death. What do themembership want?

also from Richard Hopkins..Recently Ken Yalden and I

attended the Classic Boat Showat Bucklers Hatd in Hampshire.We were sited alongside

Knots and thestall to flooed, with

water ankles. fold inchannelled

all the rain that weekendstraight throllgh our stand. Itwas a wet weekend.

An exhibitor on a neighbour­ing stand, UK ATLANTICCHALLENGE, watched ourefforts to attract competitors forthe Six Knot Challenge, and theinstruction we gave to passersby of all ages and Hecame and asked uS to instructsome of his people April1999 at Fishguard, Pembroke~

shire,The UK ATLANTIC CHAL­

LENGE is the UK part of aninternational maritime organi~

sation with 8 member nations,Canada, Denmark, Ftance, Ire~

land, Mexico, Russia, USA andthe UK. Each year a team of 20young people is selected,trained and compete in contestevents which include sailingand towing a traditional gig,navigation and seamanship.Included in the training are ba:..sic knots, bowline, reefknot,sheetbend, clove hitch, sheep­shank, round turn and two halfhitches, sack knot and perhapsone Or two others. Instructionin knots is often as anev€~nif1m activity two hours or

so, to help relax after a day ofrowing.

The requeSt was to the Guildto see if anyone could attend forone of these evenings, possiblyon Tuesday, early in April1999 to instruct and talk aboutknots they need to learn.

As we have several Guildmembers in Pembrokeshire Ithough that it would be a greatopportunity for them to partici­pate, especially since Pem~

brokeshire is so far ftom mostGuild activities. It might eVenhelp to start a small branch. Socan anyone help in Pembroke~

shire, if you start now, you havetime to get organised by Aprilnext year.

The Challenge is, like us, aneducational charity, so cannotprovide fees, but will covertravel costs and can provedovernight accommodation withone of its volunteers.Anyone able to help pleasecontact:Jane Kett on 01559 363201 orwrite to her atUK Atlantice Challenge .Mari­time Training Trust, Y Bwthyn,High Street, LlandysuI, Cardi­ganshite, SA44 4DN

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KNOTTING MATIERS 60 - JULY 1998

From Mariann Palmborg, Be­quia, St Vincent & Grenadines

Coming home from my firstIGKT meeting in Liverpool Ifelt small. On the other handpeople had shown me the widthof the knotting art, and all ofthe possibilities we have.

A couple of weeks after ar­riving home I got an interest­ing job, to decorate the bam­boo room in Mandalay House,Mustique. The house used tobelong to David Bowie, butfor the past two years has be­longed to Felix Denny.Mustique is the neighbouringisland I can see from my ve­randa. It is where the rich andfamous have houses includingPrincess Margaret.

I had a lovely week knot­ting day and night. I cov­ered about 75 feet of polesand used approximately 1.5miles of rope! The em­ployer and I were verypleased with the result.

The season has startedback here on Bequia so I amback at the harbour sellingmy stuff from my 1958Landrover. One of the firstdays a lady from England

34

showed up and told me she is amember of IGKT, I was so ex­cited I forgot to ask her, hername. That's the right attitudefolks, come and visit me on mywonderful paradise island - Be-

quia in the Carribean.Ed: Oh Marriann, if only.

KNOTTING MATTERS 60 - JULY 1998

Coming in the big doubledoors, members were given aname badge and asked to signthe visitors book.

by Lonnie Boggs

"Are you doing anything thisweekend, Lonnie?"

"Oh yes, I'm off to Ports­mouth Historic Docks for anAGM of the Guild."

"Oh, your ANORAKS club!"Well, in fact, yes, and proudly

so too. The AGM weekends arealways interesting and verybusy. I have the best job of all Ithink. I show up on the day,walk around the stalls and dis­plays and talk to people aboutwhat they are doing. The stallholders get nailed to the floortending their stalls and the or­ganisers get continually side­tracked getting water or cups ormilk for the coffee etc. Boat­house No. 6 was a huge space,wide and tall, to be in! It wasbuilt to work on the great mastsof the tall ships of yesterday. Asthe public came in at the gatethey were given a handout tell­ing them about the Guild andwhere we were on a map.

It's always good to see so manypeople I haven't seen for at leastsix months. I spend moremoney than I should buyingrope, books and tools from theGuild Traders. Behind this tableis the raffle books and SteveJudkins signing copies of hisbook and asking only for dona­tions to the RNLI.This little book, KNOTS ANDSPLICES by Steve Judkins andTim Davison, (64 pages, 11 1

/ 2

X 17 cm), from FemhurstBooks (High Street, Arundel,West Sussex , BN18 9AJ)packed with 201 beautiful andeasy to follow illustrations andtext, deals with modem rope in

KNOTTING MATTERS 58 - JANUARY 1998 35

island. Alex MCardle of theHampshire Guild of Weav­ers/ Spinners and Dyers wasusing a portable weavingmachine with 4 shafts thatcarries 8 Heddles and eachHeddle carries a thread. Thepattern is determined bywhich Heddles are moved upor down. Alex just kepttalking as she sat weavingaway.

Next to her was ElizabethHapp, using a travellingspinning wheel. She showedme how easily it folds right

up into a 'briefcase' with ahandle. Elizabeth was spinningup some Jacob fleece into yamand people could have a go,great.

NEW BOOK

KNOTS

ANDSPLICES

36

a clear and concise way. Thechapters cover the ten knotseveryone should know, otheruseful knots, splices and whip­pings.

It was good to meet and talkto Steve, an interest­ing man to listen to.He gave us a Mem­bers Profile to themeeting and for KM.

One of the best partsabout coming toGuild meetings arethe demonstrationsand explanations bypeople doing the workI'd like to be able todo if I was ship-wrecked on a desert Europa Dawson speaking to Alex MCardle

KNOTIING MATIERS 58 - JANUARY 1998

Elisabeth Happ and her wheelDave Williams had a display

of Woody's Knots. Dave alsogave me three years worth ofWoody's Knot for KM. Youcan see the first one in this is­sue.

Derek Chipperfield had agood display of knot boardscovering a whole table.

Bob Stroud's bell pulls, lightpulls and knotwork was im­pressive.

John Smith, of the LondonBranch, was doing a very enter­taining demonstration of the

Icicle Hitch and GeorgeAldrige's Versitackle. Witha meter long chrome platedpole, he asks you to tie a nonslip knot for this cub that hasjust moved into his cubcamp tent and wants to hanga bag from the tent pole?"Oh yea." says 1. "I can dothis, gi'me some rope!""Enough to hang yourself

. ?"SIr.

" What? What did you say?""Oh nothing sir, you wereabout to....???"Well, I should have known Iwas going to learn some­thing from the slick way hejust encouraged me into

making a FOOL of myself.Margaret said, "You don't needany help to do that dear." Shesays that so sweetly that I'm notsure if she is yanking my chainor trying to pet me!

John shows me a hands-onway of tying the Icicle Hitch."Just a pile hitch with a few ex­tra internal turns." He says.

Well, it seemed simpleenough when he was showingme how, but it's not so easy sit­ting here trying to remember!

John attaches the cord to theother end of the pole via a versi-

KNOTTING MATTERS 58 - JANUARY 1998 37

one can remember why I wrote. that in my notes I would appre­ciate being reminded.

Mr. T. Weeks, from Dorsetdisplays his knot boards anddemonstrates how to use thatstiff water pipe lagging foamtubes to make turksheads. Hejust pushes pins into the foameach time he reaches the end ofa twist around the tube and hasto turn back down the tube forthe next twist. When he gets tothe point where he needs to startgoing under as well as over, asyou do when making turk­sheads, the tube is stiff enoughto hold the cord secure. What agood, cheep idea, a 'round'static knot board!!

38

tackle and pulls it tight, verytight, 'play-a-tune-on-it' tight."Pull the versitackle down (i.e.away from the load) to tighten itand pull the end up (i.e. towardsthe load) to release the self­locking pulley." John explainsas he demonstrates.

On John's back is a list ofFLYING knots! OOPS, theregoes another flying pig.

"No, really. Remind me of thelist and I'll show you." He says.So with the ends in each handhe throws, twirls, swings orrolls a Flying Anglers Loop(looks like a perfection loop tome John?), a flying TugboatBowline, a Half Figure Eight, a3/4 Figure Eight, a Flying PileHitch, a Self forming SnugHitch. By the way,if you ever meetJohn, ask him toshow you hisFLYING BOW­LINE, it's a win­ner!!

I have a note inmy book at thispoint that says"Brian Toss,'Riggers Appren­tice' STROP­CYCLE'. If any­

Mr. T. Weeks and display of pipe-insulator formers.KNOTTING MATTERS 58 - JANUARY 1998

Ken Yalden called the rabbleto order for the business meet­ing and introduces Frank Harristo welcome everyone. Frankthanks Ken and his helpers forall there hard work and com­ments on the tremendous openspaces we have for themeeting and displays. Ken 'has organised knot tyingdisplays and demonstrationsaround the Historic dockYard and the members serv­icing them will be wearing ~

smocks and are known as the'Smockmen' , even the la­dies. The light blue smocksare worn by Council mem­bers while the 'WorkerBees' are in dark blue willbe demonstrating to thepublic in other buildings to'Sing for our supper' here onthe Historic Dock Yard. Ionly managed to see RichardHopkins in Boathouse No. 7doing the Six Knot Chal­lenge.

Nigel Harding gives the Sec­retaries Report, speaking foronly 7 minutes{!} and sits down.The Guild now has over 900members and a new members

list has gone to the printers.(Full report included later.)

Linda Turley gave the Treas­urers Report. All 'Deed-of­Covenant' members are urgedto complete the form and returnto her.

Richard Hopkins with Six Knot Challenge andStuart Grangers Crown on display

Nigel then proposed a changeto the constitution that wouldalter the terms of office of theCouncil members. Councilmembers would be elected for a

KNOTIING MATIERS 58 - JANUARY 1998 39

three year term and only one­third of the Council would bere-elected each year. This wouldcut down having to vote onevery member every year,making it simpler and quicker.This would also improve conti­nuity of the Council overall.Candidates should be noted to

the Secretary in writing at least14 days before an AGM meet..ing. This is to make it less hec;.tic when a name has to be handwritten on every ballot minutesbefore a vote is taken. MauriceSmith asked if this might causea problem if not enough peoplecame forward? Ken Yalden an­swered that in these days oftelephones people can be calledand asked. Glad Findley says itsa brilliant idea, lets get on withit. DenisMurphy asks if apostal vote of all .memberscouldn't be used. Every mem­ber should have the opportunityto vote on the business of theGuild not just those that cometo the meeting. Nigel thinksthere is never a good responseto postal votes but this is a dif­ferent subject to what we arevoting on here and perhaps thiscould be discussed in KM andbrought to the next meeting at

Gilwell in October? Someoneasked how this new Councilwould be divided up into thirds?The new members would drawa number out of a hat, 1, 2 or 3and that would be their term forthis council. The one year termswould be re-elected next yearand the two years terms wouldbe re-elected in two years. Theproposal was overwhelminglyapproved with only two againstand one abstention.

Ballots where distributed asthe candidates were asked tostand and be recognised. Theresults are the members below:

Linda Turley - TreasurerNigel Harding Secretary

Colln GrundyBrian Field

Charlie SmithBruce TurleyDavid Walker

Jeff WyattKen Yalden

During the counting twomembers came forward to giveprofiles of themselves.

The first was Don Bellamy. Alocal man, he first became in..terested in knots in Scouts andoften doodles with bits ofstring. He was given a copyGeoffrey Budworth's 'Knot

"'",,"'>""","'''' M "'. ,IT''''' " 58 - JANUARY 1998

Book' and joined the Guildfrom the address in the back ofthe book. He has also been en­couraged by Brian Field atMaIden. His main interest isvery general fancy turksheads.Don also does up old boats hereat the dockyard also as acommitted Christian he doesChurch work.

We stopped by Bemard's ta­ble and admired his wonderfulknotted frames including hisnewest one, a Diana MemorialFrame. Then Paul Cook mod­elled Stuart's Rope Crown forthis photo.

Paul Cook wearing Stuart Graingerscrown, from which he then designed

the large one.

Bernard Cutbush and Capt.Bill Sparks with some ofBernard's many knottedframes, including the DianaMemorial Frame.

KNOTTING MATTERS 58 - JANUARY 1998 41

Derek Chiperfield'sdisplay of Fenders \and rope KnotBoards was theheavier end of theknot tying profes­sion. Some of thosebigger fenders didweigh a bunch.

Bob Srtoudand hisdisplay ofBell Ropesand Turk­sheads.

Later I got thisphoto of Derek (left)demonstrating toBen Selfe the an­swer to the questionof "How do L ....?"Sometimes the bestway to answer thequestion is to "Showme."

42

Here Geoffrey Budworth is busy talking to one of the public that didfind us and enjoyed what we had to see and do. Geoffrey is h{lppyamongst his books and gorgious wall hangings.

Ken Higgs is heredemontraighting howto do Braiding on aDisc or PerovianPlating or JapaneesBraiding dependingmwho you learned itfrom.

Ron Long andhis display ofknot boardsand many dif­ferent typesand styles ofboat fenders. 7

Fred Watkinson showing Margaret Boggs his "Chip-in-a-Bottle"and therest of his interesting and unusual work. Now that's my knid of humor.

44 KNOTTING MATTERS 58 - JANUARY 1998

TWO PYLQN HITCHESby OwenK Nuttall

Here are four hitches, two Py..Ion hitches and two hitchesbased on the Figure of Eight.

first Pylon hitch is easy toand secure if weight is kept

on the standing part. After figpull On the standing part to

pun the top loop down. Whentop loop is pUlled down, se"'"

cure by seesawing the standingpart. (Allow for intial slippage)

The Tucked Pylon hitch is se­cured the same way as the firstPylon hitch. When the Tucked

Pylon hitch is secured the hitchwill hold even without weighton the standing part.

The second two hitches bothformed With dOUbling the Fig"'"ure of Eight. Fig 3 has startingends On opposing sides and Fig4 has ends on the same side.After doubling both of theabove hitches the ends finish onthe same side irrespective ofwhich side is doubled first.After doubling each side of thefigure of eight to the centre ofthe knot over the top of theworking ends, slip the loop overa spar or pile. Both hitcheS

KNOTTING MATTERS 60- JULY 1998 45

need to be worked tight bypulling each end in turn.

Finally tighten by seesawingeach end to complete the fin­ished knot-Both hitches are theSame on the reverse side, eachshould hav~ four round turnslying parallel and each endcoming out of the loop in the

'two tums on each side'.Both of eight

could be situ, butwould be time consumingdifficult. Both the Figure

loops are very securewhen tightened. I find the four

useful for differentfun tying

from 'KnotAmericas Branch

from their March news-

by Marty "v.....,o

Now we have mattresses withnames like Serta, Sealy andKingsdown. There alsoBuckwheat form fitting pillows

help us a good nights

It wasn't likepeolPle used to sleep what­ever was had in their local

area like straw, feathers, Corn­husks or even dried seaweed.Mattresses were stuffed and laiddirectly onto a bed frame; onestyle of bed frame that seems tohave been in common use was arope or corded bed. The onedrawback was that they had atendancy to sag and would haveto be tightened up once or twicea year.

To make a rope bed youply build· a frame to the dimen...sions you need that has four endposts and four side Borea row holes through side..boards, spacing them nine toinches apart. They should bedirectly opposite other onthe paired sides. Now you areready to begin the actual fopeweaving. Begin at theboard and string the bedlengthwise as shown in thegram. When the last hole in theheadboard filled, bring therope around the bed post to thefirst hole in the side of the bedand begin the over and underweaving. When the last holefilled, loop the end of the ropearound the sideboard and tie itsecurely to one of the lacedropes.

tight enought to act as a ridge­pole.

There are several caUtions tobe considered. First, avoid anyloop knot that becomes difficultto untie after tension is applied.Even some of the loopknots will become a problemwhen wet with rain. Untyingthe knot is important so the ropecan be used for other things

it has served purpose.if you intend to break

camp, hike down a and re...use the rope for the samepose the next time you set up ashelter, you may not find twotrees the same distance apartthe preVioUS two. The loop willnow be in the wrong place andof little The ridge loop willuntie easily under almost anyconditions.

The cautiOn beingaware that too much tnesion canbe applied with thisWhen using thin .line for thepurpose, it is possible to exceedits limits and snap it. Likewise,even a fair-size line that is wornand weathered may be close toits breaking point. Just beaware of this applying tensionso there will be no surprises.

An<Jth(~r article from the P!:l,r"ib,I'

Branch of IGKT,their April newsletter.

The Improvised Ridgepoleby Mike Storch

At times it is nelceS$at'Va rope between two trees in or...

to set up a tarp Or ponchoshelter. All too often this

rope loses tension and sags,this need not be. The an~

lies in a simple loop knottied toward the centre of therope. The trick is to put theloop .. in before the rope reachesthe second tree. By goingaround the second tree and thenthrough the loop before apply...ing tnesion, leverage can begained. The rope can be made

I remember sleeping on a bedOne of the back rooms at my

grandmother's house. It hadholes driIledalong the side~

boards but I thought wassome kind of decoration. Therewasn't any rope on it because ithad been modified for a set of

springs. So if you see a bedwith holds along the

sideboards an antique shop ormuseum, there a chanceat one time a bed.

KNOTIING MATIERS 60- JULY 1998 47

The drawback to thismethod that the two halfhitches will be difficult to- undo.

Another good place to use twohalf hitches? Sure! a great

to fasten the beginning ofthe rope around the first tree.

to fric:tion,applied

f'oi-",,,rI approachesfinish: If is en()uJ1~h

rope to go back around the sec'"and tree, do so, and put two halfhitches in close the This

the preferred method astornaintain while

putting in the two half hitchesin at the ridge loop, as "h"''''''rithe sketch.

a

andtree the effects,and all will be wen.

To ridge loop, aoverhand knot in the

before the sec­Pull a 'bight' through

the crossed part of the knot, as

the bight pulledthriou~~h and the loop formed

as you want pulltwo ends of the rope

snug, (Also known asan. Artillery Loop or a Manhar~

ness Knot which was usedmainly for utility as a means

48 KNOTTING MATTERS 60- JULY 1998

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