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Ian's Shoelace Site

fieggen.com

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Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#41

Post by aidos »

sbierwagen wrote: post #2

Ah! This page was on the front page of somethingawful a good ten years ago. At the time I had shoes with particularly slippery laces, so I started using Ian's Secure Knot, and never looked back: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

Oh interesting! I've used the Ian knot for about 10 years now and hadn't even considered looking for anything else.

Quite a lot of sailing has given me a good appreciation of knots. It's amazing how (when you're doing a lot of rope work) you can get a real instinctive sense of the pressures on a knot and how to create the best knot for the situation. In ocean racing there are places you have unusual needs (like tethering the running backstays to the cars while you adjust the angles).

Believe it or (k)not, there a branch of mathematical topology dedicated to knot theory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#42

Post by pbhjpbhj »

corysama wrote: post #9

I'll vouch for the "Ian Knot". Throughout my life I had to double-tie the classic shoelace knot or else it would come loose a some point during the day. Then I tried the Ian Knot. It is significantly faster and easier. And, now I have some laced shoes that I just slip on because they stay tied for weeks instead of hours. http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

I tried the Ian Knot, found it fiddly to tie. I use a standard knot by force of habit or when I can't stand having unties, or the laces are long, I use a Surgeons Knot.

The Surgeons Knot is just a standard shoelace tie with 2 slight modifications - when you overlap the 2 sides of the lace you tuck the lace under twice. This, like a Timber Hitch, creates much more contact area and thus much more friction.

I have (not from that site) switched the way I tie a standard knot as I was doing grannies instead of reef-knots. This seems to have prevented unwanted unties.

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#43

Post by bsznjyewgd »

sbierwagen wrote: post #2

Ah! This page was on the front page of somethingawful a good ten years ago. At the time I had shoes with particularly slippery laces, so I started using Ian's Secure Knot, and never looked back: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

I learned about, and kind of use a variant of, the secure knot from this site starting from a number of years ago. I find that I'm lazy and it's easier for me to loop one bunny ear twice over (asymmetrically) rather than both ears once each (symmetrically). Old habits means that I'm used to using my left hand to loop the ear and then my right hand to pull it taut.

Maybe I'll try to do it symmetrically more often.

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#44

Post by d5ve »

corysama wrote: post #9

I'll vouch for the "Ian Knot". Throughout my life I had to double-tie the classic shoelace knot or else it would come loose a some point during the day. Then I tried the Ian Knot. It is significantly faster and easier. And, now I have some laced shoes that I just slip on because they stay tied for weeks instead of hours. http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

I used the Ian Knot for a while, but then went back to one of the standard methods. The difficulty I had with the Ian Knot was when I wanted the laces to be tight. With the standard methods I was able to pull the laces tight, then keep the Starting Knot tight also as I tied the final loops. With the Ian Knot, it was hard to keep the Starting Knot tight whilst I tied the loops.

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#48

Post by pbhjpbhj »

henrikschroder wrote: post #32
dri_ft wrote: post #14

One thing that's worth noting about the classic bow shoelace knot is that no-one seems to know how to do them. The right way to do it is with the bow knot reflected relative to the base knot below it, like a reef knot, rather than oriented the same way, like a granny knot. I never knew this until a few years ago and since I've started doing it, I've stopped needing to double-knot my laces - they're secure enough for…

I was taught how to tie my shoelaces by my granny, and sure enough, I was doing granny knots, and I was frustrated with some shoes, because the shoelaces would just come undone, and you'd have to double-tie the knot or something. Until, at the ripe old age of 32, when a friend tipped me about Ian's shoelace site, and I finally learned how to tie my shoelaces properly. It's a great example of not knowing what you don'…

Same here, noted how someone tried their leaves as it looked peculiar. Realised I was effectively tying grannies, changed the direction of my second loop; far more secure.

To me it's fascinating as it's something taught at a very early age, something used nearly every day, yet something a lot people seem to do "wrong" (inefficiently) by habit or ignorance.

But now my kids know and can suffer less unties, so that's good.

Similar thing for me, the "use a food packet as a bowl" trick (eg for crisps/potatoe chips).

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#49

Post by [deleted] »

bbrian wrote: post #35
1337biz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... what other alternative ways to live your life did you discover? Love that idea!

I'm working towards owning no shoes with laces. Between my Dubarry boat/deck shoes and a pair of laceless Converse, my other shoes are eschewed!

[deleted]

Re: Ian's Shoelace Site

#50

Post by pmoriarty »

I like the Turquoise Turtle Shoelace Knot.[1]

It's almost exactly like the "standard" shoelace knot I've used most of my life, but with just an extra tuck, and it virtually never unintentionally gets untied. It's fast, easy to put on and easy to take off. Highly recommended.

I also like Perry's Perpetual Knot.[2][3][4][5][6]

The idea behind it is that you only ever tie it once, and then only ever have to loosen and tighten it rather than re-tie it.

On one pair of shoes, I had Perry's Perpetual Knot adjusted so that I never even had to loosen or tighten it either. From then on I'd just slip my shoes on and off without needing to adjust it or re-tie it.

[1] - http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/turquoiseturtleknot.htm

[2] - http://web.archive.org/web/20051203081429/http://web.ukonlin...

[3] - https://s24.postimg.org/ng1fp6lj9/perrys_perpetual_knot.png

[4] - https://i.imgsafe.org/bee20e4850.png

[5] - http://i.imgur.com/mzyXuet.png

[6] - I'm uploading the instruction image to a bunch of image hosting sites, so hopefully the instructions will be available "perpetually", since archive.org doesn't even seem to have saved them.

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