The Ashley Book of Knots (1944)

"But Which Knot Is Really The Best Knot?

A true landlubber's question, but one that is inevitably raised. The correct answer should be the responsible—albeit boring—"It depends." Are you knotting together sheets for an open-air exit from a burning hotel? Or are you tying up your hair?

But let's say you've really only got room for two or three knots in your long-term memory files. If such were the case, I could be forced to recommend the bowline, the sheet bend, and the clove hitch. The three of them are the class of the three primary knot categories—loop knots, rope-to-rope knots (bends), and rope-to-something-else knots (hitches). Between them, they should get you into most binds.

Incidentally, the opposite question, "Which is really the worst knot?" is far simpler to answer. As disillusioning as this sounds, it's the square knot, the most over-hyped, under-strength knot in creation. Clifford Ashley, the author of the definitive encylopedia on the subject of knotting, states that the square knot "...has probably been responsible for more deaths and injuries than all other knots combined."

The reason is that the square knot capsizes, i.e. it unties itself. A couple of quick tugs on the rope, or an inadvertant bump, and the honest square knot turns into thin air, an unhappy result that demonstrates the difference between a "strong" knot, one that weakens the rope least, and a "secure" knot, one that resists unraveling."

This was disillusioning when I first read it as an avid Boy Scout. Now I can't think of a more apt symbol for the Scouting program.

In a previous job I had to constantly take my office master key out of my pocket and put it back. Before long I made a lanyard for it with a brass clip to go on a belt loop and a regular split ring on the other end, both attached with a normal bowline. After a short period, maybe a few weeks to a month, I noticed it loosening up. I retied it with double round-turn bowlines on each end, and it held together like that for years.

i find it very difficult to remember how to tie a knot when not practiced.

i like the glue that the author recommends in the book for applying on string ends to prevent them from fraying, it's called duco cement -- comes in a green tube.

some of the knots i've remember off the top of my head: bowline, constrictor knot, alpine knot, truckers hitch, midshipments hitch.

and i'll end it with a fun fact,

The Midshipman's Hitch Knot is promoted by Ashley (ABOK # 1993, p 325) as the only knot to tie in the following unlikely but critical circumstance: you fall overboard and catch hold of the line which you have prudently left trailing astern and find yourself hanging on with difficulty.