The Best Knots: Optional Knots

This page is part of a multi-page set about the best knots to know. If you haven't already done so, I suggest you start with the page on essential knots.

Figure-Eight rethread

This knot is also known as the threaded figure eight. I never use it to secure a rope because I find it hard to untie, and it's not indispensible in your kit. Yet if you've got spare attention for one more knot, it's a good one to learn as it's fun, pretty and safe. Besides, you may work with people who are figure eight fanatics, and you might have to humor them, so you might as well go ahead and learn it.

If you happen to fall in love with it, the figure-eight has other uses that can replace some of the knots in the "Swiss Army knot kit". For instance, in the stopper knot category, a lone figure-eight is a good bulky knot to stop the end of a rope. With a rethread, it's a strong (if slow) way to tie two ropes together. Not everyone loves knots in the figure eight family. They can be hard to untie, and accidents happen with threading mistakes.

In the pictures above, note that the double strands do not cross.

Figure Eight in the Bight
There is one case where the figure-eight is faster than a bowline to secure a rope to a climber: if you have a carabiner. In this case, you don't need to rethread the knot. You can double the rope, make a figure eight with the doubled rope, and clip the carabiner through the loop.

The figure eight in the bight is the start of a fun knot, the Karash Double Loop.

Three-Turn Tautline

Make a tautline hitch, but go three times around (instead of twice) before making the final hitch. This three-turn tautline holds much better than the regular tautline hitch, and it may be just as good as the adjustable grip hitch, though the latter is more elegant.

The Alpine butterfly bend

This bend is easy to learn because it is based on the Alpine butterfly technique whereby you make three turns around your hand. Here, you follow this exact technique, except that instead of a single rope, you use the two ropes you are trying to bend, joining them as if they were a single rope. The "joint" should fall on the second loop around your hand.

Adjustable Bend

Note: This knot isn't the Adjustable Bend featured in Ashley (ABOK #1472). According to TBK, this knot was invented in 1982 by Rob Chisnall, a Canadian climbing guide.

This marvellous knot lets you control the length of a rope made of two ropes you have joined. If you've learned the Adjustable Grip Hitch, this will feel like tying two of them in a row.

Constrictor Knot in the Hand

Sometimes it is convenient to tie a constrictor knot in the hand. Once the knot is done, you slip it over the object to constrict.

I came up with the following method to tie a constrictor knot in the hand. It is basically the same same method as for the wonderful slipped constrictor (Sofia Method). It's a really fast and easy way to tie a constrictor.

Nevertheless, please note that there are two other methods of tying constrictors in the hand (one of which I actually prefer). I have a page that presents all three methods for tying constrictors in the hand (and in the bight). Which you settle on is a matter of taste.

On the fourth picture, you remove the loop from your two top fingers and slide it over your two bottom fingers.

The Ashley Stopper

Ashley called this knot the oysterman's stopper (ABOK #526). When you want to create the most bulk using the least amount of rope, use this gorgeous monster.

Remembering how the rope crosses can be confusing—I used to tie this knot wrong. It may help to remember to "start over". From there, the pattern is under, over, under, over, under. The Ashley stopper is tightened in two stages: on the second step for the overhand loop, then again on the fourth step for the "main loop".

ashley stopper knot - oysterman's stopper - abok 526

Permanent Truckie's Hitch

This useful knot simply involves making a loop in the rope (perhaps an Alpine butterfly), coming around the post, pulling through the loop to tighten the rope and secure the load, and stopping the rope. Once you stop the knot, you can go back around the post and through the loop again for more tension. This version uses less rope than the "quickie truckie's knot", and it is neater (less material looping around), but it's also much less fun.

Best Knot to tie a tripod

Whether it is to suspend a pot or hold up a tarp's corner or a tipee, tripods are one of the wonder structures of the bush. There are several ways to tie poles together for a tripod. The method I present here is not the same as the one in boy scout manuals. Nevertheless, I have met many people who use this method for their tipees, and I have made countless tripods in this fasion without any drama.

To make a tripod, I start out by spreading the poles on the ground and marking the place where they will cross. Next, I lay two poles parallel on the ground. I then lay the third pole across the first two in the pre-determined place, at a 90-degree angle. I bind the three poles together with my standard lashing.

On the first picture, note the saw mark on the vertical pole. It indicates where the poles should cross.

Going up a rope

Why would you ever need to go up a rope? I don't know, that's your business. But if you do, there are a few brilliant knots that will make the task almost too easy. You use a smaller rope to make handles and stirrups that you slide up the rope as you climb. You can easily move the loops up the main rope with your hand, but when you pull down or step down on them, they lock, allowing you to lift your weight.

The first time I saw this was in twelth grade, when a friend had taken me and another boy on a caving expedition. Today it amazes me that my friend's parents let him lead us down a sixty-foot drop in an unspecified cave among the many that surrounded his property… But that's how it was, and he was an amazingly resourceful young man, having been home-schooled until grade eleven.

The Prusik Knot
I am not sure which knot my friend used, but it was more complex than the Prusik knot. The Prusik is my favorite in that family of knots because it is so easy to remember.

Start off by making your handle or stirrup: make a big loop in a piece of rope (for this application, the double figure eight in the bight is handy). The rope for the handle should be thinner than the rope you are climbing, but not as thin as on the pictures (I will take them again at some point).

Going down a rope

You're going abseiling, but you forgot your "Figure 8" device. In fact, you never had one. Fear not, the Munter hitch is what you need. A carabiner also helps. When you pull down, the rope locks. When you release, you slide down.

Please note that you don't want to be using the Munter with the "toy carabiner" and thin rope displayed in these pictures. This is a knot that demands a rope and carabiner that you can entrust your life to.

Rescue knots (making a chair)

Don't run away, this is way easy. As I mentioned in the section on making a loop, if you learn how to make an Alpine butterfly by going around your hand three times with a rope, you've earned two bonus knots: the Alpine butterfly with two or three loops. You start out the same way, except that you go once more around your hand for the two-loop knot, or twice more for three loops. You also move the leftmost strand all the way to the right. Then, in the next step, instead of pinching the leftmost strand and driving it under the others, you take two strands (two-loop knot) or three strands (three-loop knot).

Alpine Butterfly with Two Loops

Alpine Butterfly with Three Loops

Karash Double Loop
Like the double Alpine butterfly, this double loop is frighteningly fast to tie. It was invented by Mike Karash during his long career with the Key West Fire Department. Mike says that the Karash Double Loop (KDL) is being used by cavers in France. Apparently, several rope tests have found the knot suitably strong for rescue operations. I don't do rescue, but I like how this knot ties, so it was a nice addition to my knot collection.

You may notice that the KDL starts with a simple figure-eight on the bight. In the fourth step, the two strands you are extracting and pulling down are those that come out of the bottom of the Eight to form the initial big loop. That big loop therefore gets split into two smaller loops.

Bonus: on YouTube, Mike shows how to use the KDL and the ultra-fast Lightning Bowline to make a harness.

Bowline with Two Loops
If for some strange reason you wanted to make a similar-looking knot (with two or three loops) that allowed you to pass the loops around objects as you were tying the knot, you can make a bowline, then "let the rabbit come back out of the hole, around the tree and into the hole again" to make a second loop—and again if you want a third loop.

Smiles,

Andy

My knot site has more pages (see the links in the left column at the top of the page):
"Most Useful Knots"
Great Knots You Probably Don't Need to Know
Best Ways to Tie a Constrictor
Best Ways to Tie a Bowline, and Variations
Index of Knots