Page 105 - The Pocket Guide to Outdoor Knots

WATER (or TAPE) KNOT

Purpose

This knot is ideal for thinner cords, twines and monofilaments. It is also the only
knot recommended by climbing authorities for use in flat tape (not illustrated).

In ropes it tends to jam.

Tying
Start with a half knot, then tuck each working end as shown (figures 1–2).

Encourage the knot parts to cross over at each end of the knot (avoiding parallel
lines) and contrive it so that the two outer bights—marked “X” in the diagram

(figure 3)—are in the standing parts of the line, since the knot is thought by
some to be stronger that way. Finally pull it tight (figure 4).

Knot lore

This may be the “water knot” recommended for fishing lines by Dame Juliana
Berners (0r Barnes), Prioress of Sopwell, in her Treatyse of Fyshinge wyth an

Angle (published in 1496). If so, it pre-dates Izaak Walton’s reference to the knot
in The Compleat Angler (1653) by a century and a half.