Page 80 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

Because hitching is so basic to the use of rope, SIX IN THE BIGHT
and because there are so many sizes and shapes of
things to hitch onto, the foregoing must be con- Lines don’t always end where you want them to.
sidered a basic sampler of the class; the six knots When you need a loop to tail onto, reeve through, or
shown will cover most situations, but be prepared to hang something from, but there’s no end available
improvise. Any hitch that is meant to be more or less to make a knot with, then it’s time to do some work
permanent will benefit from having its end seized to in the bight.
the standing part (Chapter 1). On the other hand, There are some elementary examples of this
most hitching jobs suffer from an excess of security; class in the “Lashing” section of Chapter 1, spe-
people can’t trust a good knot, so they keep adding cialized knots that depend on a pulley configuration
convolutions that invite jamming and take time to to keep from spilling. But the following examples
do and undo. Always use the simplest knot—hitch maintain their integrity unsupported, creating con-
or otherwise—that will do the job properly. William venient little blurps in the standing part that can be
of Occam should have been a rigger. tied and untied easily. Among other things, loops in

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