Page 319 - Geoffrey Budworth "The Pocket Guide to Outdoor Knots"

SUMMARY

And many knots unravel’d by the Road; But not the Master Knot of

Human Fate.

(Quatro XXXIV of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Persian astronomer & poet,
c.1050–1123)

wo thirds of the knots, bends and hitches featured in this book are classics

T(from the bowline and clove hitch to the Matthew Walker and the sheet
bend), their names well-known even to those who cannot tie them. Some, like

the overhand knot and simple noose, are no doubt ancient in origin. All would be
instantly recognizable to any Elizabethan or Georgian individual who had

worked with cordage.
The other third portrays less well known specimens (such as the Lapp knot),

together with some twentieth century innovations (Ashley’s stopper knot and the
boom hitch), and even a few virtually new discoveries (among them the double

figure of eight hitch, the snuggle hitch and the vice versa). A few, like the
Chinese lanyard knot and the T-shaped Turk’s head are intended to test the minds

and tease the fingers of the ablest knotting practitioners. All who have
successfully come to grips with half of the specimens in this book can rate

themselves knottologists of more than average ability. Well done, indeed.
What next? For those who merely require to know a handful of the right

knots for their employment or leisure pursuits, the contents of this book are more
than adequate. Its purchase price will be amply repaid by learning and putting

into practice a fraction of the knots, bends or hitches described and illustrated
within it. Others, in whom a previously unsuspected and dormant fascination for

the lure and lore of knotting has been aroused, will now be turned on to learn
more. For them other knotting publications await discovery. Two merit special

mention.