Page 11 - Des Pawson "Des Pawson's Knot Craft" 2 edit.

KNOTCRAFT 2009:Layout 1 23/10/09 12:16 Page 10

SOME TIPS OF THE TRADE

MARLINESPIKE HITCH
The best way of pulling fine line
extra tight without cutting your
A
fingers. The direction of pull is
important; if you make the
knot in the wrong direction or
pull in the wrong direction the
hitch slips.

BUNDLES
When working with long lengths
of line it is helpful to make them
up into bundles. There are many
B ways of doing this, but just
wrapping the line round your
hand and holding the bundle in
place with a rubber band works
as well as anything. You should
start the wrapping near the work
and hank round your hand till
you get to the end; with a bit of
luck the line can be pulled out
from the centre of the bundle as
you work. If things start to get
C
into a mess sort them out and
re-hank before you have a
completely knotted mess of a
bundle.

GUNK, GOOS, TAR, ETC

TALLOW
A touch of tallow on your fid or
spike is a great help. It only
D needs a little. You can make your
own tallow by saving the fat from
your roast beef or lamb (pork is
no good). Put the congealed fat
into some water, boil it up and
when it has cooled and gone
hard, skim it from the top.
Repeat once more and this
should remove most of the
Marlinespike hitch impurities. You will also find

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