Page 21 - Des Pawson "Des Pawson's Knot Craft" 2 edit.

KNOTCRAFT 2009:Layout 1 23/10/09 12:16 Page 20

Bellrope Worked

with 6 Ends

HIS IS THE FIRST commercial bellrope I created, and I am still
Tmaking it today. I needed money to get married, so to aug-
ment my income by making a few bellropes, I made up a couple
of samples in some 2mm nylon and took them to the prestigious
yacht chandlers in the West End of London, Captain O M
Watts. Their buyer looked at my samples, said that they were far
too thin, but went on to describe the sort of thing he might be
interested in. I went away and made up this design using 3mm
1
cord. That first one took about 1 /2 hours to make.
This time the buyer liked it, and said he would give me an
order. As he wrote down 3 in his order book I thought, ‘Is that
all, after all this work!’ Then he wrote ‘dozen’! So, my first order
1
was for 36 bellropes each taking about 1 /2 hours; my first
introduction to mass production. Practice certainly speeds up
the making of any item!
The first main knot, the Matthew Walker knot, is one of my
favourites, although it takes quite a bit of time to tie and form
into shape. You could, of course, replace it with a quicker knot
such as the diamond in pairs that I used at the start of the
deluxe key ring (page 19).

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