Page 67 - Peter Randall - The Craft of the Knot

Chapter 5

SIMPLE LASHINGS

For our ancestors, a simple lashing meant the difference between swinging a sharp rock
and swinging an ax. This skill remains important today, if not for axes, for lashing
together poles and tying up packages and bundles.

You can use lashing bundles to secure a single object, like a box or rolled-up sleeping
bag. Or you can group a stack of items, like books or newspapers. The rope or string
itself can serve as a handle to lift the object. String or small cordage is often used in

place of wire to bundle items in industrial applications, because wire can do more
damage to any machinery it gets caught in.

Lashing two or more poles together can be very useful for both construction and
repair—to give more length or to make scaffolding, ladders, or makeshift furniture.
Poles can be lashed parallel to each other or at right angles.

Key to making a pole lashing is the concept of the frapping turn—that is, tight wraps
of the cord around the pole. While the multiple wraps around two poles provide the
structural strength that a lashing needs, the frapping constricts the wraps and creates

the tension that holds them in place. If the poles are tied together parallel to each other
as in the Sheer Lashing, the wraps must be loose enough to allow a couple of frapping
turns to pass between them.

If you’re attempting to lash poles that are not exactly parallel or at right angles to
one another, position them parallel and loosely tie a Sheer Lashing. The lashing will
tighten as the poles are twisted open. You can do this with three poles to make a tripod.

DIAGONAL LASHING

Whereas Square Lashing would be used to attach poles at right angles, the Diagonal
Lashing is used to keep two crossed poles rigid with respect to each other. Scaffoldings
made with a combination of these two lashings are very rigid and secure.

STEP 1 Cross two poles diagonally, and make a Timber Hitch (see Chapter 10) around

them.