Page 136 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

Inuit Knots 125

ble Fisherman's Bend to mend snapped horsehair lines [34, p. 38]. Together
with the Fisherman's Hitch (Fig. 11), which in effect is nothing but a spilled
Strangle Hitch (Fig. 11), which in turn is structurally equivalent to a Dou-
ble Overhand Knot, it is also used a lot on a bird snare (L17.90) donated to
Denmark's National Museum in 1934.
Bowlines and Boas Bowlines
One frequently requires a non-sliding temporary loop knot at the end of a
medium. A first approach is to attach the working end onto its own standing
part with a hitch. However, hitches that do not spill usually slide. This can be
prevented by trying to adapt a simple bend solution instead. For this reason
many of the well-known loop knots can be related to well-known bends. Bends
are loaded on two standing ends, whilst both working ends remain tension-free.
In a loop knot there is only one unloaded working end. In order to convert a
bend to a loop knot we must select one of the working ends and connect it to
the appropriate standing end.
A sufficiently simple bend to commence from is the Sheet Bend. Just as
the Sheet Bend structure gives rise to a number of different bends, the same
structure may be used to form 16 different solutions to the loop knot problem.
The four parameters which determine these solutions are:

1. Choice of placement of the standing end, i.e. on bight or gooseneck.
2. Choice of orientation of the gooseneck, i.e. the direction in which it is
intended to work.
3. Handedness of the gooseneck, i.e. left- or right-handed.
4. Placement of the working end, i.e. inside or outside of the loop.

We shall only discuss the types of loop knots arising from parameters 1 and
2, as 3 and 4 comprise non-relevant mirror symmetries and placements of the
working end. Parameter 1 divides the set of resulting loop knots into two
distinct major classes. Planar projections of these two classes, in which the
crossing information is not considered, are shown in Fig. 12. They are differ-
entiated by whether the change from working end to standing end occurred
on the gooseneck or the bight. The latter leads to loop knots with undesired
qualities, therefore we shall not be concerned with them. An interested reader
is referred to [13].
The useful Bowlines are determined by the orientation of the gooseneck.
This yields two distinct types, which have been called the Bowline and the
Boas Bowline [6]. We shall first focus on the proper Bowline types.