Page 360 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

Figure 10-16. A finished high-class knife lanyard.

several Constrictors to the ends, so that they are
securely fastened to each other and their own stand-
ing parts.
With the remaining four strands make a Wall
Knot as shown, and then a series of Crown Knots,
one on top of the other, right over the bound ends
(Figure 10-14). Proceed for about an inch, until
you’re almost at the Ring Hitches, then make a four-
strand Wall and Crown Button as shown in Figure Figure 10-17. A tripled three-lead-by-five-bight
10-15. Draw this knot up as snugly as you can, trim Turk’s Head. The ends finish under the same turn
the ends, and you’re done. and will be trimmed flush.
You should now have a lanyard that is perfect
for carrying keys, knife, or other gear in a pocket,
and which also can be worn around the hand as a nings qualified it as a miraculous knot. I’ve made
tool lanyard when working aloft (Figure 10-16). different forms of it for ditty bags, bellropes, bottles,
If your finished product does not closely resemble wrists, and oars, and when I was almost making a
mine, do not despair; this is a fairly involved, dif- living at fancy work, I used to turn out simple ones
ficult sampler, and you may have to make several by the hundred as candleholders; the knots never
before all the knots come easily. failed to fascinate me. In this section, I hope to share
Once you feel comfortable with this arrange- this fascination with you by explaining the Turk’s
ment, try altering proportions or substituting other Head structure, showing some basic as well as lit-
knots. Remember that it isn’t just the intricacy of a tle-known sizes of the knot, and describing a system
knot that makes it valuable, but its appropriateness. by which any size knot can be built up into a more
Some of the best fancy work is structurally simple, complex one.
and even makes use of stretches of unknotted line. For starters, take a look at Figure 10-17, which
Always consider proportion, and the job the knots shows a “three-lead-by-five-bight” knot, tripled.
must do. “Leads” are the number of parts that make up the
width of the braid, and “bights” are the scalloped
edges formed when the leads change direction.
THE TURK’S HEAD: HARMONIC Because the type of Turk’s Head we’ll be dealing
SEQUENCE AND THE SAILOR with here is made with a single strand, only cer-
tain combinations of leads and bights will result in
Maybe I’m just easily stupefied, but I’ve always a symmetrical knot; the pattern has to match up
thought that the Turk’s Head’s beauty, range of with itself to form a circular braid with a regular
usefulness, and elegant mathematical underpin- over-and-under sequence. For an example of this,

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