Page 563 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

3490. The PROLONG KNOT is described at length on page 362. It is

one of the BASKET WEAVE KNOTS.

Mats of one sort or another form the greater part of chafing gear.

3491. A Flemish flake with the turns sewed together on the back

with a herringbone stitch is often tacked to the deck for the helms-

man to stand on and is also used to take up the thump of sheet blocks.

3492. Door mats are frequently made by sailors ashore. Marline

or lobster cord warps are sometimes used and these are half knotted

around each turn of the rope. The flakes may be made either round

or elliptical. It will take abOut three hundred feet of 2 Yz -inch rope

3490
and twelve pieces of white marline to make the mat pictured. The

HALF KNOTS are tied alike, GRANNy-fashion. When the rope is ex-

hausted finish off the warps with REEF KNOTS. Both ends of the rope

should be whipped.

3493. To "shoulder" a woven or sword mttt. The sketch alongside

34'11 shows how sword mat '/I: 2964 may be tapered if an odd shape is re-

L quired to pass around a bolt or cleat on a yard. The method of doing

this is given in detail with the hammock clews, page 588. Either one

or both shoulders may be narrowed. OVERHAND KNOTS are tied in the

strands that are laid out.

3494. Punch mat (also called wrought mat) is often spelled either

panch or paunch, but I can find no record of its being pro'lounced

at sea in any way except punch. Originally it was the name for any

large, heavily padded and thrummed mat. Nowadays it always refers

to one made in a certain way. The method of making this is shown

as '/I: 2963. A wooden tool with a notched end, called a punch, has

been employed in thrumming a mat but more often this is done with

the fingers alone. Thrums six to eight inches long are middled and

punched halfway through the fabric and the bights are afterward

punched back again through a different part of the weave. When

... all thrums are in place the bights are trimmed.

~----, ,-- ----=------
... ~-~ To selvage-offt15e-]jottomotapuiiCfHniit;sttefch it rope iottne-- . ~~ -' .. ~-..

foot. Pass the left strand around this, remove the second strand and

back the left strand into its score two, three, four, or more tucks,

withdrawing the second strand by the same amount. Half knot oppo-

3493 site ends and leave out, one on each side of the mat. Treat the re-

maining pairs the same way, but bringing all ends out at different

lengths of the mat. Each end is opened and trimmed to the same

3434
length as the thrums.

3495. Crown and wall mat. This is made the same as the foregoing,

but instead of always leading from the right side and working down-

ward diagonally to the left, this one is started at the right side and

each strand in turn is engaged with its next neighbor. At the left edge

:0 the process is reversed and the strands are worked back to the right.

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•

, •
• • 3496. A crowned mat is much the same. In the illustration it is

,
3495 , :0 started on the left side, each strand in turn is engaged with its neigh-
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, •

• • bor to the right, but when the right edge is reached the mat is turned
C> •

• •
, , over (to the left) and the back side is worked across exactly the
•
,
•
349~ 0: • same as the front, from left to right.
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,

• •
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• • 3497. To thrum a canvas mat that is to be laced about a spar: Take
0; a sailmaker's "rubber" (seam rubber), turn the canvas edge down

,
•
a short distance parallel with the edge and crease it well. Take a rop-

ing needle with several long yarns on it and sew over and over along

the crease and around a spool. With a very shar knife or razor

blade cut the yarns in a straight line along the top 0 the spool. Make

another crease a half or three quarters of an inch away and repeat.

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