Page 572 - The Ashley Book of Knots

DECORATIVE MARLINGSPIKE SEAMANSHIP (APPLIED KNOTS)

3553. OVERHAND ROUND-TuRN GRAFTING is also called OVERHAND

SPANISH HITCHING, and resembles the pointing just shown. But in

this case the turns are in the fillers and not in the warp. An overhand

round turn is taken with each filler in rotation around the warp,

which is at all times held taut. Toe warp should be of stiffer material

than the fillers. Tarred fishline is excellent for the purpose.

3554. UNDERHAND ROUND-TURN GRAFTING, also called UNDER-

HAND SPANISH HITCHING. Each filler in rotation takes a round turn

about the warp, and the warp is kept straight. The texture of this

suggests snakeskin and is very handsome.

3555, 3556. HALF KNOT GRAFTING can hardly be told from the

ROUND-TURN GRAFTING just shown. Structurally the only difference

is that the turns in the fillers are taken in a direction opposite to the

3SS6
lead of the warp. To make: Half knot and pull on the warp slolffi-

ciently to keep it straight.

3557. To point a rope in the early way: Put on a whipping at some 3551

distance from the end, open the rope, and lay back all the surface

yarns. Make these up into tapered nettles as described at the begin-

ning of this chapter. Scrape the underneath yarns that were left and

make a smooth pencil-point taper; parcel and marl it over with sail

twine. It is now ready to graft, which is done in one of two ways.

The first, using an odd number of nettles, has already been described

as '# 2678. The commoner way, perhaps, is to employ an even nnmber

of nettles. Arrange the nettles in two sets, the odd ones up, the even

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ones down. The long end of the whipping, which was left for the

purpose, is to be used for the warp. With this warp take a SINGLE

HITCH around the whole structure and draw it snug close to the

juncture of the two sets. Next turn the upper set of nettles down

and the lower set up, and single hitch again. Repeat until the point

is covered. With the same warp, whip and snake the tip. Put a snak·

ing on the base as well.

3558. Pointing with the yarns of the rope itself has been obsolete

for many years. The recent method has been to cover with fishline, or

sometimes with marline, after the rope's end has been tapered. A

number of short pieces of line are doubled and seized at the base of

the pointing with several turns of the warp. With these ends and the

fishline warp, proceed exactly as described in '# 3 557. The illustration 3SSB

shows two turns at a time taken in the warp.

3559. The most common pointing is needle hitching, described

as '# 3544. Pointings are seldom used nowadays except on manropes,

yoke ropes and life lines, or on any other rope that has to be fre-

quently rove. Points are often needle hitched to the end, as in '#3549.

3560. Grafting three turns of the warp is shown here, the last

being hitched as illustrated in '#3557. When the warp is multiplied
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in this manner it should be of much smaller material than the nettles. - 3.r61

The tip, having been reduced to a few nettles, may be crowned and -
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the ends withdrawn under the covering, employing a loop buttoner -
•

for the purpose. The base of the point in the illustration bears a

TURK'S-HEAD.

3561. The texture of grafting may be varied. This illustrates a

point in which two sets of nettles are always turned down and one

set up. The nettles should taper and, in this case, their number is not

divisible by three.