Page 52 - The Knot Bible

HITCHES

Knute hitch
KNOT SCORE
Some knots impress by their sheer ingenuity and complexity; others by Strength
their simplicity. The knute hitch defi nitely falls into the latter camp. A Security
loop, a stopper knot and a ring. Who would have thought a knot could be Diffi culty Tying
Diffi culty Untying
so simple? Commonly used to tie a lanyard onto a knife, the knute can
Usefulness
also be used for attaching a halyard to a sail, instead of a shackle.

1 Tie a stopper knot (eg fi gure-eight, 2 Pass the bight through the hole, 3 Pass the stopper knot through
page 150) at one end of the line, and leaving enough slack in the working the bight.
form a bight. The cord should be end to pass around the knife (or in
slightly less than half the diameter this case marlinspike).
of the hole.
KNOT KNOW-HOW 4 Get rid of any excess
slack in the working
Like many knots, the knute hitch had end, before you tighten
been around for years before it was the knot.
deemed worthy of a name. It wasn’t until
1990 that American rigger and author
Brian Toss gave it its current title. What
does it mean? Knute is Scandinavian for
Canute and comes from the Old Norse
word for ‘knot’. So the knute hitch is
really the knot hitch – appropriately
enough for a hitch tied with a knot.