Page 10 - Mark Gommers "Bowlines Analysis

A Rationale for Depicting ‘detail view’ versus the Conventional
View

With few exceptions, #1431 (Sheet bend) is typically shown as per the photo below right.
Why is this so? Dan Lehman (USA) posits that this particular aspect more clearly shows
the core function of a Sheet bend – which is similar to the core function of a Bowline. This
provides a strong case for showing the same view of a Bowline when we want to more
clearly see the function of the ‘nipping loop’.

Load
Collar

Collar



No Load

Dan Lehman posits that this
view more clearly shows the
core function of a Sheet bend.

No load

Load

Load

?

This view obscures the
core function of the Sheet
bend. Puzzlingly, Harry
Asher shows this side in
his otherwise excellent
book ‘The Alternative
Knot Book’ at image #74
on page 51.
The conventional view will also be
shown in this paper – since many
readers would be more familiar
with this depiction. Load

Page 9 of 59 Bowline Analysis Version 2.7a 16 July 2016 © Copyright Mark Gommers