Page 231 - Adlard Coles "The Knot Bible"

Turk’s head 3L x 4B

– in the round KNOT SCORE

Strength
Once employed to stop sailors’ feet slipping while they were stowing sails, Security
the turk’s head is now used to decorate everything from wedding rings to Diffi culty Tying
fishing rods. Learn to tie this simple version, and you will gain access to a Diffi culty Untying

Usefulness
whole world of leads and bights...
It seems an injustice to categorise replaced rope for standing rigging, who wore a turban – whether
the turk’s head as a decorative knot and stainless steel being the material Muslim, Hindu or Sikh – was
when, historically, it had so many of choice to prevent chafe. One of automatically deemed a ‘Turk’.
practical applications. On square- the few genuinely functional uses of The name is a generic term for the
riggers, it was used to make a turk’s head is on a ship’s wheel, to type of knot, which comes in many
footholds and handholds on indicate the position it should be in shapes and sizes. The standard way
footropes and lifelines, and to guard to be able to centre the rudder. of describing all turk’s heads is by
against chafe on rails and spars. The obvious decorative appeal leads and bights. The leads refer to
If a sailor was feeling creative, he of the knot means it has fi gured in the number of unique circuits the
might use one to seize the end of a art since at least Celtic times. Even cord makes around the cylinder,
line, instead of a whipping. Other, Leonardo da Vinci was a fan, and while the bights are the arcs formed
more decorative uses were on oars, drew them back in the 15th century. on the side of the knot each time the
boathooks, bell ropes, chest handles, But the current name for the knot cord changes direction.
whips, lanyards, telescopes, tillers... seems to have been coined in 1808 by Thus the knot on this page is a 3L x
Well, you get the picture. Darcy Lever who wrote in The Sheet 4B turk’s head, meaning it has three
Nowadays, however, the turk’s Anchor that the knot ‘worked with a leads and four bights. Curiously, the
head is used almost entirely for logline, will form a kind of Crown or number of times the strands are
decorative purposes, wire having Turban.’ And back in 1808, anyone doubled doesn’t figure in this equation.

1 Take a turn around the pole or 2 Pull the line through, and tighten 3 Turn the knot over, so the turns
spar, and pass the standing end over gently so the standing end is locked are visible.
the standing part. Pass the other end in place.
around the pole, over the standing
end, and under itself.

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