Page 229 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

temporary descriptions, and from incomplete and often faulty con-

temporary illustrations. Some are reconstructed from 8. combination

of several different descriptions. The only complete and satisfactory

description is by Lever of KNOT '# I 267.

The first six ROBANDS shown are very simple and probably are

correct, since there was little chance to go wrong.

Number 1270 is the ROBAND HITCH of our sailing Navy, which

,vas adequately recorded, in most of the contemporary seamanship

11.0'1. I
books, except for the one detail of finishing off at the top of the yard

with a final REEF KNOT. This was omitted in both description and

illustration by all authorities until mentioned by Taunt in 1883.

1202. The HALF KNOT, sometimes called SINGLE KNOT, is the first

movement for the class of BINDER KNOTS that pass around an object

but once. Both Brady and Dana in 1841, and Luce, in 1862, use the

name HALF KNOT, the name SINGLE KNOT being a needlework term.

12.0$ \2.06 The HALF KNOT is tied around an object with two rope ends. It

is generally a part of a more elaborate knot but it also has several

solo uses. It is tied singly in rope yarn knots, and in finishing off

grommets, cringles, LONG and BACKHANDED SPLICES, ARTIFICIAL

EYES and WEST COUNTRY WHIPPINGS. The RIGHT-HANDED HALF

KNOT is a TWO-STRAND RIGHT-HANDED CROWN.

1203. The LEFT-HANDED HALF KNOT is a TWO-STRAND LEFT-

HANDED CROWN.

1204. The REEF KNOT or SQUARE KNOT consists of two HALF

KNOTS, one left and one right, one being tied on top of the other,

and either being tied first.

Captain John Smith gives the name REEF KNOT in 1627. Dana gives

the name SQUARE KNOT in 1841. Few sailors speak of SQUARE KNOT

except in contradistinction to GRANNY KNOT but it is the comlllor.

shore name for the knot and is in good repute among sailors. Other

names for it are TRUE, HARD, FLAT, COMMON, REGULAR, ORDINARY.

When adding the second HALF KNOT to the first, the latter is often

held in place by a thumb, a finger or by another person, until the

second HALF KNOT has been drawn up.

The REEF KNOT is unique in that it may be tied and tightened
12. 1110 1:1.1'

with both ends. It is universally used for parcels, rolls and bundles.

At sea it is always employed in reefing and furling sails and stopping

clothes for drying. But under no circumstances should it ever be tied

\21'3 as a bend, for if tied with two ends of unequal size, or if one end is

stiffer or smoother than the other, the knot is almost bound to spill.

Except for its true purpose of binding it is a knot to be shunned.

1212. 1205. One of the distinguishing features of the SQUARE KNOT and

the one which gives it its chief value as a REEF KNOT is the ease with

which it may be untied. Jerk one end in a direction away from its
l 1 \ '

own standing part (that is, toward the other end) and the knot cap-

sizes; all the turns are left in one end and these are easily stripped

from the other end with a sweep of the hand.

1206. The GRANNY KNOT is also called the FALSE, LUBBER'S, CALF

and BOOBY KNOT. Patterson's Ncrutical Encyclopedia calls it "OLD

GRANNY KNOT" and Sir Edwin Arnold calls it the "CoMMON or GAR-

DEN KNOT." The name GRANNY is given in Vocabulary of Sea Phrases

(Anonymous, 1799) and Roding pictures the knot in 1795.

The GRANNY consists of two identical HALF KNOTS, one tied on

top of the other. It has but one practical purpose that I know of and

that is to serve as a SURGEON'S KNOT (see Chapter 2). Formerly it

was employed for tying up parcels in five-and-ten-cent stores, but

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