Page 241 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

1300. COACHWHIPPING, based on SQUARE SINNET, makes a herring-

bone weave. The directions for SQUARE SINNET are given on page

493. This may be made with eight strands around a rope or rail, and

gives four lengthwise rows of "herringboning." The legs may be

left long enough for sticking back at both ends, which is done in

the manner shown as '# 1290.

1301. SQUARE SINNET of twelve and sixteen strands can be em-

1300

ployed in the same way, using three or four strands to each unit, as

the case may be.

1302. Six rows of herringboning will result if the strands are led

as shown here. Care must be exercised in these last two to arrange

the seizings so that the rims will be symmetrical. The ends should

be stuck back with a needle before removing the seizings. Some of

the ends are stuck once and trimmed, others are led back two and

three tucks in order to scatter them. COACHWHIPPING ordinarily is

1301
not doubled; it is completed in one operation. But if the surface has

not been completely covered, double the knot, using a needle.

The common TURK'S-HEAD is made of a single continuous line and

is an older knot than the multi-strand one. Sometimes it is called the

RUNNING TURK'S-HEAD, a term which may have been applied in

contradistinction to STANDING TURK'S-HEAD, or it may be descriptive

of the sailor's use of the knot as a gathering hoop or puckering ring

to slide up and down on bag lanyards, neckerchiefs, etc. It should be

I I understood that whenever the name "TURK'S-HEAD" is applied by

• sailors without qualification, the single-line knot is always the one
I

that is referred to.

The name "TURK'S-HEAD" first appears in Darcy Lever's The

Sheet Anchor (1808), but the knot is much older. I have a powder

horn dated 1676 which has several TURK'S-HEADS carved around

it, and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) shows a number in disk form,

in a drawing that is reproduced by ohrvall in Om Knutar (1916).

13 3 In discussing the SINGLE-STRAND TURK'S-HEAY the use of the word
0

/ strand will be avoided as it is ambiguous. Cord or line will designate

the material of the knot and the word Iud will designate a single

- circuit of the cord around the cylinder or barrel. The size of a knot

is designated by the number of its leads and bights. Bights are the

scallops or coves formed by the cord where it changes direction

at the rims. The total number of leads denotes the width of a knot

along the cylinder, and the total number of bights denotes the length

of a knot around the barrel or cylinder.

Each reappearance of the cord or lead on the surface will be

termed a part. Only one part, the upper one, is in evidence at each

crossing in the finished knot. To follow a cord or lead is to parallel

it with identical over-and-under sequence, which alternates in the

common TURK'S-HEAD. When a lead has been followed throughout

a whole knot, the knot is said to have been doubled.

The sailor interprets the word double in his own way. When a

finished knot consists of two parallel cords the sailor describes it as

\\ having been doubled twicef when it exhibits three parallel cords

\ \ throughout, it has been doubled three times.

\ I

1 , A knot that is doubled three times is said by sailors to have three

I lays. It is also called a THREE-PLY KNOT.

Tucking over a cord is the same as passing or crossing over. A

sailor may tuck either under and over, or over and under.

1303, 1305. Ordinarily the sailor ties a TURK'S-HEAD directly

around his fingers. When it has been formed it is placed around the

object that is to be its permanent support.

[ 23 2 ]