Learning knots?

[MacEntyre]

Knots are great fun to learn and relearn...

Good luck finding a knot that will hold in Amsteel, though!

[E.A.Y.]

Knots are great fun to learn and relearn...

I still have the knot-board I made in girl scouts.
The knots I use most (in no particular order) are the bowline, clove hitch, reef knot, sheet bend, sheepshank, marlinspike hitch.

Good luck finding a knot that will hold in Amsteel, though!

Well, so far I've managed to get a clove hitch around a descender ring to hold pretty well.
And a fisherman's knot or blood knot is ok.
And I've even used bowlines on coated rope like zing-it, but I put a stopper knot on the running end just to be sure.
But splicing is fun also and is less messy looking.

[MacEntyre]

...managed to get a clove hitch around a descender ring to hold pretty well.

I like an anchor hitch on rings. Similar, being a constrictor with two round turns, but it passes the bitter end through the constriction as well.

With Amsteel, tying semi-permanent knots, you can pass the bitter end right through the standing part, like the lock on a Brummel, then put a stopper on the end.

I end up making stuff fast three or four different ways before I decide what I like best!

- MacEntyre
...wore out my first copy of Ashley's, using a 1993 'corrected' edition now!

[wisenber]

...wore out my first copy of Ashley's, using a 1993 'corrected' edition now!

That is a pretty good book. I finally got one this year.

[rict]

AnimatedKnots is the bomb, bookmark it to your favorites. I look it at alot!

Knots on amsteel or dynaglide are finnicky, at best. Splicing is the strongest way to do the new techno ropes/string.

Opies got some excellent examples. And this guy has a good video.
While the rope is bigger in Nick's vid, the principle is the same. I found practicing on bigger rope at first helps, then try the litte stuff, then get crazy and do some zing-it sized rope!

So it sounds like I'd have a little better luck practicing on the 550 paracord first...
I did go to the animatedknots site during my original search for "knot sites", but I'm ashamed to admit that I still couldn't follow the "stop motion" pictures...frustrating, especially since I've always considered myself to have good visual/spatial, "follow the diagrams", skills...
I'll have to give that site another try, maybe with some easier knots first, to get a handle on following the stop motion pics. Maybe starting with the "diamond knot" first wasn't the best idea

[Throkda]

One thing you could try is to have someone else also watch the videos with you....with two people practicing knots, then if the light bulb goes on for one of you, the other has someone physically there to help demonstrate, as fast or slow as you want.

Another neat tool that I bought myself was this little gadget : The Fourteener Knotting Tool. Pretty interesting way to learn, by having something that helps visualize tying the knot *to* something, rather than just working on it in the air.

Another technique that sometimes helps -- remember that some knots work best by twisting the rope to form the loop....when you take the end and maneuver it to form the initial loop, it may make you forget how the rest goes.

Gee...wonder if I need to do my own youtube contributions -- could be the Slo-Mo Knot Guy