02-22-2005, 07:11 PM
[font "arial, helvetica, verdana"][#ff0000]The Lost Art of Tying Knots[/#ff0000][/font]
[font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]By Barry St.Clair[/font] [font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]Tying knots has nearly become a lost art. Except for boy scouts, sailors and fishermen who still need to know several useful versions, the average citizen has a very limited knot repertoire.
Stop a minute and think about it. How many knots can you tie?
For most of us, knot education ceased after kindergarten where we learned how to tie our shoe laces with a bow knot. About the only knots we tie these days are the ones that affix the ties we wear around our necks and the ones we get in our stomachs from stressful modern life.
What a shame! There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained by having the knowledge necessary for this ancient skill.
Knots are a part of our western history as evidenced by the popularity of dispatching bad guys with the infamous hangman's noose. Television and movie westerns from yesteryear, when good always triumphed over evil, featured close ups of the knot on a regular basis as a stern reminder to viewers that bad guys would end up at the end of a rope.
Technology has done away with the need for a lot of good knots. Used to be securing cargo required knowing how to tie a trucker's hitch. Now ratchet winches, and bungee cords have done away with the need to know how to tie one of the best knot's ever invented.
Velcro, technology's version of the common cocklebur, has eliminated the need to tie a lot of knots. I am not even sure if knot tying is still part of the curriculum for kindergarten students because of Velcro. Replacing those shoe laces with straps made from the hook and loop material, has made it much easier to get shoes on the little devils.
Those of us who fish are still required to learn how to tie knots and some have taken the process to new levels of complexity. Fly fishermen are probably the most ambitious knot tiers and are constantly inventing new ways to tie the various types of backing, fly line and leader material to each other in complicated ways.
Let's see, they use an arbor knot to tie the backing to the reel spool, a blood knot to attach the backing to the fly line, a nail knot to secure the fly line to the leader and an improved clinch knot to tie on the fly. Those are just some of the various twists and turns they use in their knotty world.
Personally, I have managed to survive in the fishing business by remembering how to tie about half-a-dozen of the many knots described in intricate, indecipherable detail, in pocket-guide knot books. Those booklets are designed not for fishermen, but for people who have knot-tying fetishes.[/font]
[font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]The knots I have found to be most useful, listed in order of importance, are the improved clinch, Palomar, blood knot, bowline, half-hitch and figure eight. These six methods of weaving rope or fishing line will handle just about any basic knot tying need.
I have even found a neat web-site that actually shows through animation, how to tie some of the above mentioned knots. Leave it to fly fishermen to be on the cutting edge of technology. The site is www.orvisknots.com
There is a certain sense of satisfaction in being able to whip out a bowline or half-hitch knot when the need arises. Humans are fascinated by knot games, puzzles and other enigmas that appear as magic to the unskilled. I fondly remember certain string games when I was a youngster and the he or she who was a master of the crow's foot or the seemingly impossible thumb-loop trick, were regarded with a certain amount of awe.
Things have changed considerably since then, but knowing how to tie good knots is still the mark of an individual who takes pride in the craftsmanship of a skill that others can only marvel at.[/font]
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[font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]By Barry St.Clair[/font] [font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]Tying knots has nearly become a lost art. Except for boy scouts, sailors and fishermen who still need to know several useful versions, the average citizen has a very limited knot repertoire.
Stop a minute and think about it. How many knots can you tie?
For most of us, knot education ceased after kindergarten where we learned how to tie our shoe laces with a bow knot. About the only knots we tie these days are the ones that affix the ties we wear around our necks and the ones we get in our stomachs from stressful modern life.
What a shame! There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained by having the knowledge necessary for this ancient skill.
Knots are a part of our western history as evidenced by the popularity of dispatching bad guys with the infamous hangman's noose. Television and movie westerns from yesteryear, when good always triumphed over evil, featured close ups of the knot on a regular basis as a stern reminder to viewers that bad guys would end up at the end of a rope.
Technology has done away with the need for a lot of good knots. Used to be securing cargo required knowing how to tie a trucker's hitch. Now ratchet winches, and bungee cords have done away with the need to know how to tie one of the best knot's ever invented.
Velcro, technology's version of the common cocklebur, has eliminated the need to tie a lot of knots. I am not even sure if knot tying is still part of the curriculum for kindergarten students because of Velcro. Replacing those shoe laces with straps made from the hook and loop material, has made it much easier to get shoes on the little devils.
Those of us who fish are still required to learn how to tie knots and some have taken the process to new levels of complexity. Fly fishermen are probably the most ambitious knot tiers and are constantly inventing new ways to tie the various types of backing, fly line and leader material to each other in complicated ways.
Let's see, they use an arbor knot to tie the backing to the reel spool, a blood knot to attach the backing to the fly line, a nail knot to secure the fly line to the leader and an improved clinch knot to tie on the fly. Those are just some of the various twists and turns they use in their knotty world.
Personally, I have managed to survive in the fishing business by remembering how to tie about half-a-dozen of the many knots described in intricate, indecipherable detail, in pocket-guide knot books. Those booklets are designed not for fishermen, but for people who have knot-tying fetishes.[/font]
[font "arial, helvetica, verdana"]The knots I have found to be most useful, listed in order of importance, are the improved clinch, Palomar, blood knot, bowline, half-hitch and figure eight. These six methods of weaving rope or fishing line will handle just about any basic knot tying need.
I have even found a neat web-site that actually shows through animation, how to tie some of the above mentioned knots. Leave it to fly fishermen to be on the cutting edge of technology. The site is www.orvisknots.com
There is a certain sense of satisfaction in being able to whip out a bowline or half-hitch knot when the need arises. Humans are fascinated by knot games, puzzles and other enigmas that appear as magic to the unskilled. I fondly remember certain string games when I was a youngster and the he or she who was a master of the crow's foot or the seemingly impossible thumb-loop trick, were regarded with a certain amount of awe.
Things have changed considerably since then, but knowing how to tie good knots is still the mark of an individual who takes pride in the craftsmanship of a skill that others can only marvel at.[/font]
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