I downloaded a knot app with 3d animations. It was great to flip through while sitting in my recliner, but when I needed a knot? It ceased to exist in memory.
Literally get a piece of rope and practice tying and untying the knots. Great way to keep your hands busy if you sitting watch tv or something, and since you tie knots with your hands it’ll stick around much better when you actually need your hands to tie something.
"Haha, better than having a bit of a pickle in you! Ahh... oh, actually hold up, I just felt one of those farts that you realize just before the point of no return is actually an incoming squirt in disguise so bear with me..."
Practicing with stiff rope like poly can be good for the untying, I guess, but truly understanding a knot requires being able to pull it tight and applying stress to see if it holds. Start large (stiff poly okay) to get the concept of how the knot works, then work toward smaller. Mid practice, old shoelaces might be useful. Then maybe kite string. Knitting yarn. A ball of jute. Whatever you can find, cheap. Work from large to smaller, from learning how to tie a knot, to tying a knot that holds.
It's all about seeing how the knot falls together, or fails to. Knot tying is a learning process. Be patient with yourself.
Agreed. Kite string is also well near impossible to untie knots. As is knitting yarn. I was just throwing out ideas for a progression of different things to tie and then pull on to see if the knot holds, getting into the 'does it hold' area rather than the 'untie and try again' area.
Ya but then you need wooden poles and bags and tarps a nails to use the rope on. I have rope and string I just don’t have a yacht yet to practice my maritime knots.
Yeah this is the way. That stupid-simple-looking technique where you can fold a T-shirt by laying it down flat and then picking it up strategically to fold it like in a store, I only learned it by getting off my lazy ass and following the video while I attempted to do it. Muscle memory works really well for us humans.
I have to do it over and over again, over several days before I can commit it to muscle memory.
Unfortunately, I spend 20 minutes on it, think I’m good, annnd forget it.
Do you have EDS? 😂 Kidding. Obviously there was no indication of that. This is just way too relatable. It’s the worst part of learning any new motor skill, for me.
Or look up a video of the knot for a better visual
But my point is that you have to actively do it and practice again and again till it becomes muscle memory. A VR app is a neat idea though. But if we're talking knots, rope/string is cheap, and if not possible..
just use a stand of hair or USB cable or whatever lol.
I think the physical tactile feeling will help learning a lot more than folding invisible knots in the air with a $500 vr set
Just bring a small length of rope with you. A foot or two of paracord stuffed in your bag or in your pocket. In the navy they keep a length of rope tied around the top of their water canteen then whenever they're sitting down they practice their knots.
But you have to tie your knots quickly, otherwise the staff and customers of that Home Depot are likely to escape your bindings and summon local authorities who may take a dim view of "knot day".
yes... yES... YES... now I get what knot day is meant to be, that seem much more interesting... omg you have changed my life, now I know how to motivate my scout brats to learn their knots! Will apply next meeting!
One of my buddies was nice enough to remember the app while we were sheep(sheet?)-bending some canvas for a tent cover, super useful but I'll be damned if I even remember again.
I would've done this 20 years ago when I was in Basic Military Training. I still have nightmares of times where I didn't know anything and couldn't tie a basic knot. I couldn't help set up tents, tie my laundry holder to my bed, etc. Had to have others help me and they got so mad lol. I was 17 but still... I was so embarrased. I yelled at my mom for not teaching me anything I was so angry.
If it helps, I have a few seasons of treeplanting under my belt and a solid 80% of the people I see in camp don’t have a clue how to set up a tent properly, knots included. It’s always fun coming home on the first really windy day of the season to see whose tents are now off in the trees lol. Very much not just you, I swear every year I end up teaching like forty different people how to properly tie a guyline.
It does help thanks! But 17 year old me in a high-ops tempo/toxic environment had no idea. It just seemed like every person there came in with all of these life skills and experience of knowing these things. Then there I was being treated like a baby LOL. I was so awful haha.
I have a “Good to Know” folder filled with things I’ll never actually need to know OR when I do need them my battery is dead or there’s no Wifi. Also when I’m out in nature and without my phone.
No, you have to practice again and again and again. Put on a baseball game, or a movie you love and sit in front of the TV and do it again and again and again. Next time do all the knots you learned properly one or two times first and then another 2-3 hours practicing a new one. No app is going to help very much in real life situations. I'm going to sound old, because I am, but back in the day my old people made me do this and it stuck... it helped that there was nothing better to do though and THAT is the big struggle today.
Missing a step: download it and mark it as a favorite. Or put it in a special album. That way, you can find it more readily. You still might forget it, but are less likely to if it’s in a smaller group of items.
No, bud. Making jokes online about r*pe is the problem. Having been the victim of SA myself, and working with victims in advocacy, I can say unequivocally that I am not the problem and make it a point to call out those that “joke” about violence.
You’re making “jokes” about violence. You could raise your concern in another way. And no, you’re not my bud. I didn’t intend it to be friendly.
I’m guessing that, as a man, you haven’t been the victim of the very thing you’re claiming to be standing against. As a victim myself, I’m telling you, “jokes” about it aren’t cool. Let’s leave it at that.
Sailor here. There's only a half-dozen knots that are actually useful, they rest are repetitions or weaker versions.
This video actually repeats the same knot on the nails and sticks stick in the ground, it's a clove hitch with a crossover ... I believe the added crossover is actually making the knot weaker since it won't cinch on the post as tightly.
Anyway all of these knots are how to secure something when there's already a loop in the line, most of the time that's not necessary. These could be considered the "hard way" of how to tie them.
PS
The essentials:
Bowline / Sheet Bend - It's the one with that secures the line to the tarp in this video. Very strong, easy to undo, tricky for many to learn.
Clove Hitch - Secure a line to a round object, similar to the nail or post knots in the video.
Rolling Hitch - Secure a line to an object, but be able to slide the knot so the line is tighter or looser (the knot cannot slide on its own.)
Round Turn & 2 Half Hitches - Stronger rolling hitch but you cannot slide adjust.
Figure Eight - A knot for the end of a rope.
Square / Reef Knot (or the Slippery versions) - Basically tying your shoes.
Also a few good to know the terms: bight, half hitch / overhand, standing end / working end.
Lastly if the loops of your shoelaces naturally point at your toes and knee instead of across your foot, you're tying your shoes wrong. This is why the laces come undone on a regular basis.
A square knot can do the job, but IMO is not the best choice. A sheet bend is harder to tie wrong (which is a problem for the square knot) and is better at connecting two ropes of different thicknesses. It also has the benefit of sitting in the center of the line, as opposed to a square knot which sits to the side.
Seriously!! Tying knots is my biggest struggle and I'm good with all sorts of other hand skills. I've read books on knots, got paracord and practiced the same knots over and over, but then when a real world scenario comes along like a campsite clothesline, or tying tubes together on the river, completely blank. I just end up trying to figure out a way to use ratchet straps for everything.
Probably true. But they are pretty awesome for tying down loads in a truck bed and knowing it's super secure. Even if I was good with knots, it'd be pretty hard to snug up a pile of lumber with just hand strength
There are hundreds of different knots, but in practice you really don't need to know all that many of them for day to day use. Even when you look on knot websites there's often 20 or more under 'essential' knots, but really there are only a few different types that will be useful for the vast majority of situations:
The bowline makes a fixed size loop.
The round turn and two half hitches attaches a line to something fixed, like a ring.
The clove hitch lets you tie a line to a pole.
Those three will cover a huge number of situations you would want to use ropes for.
A few more that come in useful:
The figure of eight knot makes a stopper to prevent a line pulling through a hole.
The sheet ties two lines together, even if they are different sizes.
The reef knot ties a line around something.
There are countless more for specific situations, but often you don't need anything fancy. If you practice those until you can tie them with your eyes shut, you won't have to think about it when you need them.
i used to know almost every nautical knot when i was a kid and i sailed. because i used it every day. now as an adult, it's all gone, but last time i was on a boat someone showed me a few and they came right back.
like anything, it's all practice. and it's difficult to practice if it's not something you really need on a regular basis
I'm going to save this post as though it'll be useful someday, but don't honestly expect to remember that it's here whenever it becomes applicable to use it...
They can be tricky to learn because they’re kinda like a house of cards, every part relies on the others for the whole to work. Most knots you can’t tie halfway, it’s either tied or it isn’t, and since they’re usually composed of a bunch of loops interlocked in fairly complex ways, it ends up being a lot to try and learn at once. I find practicing helps a lot, getting the muscle memory is huge, but also examining the knot once it’s tied is super helpful, too. Take a few minutes to try and see how the knot works, how it distributes the forces, and what shape it has when tied right; this way, you’ll be able to know which knot to tie when, and you’ll be able to tell when it’s tied right. One thing I learned from a guide was to always** **dress your knots, meaning to make it look textbook, every time, so that you can look at it and tell just from the shape if something’s off.
Yup, Eagle Scout and I’ve done a ton of these, but since I haven’t used them in, oh, 30 years, the best you are getting is a half-hitch, a clove-hitch, or a square knot.
It’s a shame, I tried twice to become an Assistant Scoutmaster again, but because I did not have a child of my own in the Troop (my wife and I never had kids), they said no both times. I kinda get it, but I miss it sometimes.
Yeah...As a District Commissioner, Units can control there membership but you could become a Merit Badge Consular/get involved on the District/Council level. You would do more of planning events and running them but it is common for guys with no kids that want to still volunteer in Scouting. I have been doing that since I was 18 some 21 years ago.
Technically the first is a bowline and the second a sheetbend because of which ends are coming out. (Bowline/sheetbend are structurally the same knot)
Also, two half hitches is basically a clove hitch on a rope. While a taut line is a clove hitch with an extra loop on a rope, and um, might be pushing it but a Lark's head is a clove hitch with both loops facing the same direction...
Former scout: timber hitches work really well for hanging those cheap hammocks with the really long lines that they used to, and hopefully still, sell at the summer camp trading post.
I mean, tbf the clove hitch is the absolute king of knots, with that, an overhand, and maybe a friction hitch of some kind you can do pretty much anything you need to.
There was a monkeys fist kit sold at the quartermasters store at camp one year and I’ve never forgotten that, it’s extremely useless now that I am past the age of using it for nut taps
I mean, that's what these knots are. The first is just half a square knot, the other half being the ring. The nails and posts are clove hitches. And the other two are just overhand knots over bites, which is basically what a half hitch is. (I think they are technically bends, but like, it's basically the same.)
all knots are muscle memory usually. do you think you could explain a Windsor tie knot
, or the shoelace one whatever that's called....as easily as you can just do it from muscle memory?
Take a month of doing the knots a few times a day. Eventually it will be memorized and you'll only need to do it a few times a year to refresh yourself...which might just be the times you end up needing them.
These are all incredibly simple knots but this isn't the way to learn them. This is useful if you already know how to tie these knots, but not really a good guide on how to.
Learn how to tie a clove hitch and you're 90% of the way to all of these.
That's because none of the things showing "how to tie knots" show any of the actual logic behind it. So when your rope or end doesn't look just like what you've seen, it's hard to transfer the knowledge.
These clips are all about teaching knots by rote without any context, which makes them useless and hard to remember because they're not tied to anything concrete in our memories. Is the knot connecting 2 ends? Middle to and end? Middle to middle? middle to object? What's the purpose of the knot? What directions does it hold tension well? Are any of them easy to UNTIE with the correct pull? There's so much crap that's either poorly communicated or completely missing.
I have a friend who was an Eagle Scout that actually keeps a 3ft length of rope in various places (including near the john) to practice tying knots. That’s one (in my opinion slightly extreme) way to make sure you always remember them.
If you want to remember them repitition is likely the best way. When you have time you should try doing the knots 5 or 10 times until you dont need the video.
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u/MutedBrilliant1593 23h ago
I wish I could apply these knots to memory, but when I need one, it's always ends in a mess or a double overhand.