Field skills / original diagrams
Eight knots worth knowing cold
Choose by job, practise with real cord, then test close to the ground. The clips reveal expanded rope paths. Use the tying demonstration linked under each knot to learn the hand movements, then dress your knot and check it.
Figure Eight
Stop a rope running through a hole or device.
Make a bight and cross the working end over the standing part.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Leave a tail at least ten rope diameters long.
Bowline
Make a fixed loop for a shelter line or tying to a post.
Form a small loop with the working end on top.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Can shake loose when unloaded. Check the tail and dressing each time; not for climbing or rescue.
Sheet Bend
Join two ropes, including ropes of unequal diameter.
Make a bight in the thicker rope.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Put the thinner rope around the thicker rope’s bight; use a double sheet bend when security matters.
Round Turn + Two Half Hitches
Secure a loaded line to a post, tree or ring with controlled tension.
Take a full round turn around the anchor.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Protect living trees from rope damage and inspect the hitches after loading.
Adjustable Grip Hitch
Tension a tent guyline, ridge line or clothesline, then slide to adjust.
Run the working end around the anchor and back beside the standing part.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Test it on your actual cord; slick modern line may need an extra wrap.
Trucker’s Hitch
Create mechanical advantage for tarps and securing non-critical loads.
Form a slip loop in the standing part, well away from the anchor: twist a small loop, then pull a bight of the standing part through it. This slipped-overhand loop shakes out after use.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: High tension can damage rope and anchors. Use rated restraints for road cargo.
Alpine Butterfly
Make a strong fixed loop in the middle of a rope, loadable in three directions.
Make two overlapping turns in a bight.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Dress the two shoulders symmetrically before loading.
Square Lashing
Bind two poles crossing at roughly a right angle for a shelter or frame.
Start with a clove hitch on the upright and trap the tail.
Paused. Play when your rope is ready.
Check: Start and finish with secure hitches; frapping turns provide the final stiffness.
Fast selection
- Stop: Figure Eight.
- Fixed loop: Bowline; Alpine Butterfly in the middle of a rope.
- Join: Sheet Bend.
- Anchor: Round Turn + Two Half Hitches.
- Adjust: Adjustable Grip Hitch.
- Tension: Trucker’s Hitch.
- Build: Square Lashing.
Technique cross-checked against Animated Knots by Grog. Their illustrations are copyrighted; every diagram and animation on this page is an original, simplified teaching graphic.