Theatrical Knots!

[Lighting_tech]

Hello again everyone,

 

I wonder if people would put there favourite or most used knots here and there uses, No need for a lesson on how to tie them as that can be found online, But which knots you use and where would help me and I'm sure other people beginng in the industry!

 

Thanks!

 

Lighting_tech

[DeepSpacePenguin]

Bowline, Clove Hitch, Figure of Eight, Truckers Hitch, Sheepshank. My most used.

[timd]

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=45551

[Lighting_tech]

thanks, ill learn those asap!

 

And thanks for the link, I had searched but I now realise there was typo in the search field

 

Moderation: Not any longer!

[paulears]

Best of luck - after all these years I'be never mastered those, despite repeated tries. My knots are usually dreadful!

[Albatross]

My favourite are Granny knots :P

 

Usually it's whatever knot I tie that holds what it needs to!

[David Lee]

bowline for hauling ropes - strong loop knot, can be tied one handed also used as a life saving rope in the Navy for that reason and can be untied easily;

 

round turn and two half hitches for tieing to a bar - knot designed for tieing to a spar or bar with a pull at 90 degrees to the spar;

 

reef knot to join two equal sized ropes together;

 

and I know you only wanted three but a clove hitch is a useful knot if you lift projectors on poles as you can put it at the top of the pole to stop the unit flopping around (note - not for actually taking the weight, its just to keep the pole upright)

 

I like knots :)

[ojc123]

Bowline, sheet bend, slip knot and clove hitch cover most of my needs.

This site is quite good to follow for learning knots. If you do a bit of thinking you'll find that the sheet bend and the bowline are the same knot just tied in a different order.

Just a word of thanks to the Scout Association for one of my more useful life skills.

[PeterT]

reef knot to join two equal sized ropes together;

 

I've heard on a great number of occasions and in many knotty books that the reef knot has an undeserved reputation for being a 'good' knot to use when joining ropes together. As David says The reef knot is only useful if both ends of the rope are the same type and size. Otherwise it's an awful knot to use as it has very little strength. You're much better learning the sheet bend to join two ropes together because it's just as strong if the two ends are unequal.

 

So, the knots I think are worth knowing:

 

Clove Hitch

Sheet Bend

Bowline

 

Plus the others people have mentioned (but not the reef knot)

[WiLL]

I can highly recommend Des PAwson's book 'Handbook of Knots' as being a useful little book for when you have some time and rope on your hands. One of my favourites (which I have actually used) is the monkey's fist. Which shows you how to make a round 'ball' of a knot around a weight at the end of a line so you can swing it up and over a beam with ease. But it also shows you some nice variations on quick release knots which I've found invaluable for stage drops and the like. And when I was asked to construct some ship's shrouds (the big rope ladder/nets on square rigged sailing ships which support the masts) for a production of Ancient Mariner it really proved it's worth.

[the kid]

I was looking there are a couple of good android apps out there for knot tying and practice.

[Germaine]

can I agree with the top 3 that have been mentioned numerous times above, but can I also add Alpine Butterfly. You wont use it often but when you need it no other knot will do the same job.

[jonathanhill]

As I have mentioned before, as a minimum, you need a knot, a bend, and a hitch.

 

The usual suspects are a bowline, a sheet bend, and a clove hitch.

 

Anything else that you can add to this repertory will be a bonus.

[Sam Jelfs]

I would say being able to tie things on the bight is also a useful exercise... being able to tie something off without having to pull through metres of rope can be very useful at times.

[David Lee]

+1 to tying on the bight.