Twelve knots, and the way each one lets go

also: Flemish knot

Keeps a rope end from running out through a block, a fairlead or a grommet. An overhand knot does the same job in less rope, and then jams so hard it usually has to be cut out; the figure eight is the one that comes back.

1. Make a crossing turn a hand's width from the end.
2. Take the working end behind the standing part.
3. Bring it down through the loop.
4. Pull the standing part and the end apart until both lobes lie flat.

Worth knowing. The tail is the part people get wrong: leave ten rope diameters of it. A stopper with a short tail is a stopper that has already half untied.

How it fails. It rarely breaks and it rarely slips. What it does is jam. After a shock load in wet rope, work it loose by bending the lobes with your thumbs, not by hauling on the ends. Left loose and unset in stiff or slick line it can shake out, so dress it and pull it up hard.

also: figure-eight loop

The loop to tie when the knot will be loaded hard and checked by somebody else. Its shape is legible from three metres away, right or wrong, which is why climbing and rescue work standardised on it rather than on stronger, subtler knots.

1. Double the rope back on itself to make a bight.
2. Tie a plain figure eight using the doubled rope.
3. Dress it: every pair of strands lies parallel, nothing crosses.
4. Set it by pulling all four parts, and leave a long tail.

Worth knowing. A crossed, untidy eight is measurably weaker than a dressed one, and it looks wrong at a glance. That legibility is a safety property, not an aesthetic one.

How it fails. It jams. That is the trade for its strength: after a serious loading you may be untying it with a marlinspike, or not at all. It also needs an end or the middle of the rope. If the line is already round a tree you need a rethreaded eight or a bowline instead.

also: king of knots, and oversold as such

A loop that will still untie after it has been loaded, which is why it survived four centuries of sail. Round a post, through a ring, into a sail's clew, onto a bucket handle.

1. Make a small crossing turn in the standing part, loop uppermost.
2. Bring the working end up through the loop.
3. Round behind the standing part.
4. Back down through the loop, alongside the part that came up.
5. Set it by pulling the standing part against the loop.

Worth knowing. Fix it, don't avoid it: a long tail, a stopper in the tail, or a Yosemite finish. In high-modulus line, don't use it at all.

How it fails. Three ways, all documented. Pulled sideways across the loop (ring loading) it can capsize into a slip knot. Cycled loose and loaded, loose and loaded, the tail creeps out. In stiff or slippery rope it rolls out entirely. None of these are hypothetical; all three have killed people who trusted a bowline in the wrong rope.

also: lineman's loop

A loop in the middle of a rope, tied without either end, that takes a pull in all three directions at once. It is the knot for isolating a damaged section, for clipping the middle of a line, and for the loop in a trucker's hitch.

1. Take two turns round your flat hand.
2. Lift the turn nearest your fingertips over the other two and back toward your wrist.
3. Pull that turn out from under the remaining turns to form the loop.
4. Slide it off and set it by pulling both standing parts.

Worth knowing. Unlike an overhand loop, it does not jam after being loaded from two ends, which is why it is worth the extra ten seconds.

How it fails. Tied wrong it dresses into a shape that looks similar and pulls out of line under a three-way load. Check the finished knot: it is symmetrical, and the two standing parts leave the knot on opposite sides. It also deforms slightly before it grips when the pull is loop-only in soft rope.

also: builder's hitch, ratline hitch

Fast, adjustable, and tieable in a bight with no end free. Fenders on a rail, a line onto a post while you work out what you actually want.

1. Take a turn round the post.
2. Take a second turn, crossing over the first diagonally.
3. Tuck the working end under that second turn.
4. Set both parts and check the two turns lie snug against each other.

Worth knowing. Back it up with a half hitch on the standing part and it becomes a reasonable hitch. On its own it is a way to hold something still, not a way to hold something safe.

How it fails. It slips. Under a load that changes direction, under vibration, or on a smooth or tapered post it walks and then lets go, and it can bind so hard the other way that it is hard to release under tension. Treat it as a temporary hitch or a component of a bigger one, never as the only thing holding a load.

also: the ring hitch that actually works

The everyday way to make a loaded rope fast to a ring, rail or bollard. The round turn carries most of the load by friction before the knot exists, so you can tie the hitches with slack in your hands, and ease the load out again under control.

1. Take a full round turn round the object, so the rope crosses its own path.
2. Make a half hitch round the standing part.
3. Make a second half hitch the same way round.
4. Set the hitches down against the round turn.

Worth knowing. On a permanent mooring, seize the tail to the standing part with light line. Months of small movements will otherwise work it loose.

How it fails. The failure is a tying error: the second half hitch taken the opposite way round produces a cow hitch shape that creeps along the standing part under load. Both hitches must run in the same direction, so the finished pair looks like a clove hitch on the standing part.

the taut-line family, and the one to prefer

Tension a line by hand and have it stay: push the hitch toward the anchor to slacken, pull it back to tighten, and the load holds it in place. Guy lines, tarp ridge lines, a line over a load.

1. Pass the end round the anchor and bring it back alongside the standing part.
2. Take two turns round the standing part, both inside the loop, working toward the anchor.
3. Take one more turn outside the loop.
4. Dress the turns snug and load it to set.

Worth knowing. The variant with both turns inside the loop is the midshipman's; the common taut-line has them arranged so the hitch sits against the load and is more prone to rolling. Same family, better behaviour.

How it fails. It grips by friction, so it slips in wet, icy, dirty or high-modulus line, and it slips if the turns are loose. Under a sudden shock it either jams or runs, depending on where the turns sit. It is a hand-tension knot, not a safety knot.

also: dolly, waggoner's hitch

The way to pull a load down hard with rope you already have: a loop in the standing part acts as a turning point, and the end reeved through it gives you leverage no hand can match on the rope alone.

1. Make the line fast at one end.
2. Tie a loop in the standing part above the anchor: an alpine butterfly, not a slipped overhand.
3. Pass the working end round the anchor and back up through the loop.
4. Haul on the end. The theoretical gain is 3:1.
5. Lock it off with two half hitches round both parts below the loop.

Worth knowing. Use a butterfly for the loop. An overhand-based loop jams under exactly the tension the hitch is designed to create, and you will be cutting it off.

How it fails. The hazard is the force, not the knot. Rope running over rope is a bad pulley: friction eats most of the gain, and hauled systems commonly measure nearer 2:1. But 2:1 on a body weight is still enough to crush a roof box, bow a rack rail, or take a thin cord past its rating. Everything in the system, including the anchor, must be rated for what your arms can generate.

also: weaver's knot, becket bend

Joins two ropes, and unlike most bends it does not mind that they are of different diameter or stiffness. The thick rope forms the bight; the thin rope does the work.

1. Make a bight in the thicker rope.
2. Bring the thin rope up through the bight.
3. Pass it round behind both legs of the bight.
4. Tuck it under its own standing part, not under the bight.
5. Check both short ends finish on the same side.

Worth knowing. Ends on opposite sides is the left-handed sheet bend: it looks nearly identical, holds worse, and is the single most common way this knot is tied wrong.

How it fails. It spills. With no load on it, a sheet bend shaken about will work itself apart, and it is among the weaker bends when it does hold. With a large difference in diameter, take a second round turn (the double sheet bend) or it rolls off the thick rope's bight.

also: grapevine bend

The compact, symmetrical way to join two ropes of similar diameter, and the standard way to close a length of cord into a loop for friction hitches. Its low profile is why it passes over edges and through gear without snagging.

1. Lay the ropes side by side, ends opposed.
2. With one end, take two wraps round both ropes and thread it back through the wraps.
3. Repeat with the other end, the mirror image of the first.
4. Pull the two barrel knots together until they seat as one.

Worth knowing. Both barrels must be mirror images. If one is tied the other way round the pair sits crooked and seats badly, and checking for it takes a second.

How it fails. It does not come undone; that is the failure. After a heavy load, budget on cutting it rather than untying it, and never use it on a rope you will need to separate. In slippery high-modulus cord, use three wraps instead of two.

the classic of a large family

A cord that grips a rope when it is loaded and slides freely when it is not. Ascending a fixed line, backing up a lowering, hauling systems, holding a tensioned line while you re-tie the end.

1. Girth-hitch the cord loop round the host rope.
2. Pass the loop through itself twice more, so three wraps lie neatly side by side.
3. Dress the wraps flat, because crossed wraps hold badly.
4. Test it under body weight before it matters.

Worth knowing. Diameter is the whole trick: cord at roughly 60-80% of the host rope's diameter. Too close and it slips, too thin and it damages the sheath before it stops you. Four wraps in wet or icy conditions.

How it fails. It slips, then it melts. A prusik that runs under load glazes the cord, and the melting point of the cord is the real limit: roughly 215-260 °C for nylon, and about 145 °C for high-modulus polyethylene, which is why HMPE cord must never be used for a friction hitch.

also: the knot you tie to cut off

Closes a sack, clamps a bundle, holds a hose while you work on it, and stops a rope end unlaying before you whip it. It tightens on itself and does not let go.

1. Take a turn round the bundle.
2. Cross a second turn over the first, as for a clove hitch.
3. Tuck the end under the crossing rather than under the last turn alone.
4. Pull both ends hard; it will not need checking again.

Worth knowing. For a rope end about to be whipped or a bundle that is going nowhere, nothing else is as quick or as certain.

How it fails. The trouble with it is the opposite of failure. On a thin-walled tube it can crush what it is holding, and once set in small cord it is effectively permanent. Tie it where you are content to cut it off, and use a slipped version if you want any chance of undoing it.