Hacker News Reader

Comment by fdr | Hacker News Reader

I took pandemic time to learn some knots, and then forget a bunch of them that didn't offer enough distinct utility to me. I highly recommend the Farrimond Friction Hitch: https://www.animatedknots.com/farrimond-friction-hitch-knot

It's simple and fast to tie (with a little practice for muscle memory), and with an extra turn has exceptional friction preventing loop collapse in some situations where even a bowline would have an issue. However, by relieving tension on one side of the knot, like a taut-line hitch it can slide.

I use it for its common application of tensioning, but I also find it useful for cinching. It can go anywhere a cord lock might have been useful in but a few seconds.

View on HN

I can't track down the name of this knot, but for ropes that will be under tension the knot I learned when working line service in high school for tying down aircraft has been tremendously useful. [0] is an excellent example of how to tie this knot, it holds tremendous tension while being easy to release. I've found this very useful for camping and general securing of loads.

If anyone knows the 'proper' name for this knot I would greatly appreciate it.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMITtV80xpY

This looks like two midshipman’s hitches without the final half hitches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taut-line_hitch#%231855

cool knot, thanks for sharing!

My most useful knot is the trucker's hitch. It's so handy for tying down loads, I don't know how I ever lived without it: https://www.animatedknots.com/truckers-hitch-knot

I'm utterly fascinated, big knot fan and I didn't know this one, but it's a combination of parts I knew.

It's really strange to me though, and it's probably a culture thing, because for this use case literally everybody I know would use a bowline knot (https://www.animatedknots.com/bowling-knot), possibly with an extra lock to make sure it does not untie if there's no tension. This observation comes from a French sailing background, hence the probable cultural bias.

Could you educate me as of where the trucker's hitch is better? (to me the bowtie feels simpler, no possible slippage and easy to untie after a load)

Also a big truckers hitch fan, but that animation was hard for me to follow because it doesn't look anything like how it's used in real life. It doesn't really make sense to compare to a bowline, it's basically used like a ratchet strap.

The first part, up to step 6, is just a slip knot. That part could be replaced by a bowline. But the slip knot can be thrown in one-handed in the middle of the line without needing to pull the end through like a bowline. And when you're done you give it a yank and the slip knot pops out.

Step 7 is the real point of the whole thing. You're using the loop and the hook (in this example) to create a pulley system to crank your load down tight. Then the rest of the steps are a hitch to keep it in place.

This is more secure than the version than I typically see used (and would be annoying to untie). I normally don't poke the end through like in step 9, but make another slip knot so the whole thing can be unravelled by pulling on the end of the line like a quick release.

The trucker's hitch is usefull because you get a mechanical advantage to tension your line.

Typically, I'd do a bowline on one end first, and tension it with a trucker's hitch. If you go with two bowlines, you end up with a floppy line, not great way to tie a load down.

The website you linked is a wonderful advert for the OP

I can't help but offer an amusing video/song upon seeing "trucker's hitch": https://youtu.be/TUHgGK-tImY

I doubt you could find a more topical meme video than that.

The trucker's hitch is great. So quick, and perfect for tensioning loads. I've used it probably a thousand times for tying kayaks on roofracks.

Only had one lost load, due to using the wrong rope (my friend's polypropylene rope rather than my usual climbing rope or yachting halyard rope). Unfortunately, that involved 5 canoe polo kayaks falling off, in the middle of a busy city intersection, in the evening peak hour. Lesson learned: bring your own rope!

Climbing rope is probably not a good fit for this job. Climbing rope has at least 10% stretch.

But you're going to take up a lot of the stretch during the tensioning phase. The key thing is that it's not so slippery that knots fall apart.

Want to add: the _about us_ of this site ("Grog Story") is excellent. I always seek out the "about" of sites to find out "why do you do this, and how well do you understand what you do?"

This does not disappoint: https://www.animatedknots.com/grog-story

Nice knot! I agree with the others, I use the taut line hitch frequently, but this is interesting and looks like it will get easier to tie after a few times. Then it has a pull tag for a quick release.

The tautline hitch is, after the square knot, probably my most-used knot outdoors. It's just versatile and adjustable. I know people say there are usually better knots for various jobs where you can employ it, but throughout all of Boy Scouts and beyond, it was always at least good enough.

Plus, it's really satisfying the way you can slide and adjust it. There's something so wonderful about getting sophisticated mechanics from things made purely of rope or cord.

Do you know about the prusik knot, and the corresponding practise of prusiking?

Works on the same principle as the taut-line hitch. You can hang your weight in the knot on a vertical rope indefinitely. If you can then find a way to unload the knot, you can slide it up the rope and then put your weight on it again, slightly higher up than before.

So how do you unload the knot? By loading another of the same knots! So you alternate between loading and sliding the two knots, making your way up the rope with comparatively little effort and comparatively high security.

It's quite amazing!

Prusik knot is great. Used it for attaching a tarp over the cockpit of a sailboat for some shade by attaching to the shrouds and stays. Holds extremely well in high winds too. Some use it as described by above post to climb the mast.

That's incredible! I'm going to give that a look later this weekend! Thanks!

Klemheist knot is a useful related one. It's easier to slide than prussik and works with webbing or rope.

IIRC it's also easier to accidentally slide, even when loaded. But I could be confusing it with some other friction hitch!

I quite often use the tautline in combination with the truckers: Use the purchase of the truckers to reduce the load that tautline has to hold, but the adjustability of the tautline lets me cinch things tight. Super handy on sailboats.

Great example is from the video linked above with the airplane. At the end he's complaining about the tautline. In that instance, I would use (if not the knot he's showing) a truckers to the plane, and the tautline to set the length.

I learned the taut-line hitch a while ago and find it great for exactly this purpose, and it looks a bit easier than the one you suggest. Do you have a particular reason to recommend this one?

Seconding this question. I learned many knots from my father when I was small, but the taut-line hitch is one of few I have used on a weekly basis all these years.

(If anyone is curious, the carrick bend is the other one I use very often.)

I also learned the taut-line hitch. It looks like the Farrimond Friction Hitch trades off slightly harder tying with easier untying.

Being able to tie in the bight seem useful, it means you don't need to have both ends free to tie it.

A taut line hitch is a good choice in most cases though.

Much better friction. It's especially noticeable with synthetically sheathed ropes, including the abundant and inexpensive paracord format. I also find I can tie and untie it faster: the taut line hitch requires finding and threading the end a lot more (for multiple wraps).

By comparison, the Farrimond Friction hitch is two major steps: wrapping a small underhand loop you can put anywhere on the running end of the rope is faster and more contained motion. After wrapping it, you just tuck a bight through, and you're done. If you crave much more security than what a bight allows, pull the rope through.

If anything took some practice vs the taut line hitch (or the midshipman's variant), it was the fact that the knot is one of those you tend to dress at the end: a taut-line hitch has a distinct and neat look at every step...at the cost of having to thread a rope through one loop (twice), then another once.

Dressing the Farrimond Friction hitch is simple to do, a firm tug on the standing end plus sliding the knot is all you need, but to someone without muscle memory the knot may appear to be controlled chaos in mid-tying. It's a very easy knot to tie without any visual feedback after a bit of practice, you gain a feel for it with your hands.

If the length of your working end is really long, it's easier to tie a farrimond hitch. I used to use the tautline hitch for tying tarps over my hammock, but sometimes I would have a lot of line left over after wrapping it around a tree and passing the end through the loop of the tautline hitch was annoying.

Oh neat it's a taut line hitch but using a prussik instead of half-hitches. It's cool that you can compose knots like that!

nice, kinda like a prusik. i'll give it a go

i learned the trucker's hitch in high school and use it all the time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trucker's_hitch

> kinda like a prusik

Speaking of climbing-related knots, the figure-eight knot is another great knot to know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure-eight_knot

I'll give that a whirl. I usually use a tautline hitch for that function.

Looks like a fancy slip loop

Reply on news.ycombinator.com