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by eternityforest 995 days ago
My personal list is the uni-knot, sheet bend(Along with the slipped and double versions), tautline hitch, alpine butterfly loop, highwayman's hitch, and clove hitch.

And of course the double slipped square knot. I always have trouble with it, the right over left and left over right steps slow me down trying to make sure I don't accidentally tie a granny. But once it's done it's really obvious to anyone how to untie it since it's a standard shoelace bow.

I think one of the coolest things is that most knots have a really obvious slipped version, once you know the base knot you can make sure it never binds on you.

I always hear the clove hitch is not the greatest though, so I'm never sure what to do. Gliepnir is my favorite replacement, but it's not easy to remember.

1 comments

> the clove hitch is not the greatest though, so I'm never sure what to do

The rolling hitch [1] is a slight variation that works great as a drop-in replacement. For attaching a rope to a pole, I go as far down this list as is feasible and/or necessary:

- two half hitches [2] (this is actually just a clove-hitch around the standing end)

- round turn and two half hitches [3] (like the above, but a little more secure and it takes the load while you tie it)

- anchor hitch [4] (even more secure, but harder to tie under load)

[1]: https://www.animatedknots.com/rolling-hitch-knot

[2]: https://www.animatedknots.com/two-half-hitches-knot

[3]: https://www.animatedknots.com/round-turn-two-half-hitches-kn...

[4]: https://www.animatedknots.com/anchor-hitch-knot

My go to is the 'midshipmans hitch' with an extra half-turn at the end, dead easy and secure whenever I've used it https://www.animatedknots.com/midshipmans-hitch-knot
For some reason the idea of using an friction hitch as just a regular hitch when you don't specifically need adjustability never occurred to me.... I might just start doing this although I don't know the Midshipman's, just the Tautline.

I like how it doesn't wrap tightly around the thing, giving you some slack when you need to untie it, and a sudden load while tying won't make it constrict around an object, making it less likely to take an errant finger with it.

Thanks, that's really neat!

Round turn and two half hitches is really interesting because you don't have to relearn anything.

It seems to be "nooslike" similar to the uni-knot, which makes me wonder if just a slipped uni-knot (Maybe with a round turn?) Could also work?