Best knots for
Camping
Tarps, guy lines, bundles and washing lines. Knots that are quick to tie with cold hands and quick to undo when you pack up.
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Loops
Bowline
The classic fixed loop.
●○○ Easy -
Binding knots
Clove Hitch
Two turns round a post with the second crossing over the first.
●○○ Easy -
Splices & whippings
Common Whipping
Turns of thin twine bound round a rope end to stop it unravelling.
●○○ Easy -
Hitches
Cow Hitch
A bight of rope dropped round a rail with both legs pulled through it.
●○○ Easy -
Loops
Double Overhand Noose
A running loop held by a double overhand tied round the standing part.
●○○ Easy -
Bends
Fisherman’s Knot
Each end ties an overhand knot round the other rope.
●○○ Easy -
Bends
Flat Overhand Bend
The two ends held together and tied as one in an overhand knot.
●○○ Easy -
Hitches
Half Hitch
The simplest hitch: the end goes round the standing part and across itself.
●○○ Easy -
Stopper knots
Overhand Knot
The simplest knot there is, and the first move of many others.
●○○ Easy -
Hitches
Round Turn and Two Half Hitches
A round turn on a ring or post takes the load while you finish with two half hitches round the standing part.
●○○ Easy -
Bends
Sheet Bend
The everyday knot for joining two ropes, including ropes of different thickness.
●○○ Easy -
Stopper knots
Slipped Overhand Knot
An overhand knot finished with a bight instead of the end, so one pull on the short end releases it.
●○○ Easy -
Binding knots
Timber Hitch
A noose that grips a log, a pole or a bundle: the end goes round the standing part and is twisted back round its own turn.
●○○ Easy -
Hitches
Two Half Hitches
A turn through a ring or round a post, then two half hitches round the standing part, both the same way.
●○○ Easy -
Bends
Water Knot
An overhand knot in one end, followed back through in reverse by the other end.
●○○ Easy -
Loops
Bowline with Stopper
A bowline with its tail tied in an overhand knot round the leg of the eye beside it, so the bowline cannot shake loose when it is not loaded..
●●○ Intermediate -
Bends
Double Sheet Bend
A sheet bend with a second turn of the thinner rope round the bight.
●●○ Intermediate -
Loops
Englishman’s Loop
A fixed loop made of two overhand knots, one in the end round the standing part and one in the standing part round the end.
●●○ Intermediate -
Hitches
Highwayman’s Hitch
A quick-release hitch on a rail made only of bights: one bight round the rail, a second through it, and a third through the second.
●●○ Intermediate -
Hitches
Mirrored Rolling Hitch
The rolling hitch tied as its mirror image, for a pull coming from the opposite side.
●●○ Intermediate -
Hitches
Rolling Hitch
A hitch that holds against a pull along a pole or another rope, not just across it.
●●○ Intermediate -
Lashings
Sheer Lashing
Lashes two poles side by side, to lengthen a pole or to make sheer legs (an A-frame).
●●○ Intermediate -
Lashings
Square Lashing
Lashes two poles that cross at right angles, for frames, tables, gates and trellises.
●●○ Intermediate -
Splices & whippings
Eye Splice
A permanent eye in the end of a three-strand rope: the end is bent back and its strands are tucked into the standing part, against the lay.
●●● Advanced