What's Knot to Know? (How to Tie Knots)

Types of Knots: How To


When you are out in the wilderness, the ability to tie knots is a valuable quality.  You can tie your food supply out of the reach of hungry animals, tie up tents and tarps, tie yourself in a tree to sleep at night, and do many other things with knots.
There are many different types of knots, but here are a three of them that are especially helpful:

Bowline

The Bowline Knot is great to know because it doesn't slip.  It is useful for mountain climbing, anchoring tarps, and many more operations. 

Alderleaf Wilderness College show us how to tie it:

To start the bowline, first make a small loop on the rope.

Take the rope end through the loop, around the main line of the rope and back down into the loop.

Try to remember “the rabbit comes out of the hole, goes around the tree and then back down into the hole.”

To tighten, pull the main line of the rope away from the loop.

Square Knot

This knot is also known as the Reef Knot.  It is used to tie packages, bandages, and to join short pieces of rope together.   

Alderleaf Wilderness College shows us how to tie it:

To begin, lay the ends of the ropes parallel and then pick up a rope in each hand.

Now tie an overhand knot as you would for tying your shoe laces by putting the right end under and over the left rope end.

Then tie another overhand knot, this time putting the left end under and over the right rope.

Completed Square Knot

Clove Hitch

The Clove Hitch tightly secures a rope to an object.

Alderleaf Wilderness College show us how to tie it:

To begin, bring the rope end over and under the post. Next, take the rope around a second time, crossing it over the first wrap to form an X on the post.

Now, bring the rope end around a third time, and tuck it under the center of the X.

Tighten by pulling the end and the main line apart.

Before you head out into the wilderness, it would be wise to learn the knots shown above.  There are many situations that you will find these knots helpful, once you are out in the wild.  The knots listed above are the bare minimum you should learn, there are many more to know about.  See the links posted below for more knots, and how to tie them.

Check out this page for more information on knots and how to tie them!
http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/
There's some helpful and interesting information about knots on this page:
http://www.asiteaboutnothing.net/cr_knots.html