Diamond Hitch

Diamond Hitch

Aplications : This hitch secures loads to pack animals or to off-road and other vehicles. (See also trucker's hitch.)


Method : Pass a continuous line around six anchorage points (1-3).The characteristic feature of this hitch is the twisted middle parts, which allow the slack to be taken up where necessary as the load shifts and strains.



History : The diamond hitch was used by nineteenth‑century North American wilderness trekkers and prospectors, amongst others.

Trucker's Hitch

Trucker's Hitch

Aplications : This hitch gives tension to the lashing on a loaded vehicle. (See also diamond hitch)

Method : Treble the rope parts in your hand and hook an overhand loop onto the uppermost bight (1). A trade trick is to put one or two twists into the long bight (2) before doing anything else, to prevent the knot from spilling as you pull it taut and take up the slack (known as swigging). Now pull a bight of the free line through the twisted bight, pass it around a convenient anchorage, and pull (3). Lead the line around the next anchorage point and repeat the process.



History : The other name for this contrivance is the waggoner's hitch, which implies that it is as old as carts and carriages. The first part of the knot (1) is the bell‑ ringer's knot, described as early as 1815.

Chain Stitch Lashing

Chain Stitch Lashing

Aplications : This technique is ideal for securing a range of soft and awkward long bundles, from rolled carpets to furled sails. There is give and take in the embrace of the lashing, and it is therefore suitable for loads that bend and flex.

Method : This technique needs a long rope or cord. Start with a timber hitch (1 and see Killick Hitch). Loop one bight through the other, finishing off with a clove hitch (2-3, and see Clove Hitch). Untie the clove hitch, withdraw the end, pull and watch it unravel.

Marline Hitching

Marline Hitching

Aplications : Although at first glance marline hitching is identical to half-hitching ,there is a little more tying involved than in half-hitching, but this method of securing a parcel gives a better grip.

Method : Unlike half-hitching, which is a series of single hitches, marline hitching uses simple overhand knots tied along the length of the object(s) to be parcelled. Note that a working end is needed for marline hitching, although not for half-hitching. It is tricky to discern the subtle difference between these two techniques just by looking; but slide half-hitches off their bundle and they fall apart, whereas marline hitches end up as a series of overhand knots.

Half Hitching

Half Hitching

Aplications : A simple way to tie long parcels, half-hitching is closely akin to marline hitching.Many people cannot tell the difference, but there is one. Half-hitching can be done without resort to the end of the string or cord used. (See also chain stitch lashing)


Method : Using a continuous line, start with a clove, rolling or timber hitch (see Killick Hitch, Clove Hitch, Rolling Hitch). Add as many hitches at suitable intervals as necessary. Either pass the working end around and through each time, or (with an inconveniently long line) simply slide underhand loops over the end of the bale or parcel as you go.Tie off as you like.

Pole Hitch

Pole Hitch

Aplications : The pole hitch is a gathering and binding knot. A pair of these will hold assorted long objects.

Method : Arrange the cord in an S- or Z-shape beneath the assembled objects, and tuck both ends through opposite bights (1). Draw tight and tie off with a reef knot (2).



History : In 1987 this hitch was recommended by the Girl Guides Association for lashing tent poles together. (See Knotting for Guides by Hazel Bailey.)

Highwayman's Hitch

Highwayman's Hitch

Aplications : A temporary tether for an animal or for mooring a boat, the highwayman's hitch may be tied in the bight of a middled rope, so that a long end is within reach to undo it again. This knot can be used to hold almost anything that will have to be released quickly or awkwardly (e.g., with one hand, or with the teeth, or from a distance).

Method : This is the ultimate in draw-loop knots, tied simply by making one loop on top of another (1-4).



History : There is no evidence to substantiate the reputation of the highwayman's hitch as a quick-get-away knot for robbers on horseback.

Pile Hitch

Pile Hitch

Aplications : This hitch is used for making a line fast to a stake, post, pile or bollard. It is best tied in the bight.

Method : Take a turn with a bight beneath the standing part and place it over the post, etc. (1-3).

Icicle Hitch

Icicle Hitch

Aplications : The icicle hitch can attach a line to the smoothest of spars or rails (including a polished brass fireman's pole), even when it tapers towards the direction of pull.

Method :
A. End of spar accessible

Take at least four turns around the rail or spar (1); take more if an exceptionally secure hitch is required. With the working end, create a generous loop hanging down behind the standing part (2). Pass this loop in front of all other parts and drop it, without twisting, over the end of the spar (3). Draw everything up tight by pulling first the standing part and then the working end at right-angles to the spar. Now tighten it all again. Only then can the load be carefully applied, and the knot pulled out to the shape shown (4). There must be no separation of the two turns on the thicker part of the spar. If this occurs, add extra turns at the start. As long as two turns on the thicker part remain snug together, the hitch should hold fast.

B. End of spar inaccessible
Using the working end, assemble the knot as shown (5-8), but then tighten it until it behaves as already detailed in A above.

History : An ex-tended pile hitch (see p. 72), the icicle hitch was devised by John Smith of Surrey, England. He demonstrated his knot's quite exceptional grip in May 1990 at the eighth Annual General Meeting of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, held at the training ship Steadfast, a Sea Cadet shore establishment at Farnham in Hampshire. Smith hung by this hitch from a splicing fid, which was suspended, point down, from the ceiling.

Vice Versa

Vice Versa

Aplications : This is a tigh bend for slippery cordage, especially useful in wet conditions

Method : The interweaving (1-4) is not too hard to follow, although every crossing point over and under must be exactly right.The appearance of the finished knot (5) is distinctive.

Tarbuck Knot

Tarbuck Knot

Aplications : A useful general-purpose slide­and-grip loop, the Tarbuck knot may be grasped in the hand and shifted along, but it will seize up under load. It is used to tension guy-lines, clothes-lines, etc., and can also be used to moor small craft temporarily on a rising or falling tide.


Method :Take two and a half turns with the working end around the standing part, bringing it out through the loop so formed (1-2).Then twist the working end in a figure eight around the standing part and under itself, as shown (3). There is only one right way to tie this knot but many wrong ways. Work the entire knot snug before use. Do not use this knot as a hitch around a rigid rope or rail to resist a lengthwise pull (illustrated in at least one manual). It seems like a good idea, but it should be remembered that the knot relies for its grip on creating a dog's-leg kink in its own standing part (4).This is impossible if the line is tied to a separate and unyielding foundation.



History : This knot was devised around 1952 by climber and skier Ken Tarbuck to cope with post-war nylon climbing ropes. It was an end man's tie-on to a karabiner, intended to absorb sudden loads by slipping until the load was reduced to a safe weight (when the knot would hold). But no sooner had it become widely known through Tarbuck's expert writing and lecturing, than kernmantel (core-sheath) climbing ropes emerged. These absorb shock loading by their elasticity and the Tarbuck knot can ruin such ropes, gripping and stripping the outer sheath. It is therefore no longer recommended for its original specialized purpose.

Handcuff Knot

Handcuff Knot

Aplications : A fireman's chair knot can be started with this knot, which can also hobble a live animal, sling a carcass or render an escapologist helpless.

Method : Interweave two mirror-image loops under and over each other (1-2). Alternatively, pull straight through (3-4) into the simpler six crossing-point knot called the Tom fool's knot. Some feel this is inferior to the handcuff knot, with its eight crossing points, but there is evidence to show one is more or less as good as the other.



History : So-called handcuff knots may have originated, as an alternative to a picket line, to prevent grazing animals straying from overnight camps.

Midshipman's Hitch

Midshipman's Hitch

Aplications : Primarily an adjustable loop for moorings, guy-lines, etc., the midshipman's hitch has even been suggested (minus the final half-hitch) as a quick way to attach yourself to a life-line in an emergency. In a situation of this kind, grip the working end to the standing part with at least one hand.

Method : Tie a rolling hitch (see rolling hitch) onto the standing part of the line (1-4). Carefully arranged, it should neither slip nor jam.To make the hitch semi-permanent, tape or knot the end to the adjacent rope.



History : The name of this early slide-and-grip knot suggests a naval origin, and, as the rank of midshipman was a lowly one, it may be that it was a derogatory term for an underrated knot.

Scaffold Knot

Scaffold Knot

Aplications : This is a tough noose knot, which may be protected against wear due to chafing by the insertion of a plastic or metal lining called a thimble, creating what sailors refer to as a 'hard eye: Thimbles come in a range of sizes and are obtainable from boat and yacht chandlers. Practised fingers can tie the scaffold knot in 30 seconds or less.


Method : First make the loop and tighten the sliding knot (1-3). Next, insert the thimble (4). See that its jaws bed down into the throat of the noose and pull the whole lot snug. To attach a line directly to a ring or bracket, without using a shackle, fix the thimble in place and pass the working end of the line around it before tying the knot.



History : The scaffold knot was described in Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie of 1762.

Manharness Knot

Manharness Knot

Applications : This knot is used to put a shoulder loop in a rope when hauling a load.

Method : Make a large loop and pull a bight through under-over (1-3).The load should be applied in the direction shown (4).



History : The manharness knot's other names — the artilleryman's loop, the harness loop and the manharness hitch — indicate its earlier uses for lugging field guns into position and easing the strain on horses struggling uphill or in muddy going. Indeed, in 1887 the British Army called it 'a man's harness hitch' (Instruction in Military Engineering). Boy Scouts were once taught to put these knots in the drag lines of their trek carts. In Knotting Matters (April 1992) Mike Storch recommended using a series of manharness knots at intervals along a picket line to tether horses.

Bowstring Knot and Loop

Bowstring Knot and Loop

Applications : When tension is a critical factor, this adjustable loop will tighten or slacken tent guy-lines, temporary washing lines, etc.

Method : Tuck the working end through the overhand knot (1-2).There is only one correct way - and five wrong ways - to do this. Add a stopper knot (3) for extra security.The Oriental alternative (4-6) incorporates an extra piece of cord and was designed for a cord that ends in a bight or loop.



History : Elizabethan archers looped the tops of their bowstrings and tightened them with this knot; but it was used by the indigenous peoples of several continents and so is no doubt much older. I have seen something similar as a ligature around the neck of a mummified Ancient Briton (c. 500 Bc). Spanish vaqueros and American cowboys, who used it in their lariats, called it a honda knot.

Boa Knot

Boa Knot

Applications : The ultimate binding, this neatly combines the forms and functions of both constrictor and strangle knots. It may be tied in the same size of cord around a wide range of diameters, wherever seizing or lashing is needed.

Method : Lay down two right-handed, overhand loops, one on top of the other (1-2).Then simply twist the resulting coil into the figure eight layout shown, and slide the knot onto its foundation (3). Draw it up snug, neatening any misaligned cord parts as you do so (4).The knot will usually be tied in the bight like this. It may be formed with a working end by first tying a basic constrictor knot (5) and then wrapping and tucking one of the ends as shown (6-7).



History : This — the newest knot in the book — was discovered in 1996 by Dr Peter Collingwood, the eminent weaver and craft writer, in his search for a reliable seizing on ends which had to be cut very short; and it is a nice example of how knots emerge to fill what (with hindsight) is an obvious gap in the family tree but was previously an overlooked and unsuspected missing link.

Heaving Line Knot

Heaving Line Knot

Applications : Throwing lines fly better through the air if the end is weighted, and this is one knot for the job. (See also monkey's fist) Tied in a length of cord it makes a neat, convenient hank to carry in a rucksack or on a belt loop.

Method : Make a bight and wrap the two adjacent parts with the working end (1-2). After tucking the working end, pull all slack through the knot (first one way, then the other) until it emerges where the standing part enters the knot (3-4). For a bulkier version of the same knot, wrap three standing parts (5-7).



History : The heaving line knot and variations on it have been recorded since at least the nineteenth century.