Last year I briefly wrote about knot tying and that I was learning to be a little less useless when helping people move house by having a few knots up my sleeve. Back then I only learned a couple of really simple knots, like the bowline, the clove hitch and the square knot. I've picked up a few other useful knots for a couple of semi-common situations since then.
- Threaded Figure 8. When erecting a tent or a marquee, a threaded figure 8 is useful for attaching your guy ropes to the actual tent or marquee, if they didn't come already-attached. A bowline can be used aswell, but with all of the different variations, I think a figure 8 is more versatile, even if it's a little slower to tie than a bowline.
- Trucker's Hitch. Following on from the figure 8, after the guy rope has been attached to the tent, the other end of the rope needs to be attached to the peg in the ground (or a nearby tree), and the trucker's hitch is an awesome way to tension and secure the rope. I like the trucker's hitch more than the taut line hitch for this purpose because I've found that the taut line hitch doesn't work well with every kind of cordage, whereas the trucker's hitch does. It's also great for tying down cargo in the tray of a ute, or in the back of a moving truck. It looks difficult to tie, but it's worth spending time on for how versatile it is. It's one of those knots I watched my dad tie a million times as a kid but was never able to remember how he did it.
- Slipped Sheet Bend. Great for joining two bits of rope together. It's a lot stronger than a square knot and is quicker to tie and easier to undo than a figure 8 bend.
- Timber/Killick Hitch. For hauling anything and everything. I haven't actually used this in any real situation yet, but I like it.
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