Tying The Knot

Now the title to this post might make you think that this is about getting married, but you would be wrong if you thought that. I am actually talking about tying real knots. Growing up in Boy Scouts we were taught all different kinds of knots. We ever had to know certain knots to move up in rank. I didn’t realize how useful these knots would be later in my life at the time I was just learning them.

I figure most people might know the typical knots like the square knot, shoelace knot (bow-tie knot), slip knot, and maybe some of you know how to tie a tie. If you are a normal person those are all you probably need to know. But there are tons of other knots that people should know that could make your life a little easier. Like the 2 half hitches, bowline knot, timber hitch, clover hitch, and taught line. (Below are examples on how to tie those knots.) You can use these knots for simple things like making a lasso, tying 2 ropes together, needing to pull/carry something, or these knots can be used for hundreds of things to be honest.

Growing up in Boy Scouts we used to have races to see who could tie knots that fastest. The most common knot that everyone bragged about was being able to tie a one handed bowline. Now I was never that cool or talented enough to ever learn how to do it but I sure did try. But some of the most useful knots that we learned and used were lashing. We use to build all kinds of structures using lashing. Lashing is when you use rope, wire or string and time together typically 2 or more poles.(Below are 2 examples of what lashing look like.) A lot of the time the poles are timber poles, or at least that is what we used in scouts. The most common thing we would build would probably be a large slingshot or a monkey bridge. I looked all over my Facebook to try to find a picture of the awesome things we would build but I had nothing on there. I guess we were building those all before technology let us share everything that we were doing. If any of y’all have any pictures of the things you built from lashing I would love to see them.

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Spending a lot of time outdoors and knowing how to tie knots almost seem like they would go hand in hand. Plus in my opinion tying knots can help you in a lot of different ways in life, especially if you start young. It can help your hand eye coordination, wilderness survival skills, build forts/slingshots, problems solving skills, and it is something that can challenge you. I don’t see as many younger people out there learning how to tie knots or challenge themselves much in the outdoors.

All I am really saying is I enjoyed tying knots to things and building stuff when I was a lot younger and I wish I get back into again. Being able to build something out of just some rope and a few logs was just so satisfying back when I was a teenager. Learning how to tie knots is completely free and can come in pretty handy from time to time.

"Cheers"