So there’s one possibly legitimate use. But that certainly ain’t significant enough to put it in a “top ten” knot list, is it? Unless yer a pirate.
You must have missed UncleRojelio’s use, it was the one I was going to post. A climbing friend told me about it, it was famous among the old (late fifties, early sixties) Colorado climbers.
Oops. Yeah, I should have included the other Unc’s use in my enumeration.
OK, I just listed for myself 10 knots which are more useful than a sheepshank, so I’ll agree that it doesn’t belong in a “top ten most useful” list. It probably does, however, belong in a list of the “top ten easiest” knots.
If you’re curious, here’s the list I came up with:
Overhand
Square
Bowline
Sheet Bend
Clove Hitch
Taut-line Hitch
Timber Hitch
Slip Knot
Bow Knot
Lariat Loop
I can think of several others, intended for specialized uses, that are probably still more common than sheepshanks (for instance, there’s a special kind of knot (whose name I don’t recall) for joining two strips of nylon mesh, that works better for that purpose than most rope knots). Heck, I find that I even use the much-maligned granny knot more often than a sheepshank: It’s good for tying closed a plastic grocery bag which you intend to untie later.
You are probably thinking of what I learned as the “water knot”, also called a “ring bend” or a “tape knot” (a better term, since “water knot” is sometimes used for other knots):
http://www.student.virginia.edu/~brmrg/knots/water.html
Your list looks rather “boy scout handbook”, which is probably a decent compromise. A climber or sailor’s list is probably going to be different. I might lobby for inclusion of the fisherman’s knot (grapevine).
From the link:
So nice to see a skilled artisan taking pride in his work! :eek:
Unsurprising, since I learned my knots in Boy Scouts. And I didn’t intend for my list to be the Top 10 list, just a list of 10 knots I could think of off the top of my head all of which were more useful than the Sheepshank. If the Fisherman’s Knot belongs on the list, too, that just strengthens my point that the Sheepshank does not.
Incidentally, your link for the “Water Knot” matches my recollections.
The trucker’s hitch (which is a modified sheepshank) shown on that website is not the one I was taught and used for many years. The first point of the knot is that there should be no need to pass an end through the loop. The second is that it should come undone reasonably easily (try it when the rope is wet and frozen). Thirdly it should bind enough so that you can pull and relax to get it tight.
Other considerations are that you can do a second knot on the slack rope to double the tension, it must not damage the rope, and of course, it MUST be reliable.
When roping and sheeting a 40’ trailer it may be necessary to use upwards of two dozen of these knots on three or four lengths of rope.
You might have mentioned what those reasons were, for those of us without the app.
Exactly what I’ve always felt* about the sheepshank – it looked like a knot just waiting for a chance to undo when the tension let go, and cause havoc.
A I agree entirely with your first paragraph, which is good knot sense. Too often the reasons for using a knot aren’t made clear by the books giving them or the people teaching them, and the ability to be easily untied (and to not cause undue fraying of the rope) are two crucial important bits about a knot.
And thanks for relaying information about who would need to shorten a rope using such knots. “two dozen knots”? Yowza. As I said long ago, in most cases where a sheepshank might be indicated, I’d feel infinitely safer undoing my end knot and retying the rope, rather than relying on a knot that might – would, the way most people tie it – let go if tension was slackened.
*Well, without the specifics of the Bellringer’s Knot and the Alpine Butterfly, of which I never heard before now. But an unsecured sheepshank (without something inserted into the end loops) always looked to me like an accident waiting to happen
When I was a (fat) Scout, I learned how to tie a sheepshank and why to tie it.
It’s used to shorten a rope, as mentioned. But it doesn’t seize up after it’s been loaded.
Tie a double overhand, sling a ton of lumber off it, and you’ll have to cut the rope to get it apart.
Using a sheepshank lets you quickly release the rope with no trouble, once it’s slack.
Same principle applies to rock climbers tying in- a figure 8 is fine, but if you plan on falling, use a bowline.
Reported post by boywhocriedshark as spam.
You’ve obviously never spent any time around a flock of sheep that needed to be shanked. Boy scouts are an unsatisfying substitute.
Maybe so but that website is actually useful spam.
zombie or no
true or knot, it still is.
Note: A spam post (quoted by CalMeacham) and several other posts quoting it have been removed.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
2006 isn’t that long ago, is it? Of the five links in this thread, not one is valid any more.
Seven years is an eon in internet time.