I had always assumed that the bowline knot had something to do with the bow of a ship. The Oxford English Dictionary seems to indicate that the nautical origin is correct. Although the “bow” in bowline is pronunced as in “crossbow” not as in “ship’s bow,” that’s not a major obstacle to the nautical theory, because the “bow” in bowsprit is also pronounced boe.
Yesterday I was reading one of my old books and came across directions for making an archer’s bowstring. The loop at the top of the bow is made with (you guessed it) a bowline knot. The directions given show that it is exactly the same knot we all know and love. (The bottom of the string is attached to the bow with a timber hitch.)
I still think it’s probably nautical in origin, but I wanted to make sure. Any dopers know?
bowline doesnt come from the bow of the ship. I cant remember what it means exactly, but it is like when the boat is sailing away from the wind, it is called a run, and so on. A bowline is like this but when the boat is doing something different. The knot is a temporary loop in the end of the rope to stop it coming out of a bolthole or something.
bow·line (bln, -ln)
n. 1.Nautical. A rope attached to the weather leech of a square sail to hold the leech forward when sailing close-hauled.
2.A knot forming a loop that does not slip.
[Middle English bouline, probably from Middle Danish bovline, or Middle Low German blne, both from bch lne: bch, bow + lne, line (from Latin lnea); see line1.]
Are you sure about that, bibliophage? A timber hitch would never hold under the tension and angle of a drawn bow, and it’d be hellish trying to tie one on. Most bowstrings I’ve seen have a permanent loop at each end (presumably a bowline) which is slipped over the end of the bow. Does anyone by chance have a copy of the Archery merit badge booklet?
More on topic, almost all knots were invented and named by sailors. I’d be surprised if the bowline were an exception.
Bowline - A rope attached by the bridles to the bowline cringles, on the leeches of topsails, courses, &c., to keep tight the windward or weather leech of the sail, when on a wind. (agrees with dictionary definition given earlier).
Bow Line (two words): A line attached to a cleat on the bow of a boat, usually for the purpose of securing the boat to a pier.
Bowline (the knot): A knot widely used by sailors. Very secure but easy to untie even when wet or after being under extreme tension. Some common uses: tying sheets to clew of jib, tying reefing lines to rings on boom, attaching mooring lines to the boat.
The knot probably came from its customary use in the square sail days corresponding to the first definition. These days, sport sailors are probably most familiar with it when tying a sheet to a jib, as indicated in the last definition.
The rabbit comes out of his hole, goes around the tree, and back in the hole …
Pretty sure. The timber hitch is remarkably strong, and tends to get stronger with greater tension. See Primitive and Traditional Archery
I have always used a bowline knot at both ends, but a quick and dirty test on my bow shows that the timber hitch does hold at least fairly well. I can’t shoot it right now, since it’s midnight (and raining). I’ll try it out tomorrow. If you don’t hear back from me it probably means I’ve killed myself in the attempt to further science.
Hmm, I’ll take your word for that, and that of the fellow on the page you linked, bibliophage. It still seems counterintuitive to me, though. I suppose that bowstrings are made of high-friction materials? I’m more used to nylon cord and rope, which has a tendancy to slip out of some knots, including timber hitches.
I tried the new bowstring with the bowline knot at the top and timber hitch at the bottom. It works fine. Any slippage was no more than 1/8 inch after firing a dozen arrows. My bowstring is made of a rather high-friction stuff: several strands of waxed polyester. But the book I read this in used a string made of several dozen strands of linen thread. (It’s an old book, from before synthetic fibers were commonly available).
The way I learned to make bowstrings was to use a single piece of thin material, and loop it several times in the length of the desired bowstring. Then you wrap more material around the end to form loops, and wax it all together. No knots needed at all. Don’t know how old this method is, but it doesn’t seem like it requires any new technology.
That’s one of the methods mentioned at bibliophage’s link, and the author says that it does work, but isn’t as strong as a twisted string. Sounds reasonable to me.