I’ve recently become interested in knot tying and wonder what knots Dopers use when needing to bend 2 ropes together. The sheetbend is easy enough but it almost seems too simple to be secure. The double sheetbend seems to be a better choice but I freely admit that I don’t understand knot theory. The Carrick bend has an eye appealing symmetry to it but it seems to capsize easily. My Google fu indicates that it’s still secure when capsized but it looses its eye appeal. The double fisherman’s knot seems clever and it’s hard to see how it would fail but I assume that it’s possible.
Feel free to use any disclaimers or qualifiers that you desire.
I like the sheet bend or the Alpine Butterfly bend. The sheet bend is good to know since it works with ropes of different sizes, but the Alpine butterfly is much more fun to tie.
What is the down side of the square knot? When you have no special purpose in mind and just want a longer rope. If you do have a special purpose, the knot of choice would be dictated by that purpose.
In my climbing class, I believe that the recommendations were a water knot for a flat (webbing) rope and a double (or triple) fisherman’s for a regular, round rope.
Of course, the emphasis is on not dying, rather than on symmetry or how fun it is to tie.
Years of playing in a band and working with network cabling have convinced me that climbers should use audio or network cable instead of rope. If two of them are even in the same room they spontaneously knot together so tightly that it takes an act of Congress to separate them.
What materials are being tied? What is the purpose for tying them together? What forces will the knot be exposed to? What are the consequences of failure? Will the knot ever need to be untied, and if so, under what circumstances? How much time do I have to tie the knot?
I used to use a self-opposed double-double sheet bend (one knot tied “clockwise” the opposed knot tied “counterclockwise”) purpose was to secure the “snugging” rope so it wouldn’t slip once the new boat cover was on the boat. This was company sop
It reliably capsizes into a strong and very secure (though somewhat bulky) knot - one of the few knots of which this is true. It’s also easy to untie no matter how much it has been loaded.
It’s thus the preferred knot for hawsers and rope too large to allow a knot to be worked into its final shape
Big fan of the quick and elegant sheet bend but for something I would trust my life to (as a climber in my younger days) I would go with what I was taught: Figure of Eight Follow-Through.
