The Ashley Book Of Knots by Clifford W Ashley
Faber & Faber, ISBN 0 571 09659 X
WHY KNOT? by Philippe Petit
If at first you don’t succeed, tie, tie again.
1933. The United States Congress repeals Prohibition, works begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood’s King Kong is premiered in New York. Susan Sontag is born, George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London is published. Paul von Hindenberg makes Adolf Hitler chancellor, Ghandi begins a hunger strike in protest at British oppression in India, Albert Einstein emigrates to America. The first drive-in movie theatre is opened in New Jersey.
In that same year, in a farmhouse in Westport, Massachusetts, a man called Clifford Warren Ashley, 53, starts writing a book about knots. Not any kind of book. The definitive kind, that takes more than 40 years to compile and 11 years to complete, with over 7,000 drawings by the author, representing more than 3,800 knots.
Why knots? Well, born in the whaling port of New Bedford, Ashley was taught the reef knot by an uncle, at the age of three. “When I was seven my father gave me a pony on condition that I master the halter hitch.” And before the age of nine, young Clifford claimed to be “proprietor and chief canvas man of a two-ring circus.” “When I was at a proper age I went to sea and served my apprenticeship in knots aboard the whaling bark Sunbeam.” His passion for knots grew strongest in a life filled with painting seascapes, collecting farm tools, buying, restoring and selling mahogany furniture acquired in Jamaica – and, of course, venturing to sea aboard different ships, as sailor, surgeon, crew member or simple observer.
His monumental work – first published in 1944 by Doubleday, Doran& Co, New York – soon became the Mahabharata of knotology. The Ashley Book of Knots – or ABOK as knot aficionados refer to it – is a620-page compilation of every knot known to man. Ashley spent years looking for and trying out existing and new knot-tying combinations, and not only in the nautical world. He interviewed countless craftsmen: butchers and weavers, surgeons and nurses, carpenters and falconers, magicians and thieves, farmers and balloonists, fencers and jewellers, firemen and mount climbers, girl scouts ... even an executioner.
But why knot?
Ah! What do you know about knot-tying, one of the earliest of human activities (the people of the Stone Age regularly tied the sheet bend)?What’s the purpose of a rope if you don’t know how to tie a knot? Isn’t a rope without a knot useless?
How many knots do you have at your fingertips? One? That’s OK. Three? Swell. Five? Congratulations! I reckon you know the difference between the reef knot and its cousin the granny knot, which slips and jams. You may lead a satisfying life without knowing 200 knots, as I do, but wouldn’t you be thrilled to know:
• How to prevent a rope from fraying (no 3442) (for your pleasure, I give the knot number as it appears in ABOK);
• The best way to join two ropes of different diameters (no 1434);
• How to hang a glass jar safely (no 1142);
• How to save your life by holding on to a thin cord without suffering rope burns (no 559);
• How to put a damaged piece of rope back to work instantly (no1152);
• Are you tired of people opening your garbage bags? Learn a vicious knot that no one can untie (no 1249);
• Need to secure your drooling camel to a palm tree and yet, in half a second, be able to flee an attacking caravan? (no 1866)
• Do you have use for an improvised pair of handcuffs? (no 412)
Ashley presents each knot in a precise illustration accompanied by its history, colourful anecdotes, a practical description of its use and advice on how to tie it. Here and there, a clever little pictogram highlights a knot’s characteristics, such as: “purely ornamental” or “easy to untie”, “dangerous” or “strong” (a wedding ring symbolises “difficult to untie”, a high-heel shoe means “impractical”). There is even an entire chapter dedicated to tricks and puzzles – within minutes you’ll be able to pull out a shoelace at your Christmas party and improvise a magic trick. Knots that are not knots (not made with rope) are included because they serve a similar purpose, like the human grip practised on the flying trapeze (no 1543), or the split-wood joints used by a cooper(no 22 to no 25).
Through the years, with many editions in several languages, the book was found to have errors, inconsistencies and omissions that undoubtedly Ashley would have spotted and corrected had he not died within three years of the original publication. So we are treated today to the corrected edition, thanks to the know-how and vigilance of the IGKT, the International Guild of Knot Tyers, represented by its co-creator and former president Geoffrey Budworth. The guild’s newsletter, Knotting Matters, refers constantly to ABOK in its research and articles, supplying Ashley’s knot number in parenthesis – whether they mention a mere figure-of-eight (ABOK no 520) or study the sophisticated twenty one-tuck Matthew Walker knot (ABOK no 731).
This hefty, deliciously witty book, enthusiastically written in the first person, is almost an autobiography as well as something of a children’sbook. It abounds with surprises and mysteries. Look at the beautifullyillustrated chapter headings: an elephant is being unloaded froman ocean liner on page 335! The cow on page 213 has its tail tied to theport and starboard sides of the small boat and, in combination with thehalter hitch, she is now seaworthy! The volume can even be offered toa child as a colouring book – go directly to the collection of two-strandlanyard knots (starting on page 153), suggest one strand, one colour,and you can give the babysitter the night off.
(Actually, since I own several copies of ABOK, I did colour one of them– maybe an idea for a future edition? Instantly, complex knots are simplifiedand cross-section diagrams reveal their secret combinations.)
Readers of all ages, here’s my advice: before opening your ABOK, besure to have in your hands a soft cord, one metre long, or you will betorn between devouring the book and interrupting your feast to fetch abit of rope. Use it as a bookmark when you’re taking a break. And be ready: “The simple act of knot-tying is an adventure in unlimited space.”
This review first appeared in “The Times” Saturday 18th December 2004 and is reprinted with the kind permission of the publishers.
Some details about Philippe – an IGKT member.
On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire he illegally rigged between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, where he performed for nearly an hour 1,350ft above the sidewalks of New York. Since then, he has been invited to walk in the skies of Paris, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Frankfurt and New York City, where has he been Artist-In-Residence for thirty years. His passion to learn to tie some 300 knots can be explained by his wire walking. In all of his high-wire walks knots are essential components; the guardian angels protecting his life in the sky.
Philippe Petit has performed on the high wire more than 80 times around the world. In addition to walking the high wire, Philippe gives lectures and workshops on creativity and motivation, writes, draws, performs close-up magic, practices lock-picking and 18th century timber framing, plays chess, studies French wine, and was recently sighted bullfighting in Peru. Also, he has been arrested over 500 times…for street juggling! He is the subject of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary film,Man on Wire, and the main character in both Colum McCann’s National Book Award Winner Let the Great World Spin and the Caldecott-winning children’s book The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. He is the author of the books To Reach the Clouds/Man on Wire and seven other published books. In 2011, he presented Wireless!, a one-man show reflecting a lifetime of creativity.