Rereading your comments and mine, I was trying to figure out what you thought I had asserted about the article, and I guess "nice substantial" could be interpreted as a value judgment endorsing the contents of the article. Hmm, I think it was more a: "it's got illustrations that could actually be used to tie some of the knots mentioned" and "it's more than a few lines long" whereas many of the articles found on the web are so short they don't even try to be informative.
Assuming that an innocent lay-audience might occasionally make it here to this forum, would you care to add value and substance by correcting the inaccuracies in the original article?
Yeah, and isn't THAT quite a commentary on knotting knowledge!
But "nice & substantial" certainly should connote more than page length
(esp. the meager page length of 4, replete w/ad space, incl. pop-up irritations!).
What you ask is essentially to re-write the article. I'll refrain from that but give
a quick critique here.
1) The images/photos of the Carrick Bend is hard to discern, and of the supposed
Taut-line Hitch fouled & indiscernable.
2) The Sheepshank most certainly is not--never was--among the "Ten MOST USEFUL
Knots"!
3) The 'Figure 8 Know' => '... Knot'.
4) "hoisting hay from wagon to mow"
That hay sounds already
mowed,
and I'm not able to come up with a correct term to replace it.
5) "Bitter end": this term is unfortunately given this meaning, and thereby threatens
the nautical sense of it, which is
the rope at & beyond a boat's bits--i.e., some
substantial part/
section of rope, aboard ship, and not the "very" end of it.
6) "There are over 4,000 hitches and bends used in ..." : Presumably, this nonsense
derives from the oft' asserted count of knots in
ABOK, about which I've given
detailed rebuttal elsewhere in this forum.
7) 'reefor square knot' : sounds like some hippee construct. (One of several such
fused-word typos.)
8 ) 'It's also We starting point' : again, another type of typo found in this article, as
though it was transcribed by eyesight (not such good eyesight) from another!?
'We' presumably seen vice 'the'!?
9) "The result looks like a sideways numeral 8." : if one holds it thus; or, it looks
quite like a Fig.8, oriented at a right angle to the presumed orientation. .:. silly comment.
10) Recommending the SquaREef knot qua bend--yes, it can work, but there are
better options.
11) "SHEET (BECKET) BEND: You should use this knot to join two ropes of different diameters":
Well, to some extent of difference, but one shouldn't allow the interpretation that the knot
is ONLY so useful; it is also to be preferred over the SquaREef for equal dia. rope joints.
12) 'back over as own standing pail ... Ken under the bight' : Ken I call these typos
"beyond the pail" ?!
--again, this seems to indicate a transcription process.
13) 'less wellknown than' : again, the fused-words problem.
14) "
if a "Best Bend" award existed, this tricky knot would be sure to walk off with the trophy. ":
Clearly a parroting of Ashley's praise, and ignorant of a vast many competitors, and the
significance of knotting environment & purpose. (The bend IS favored by Alaskan crab fishers
for their hardlaid, stiff potwarp. But those folks I think could come to have equal favor for
Rosendahl's Zeppelin bend.)
15) (Re the Bwl) "is easily loosened ... even when it's under strain" : Ha! Let's see them loosen
an under-strain Bwl!
16) (re Clove H.) "This hitch won't be secure unless there's a load acting on both ends of the knot":
this is too strong a caution--the knot tests to rupture in most(?) dynamic climbing rope, e.g.; though
it has been shown to slip in some other kernmantle ropes; these tests being essentially of a
ring
hitch, not necessarily relevant to spar-/pile-hitch instantiations. But many a boat has its fenders
attached by this simple knot; and many have some further hitching--a 3rd HH, or ... .
It is certainly used at times w/o load on both ends.
17) " TIMBER HITCH: This knot is designed to roll around a tree" : Huh???!
18) ' many as eightturns.' : more word fusion.
19) "The taut-line hitch will slide up and down to provide a climber with freedom of movement, but
?should he or she slip?it will tighten up and stop the fall short." : This sounds like a fusion of
hype given for the Tarbuck hitch & the Rolling Hitch. I doubt the part about a treeclimber's rope
being simply looped twice through the belt (but maybe there is some special ring that this would
securely hold in?). As for catching a fall, that is not an expected circumstance (unlike that for
the Tarbuck hitch--although its performance doing so has been questioned), and the knot's gripping
is expected in much more frequent and less dramatic usage for the climb up.
20) "should have a figure-eight knot tied to its end to prevent it from accidentally slipping through
the loop of the taut-line hitch, should that knot ever become loose" : Not really, it's an expectation
that the material will gradually feed out of this knot,
from usage, not idle loosening.
21) 'SHEEPSHANK: This is a specialpurpose knot that's useful' : word fusion, and a dubious assertion.
QED.
ps: '
There are any number of other knots you'll find just as useful as our "10 best" ' Indeed!