I'm a new member and this is my first post. I've developed a hitch that I haven't seen before that appears to have some very useful properties. First, the knot:
http://imgur.com/a/wNBuuWhere I've lookedI looked through the chapters on hitches in ABOK. This hitch is related directly to the Ossel hitch (no ABOK #), so I searched online for variations of the Ossel hitch. I came up with nothing.
DevelopmentI needed a hitch that could be tied securely in surgical tubing. Surgical tubing is rubbery elastic tubing that is usually quite powdery. I tried every hitch I know - flipping through ABOK. Every hitch I tried failed quite easily due to slippage. Some of these knots can be made to work if the tubing was wet and pulled up very tight to set the knot.
The mode of failure for most wrap-based hitches (from clove hitch all the way through larger hitches like the boom hitch) is that, due to the elasticity of the material, the standing part lifts up the other parts of the knot as it is loaded, and this releases the nip. Other hitches just slide undone with surprising ease.
I came up with this hitch in order to avoid having the standing part release the nip when loaded. I can tie it quite loosely in surgical tubing and load it, and it does not slip through hundreds of rounds of loading.
TestingI tied this hitch in all the line I had around the house - poly solid braid, dynamic climbing line (not sure the material), surgical tubing, small poly stuff, poly 3-strand rope. I hitched each line to poles and rings of varying diameter - some poles as large as about 20 times the diameter of the rope and some as small as about 1 diameter of the rope. I tested it by jerking it violently perpendicular to the pole with my own strength a few hundred times for each material and measuring the tail for slippage. I did not encounter slippage.
I haven't tested in monofilament or other slippery or elastic line except surgical tubing.
I did not test for strength.
I encountered one failure. I hitched some small solid poly braid to a pole leaving about 3 inches of tail, and jerked the standing end side to side, repeatedly and rapidly loading the line parallel to the pole, back and forth - first toward one end of the pole, and then toward the other. The knot loosened and came undone after about 50 jerks.
Other notesThis knot is the same as the Ossel hitch, only with a round turn at the beginning instead of a single turn. The ossel hitch fails in the surgical tubing.
This hitch seems to have some frictional properties (it generally resists sliding), but I doubt it performs like a real friction hitch.
It is not easy to tie under load, since the final tuck requires lifting the loaded turn.
It seems to stay secure when not carefully pulled up - that is, when the final nip is allowed to move up away from the bottom of the hitch. However, I don't tie it that way because it seems sloppy and I suspect it isn't as secure.
I call it the "fist hitch", because it reminds me of a fist hanging onto a pole. If it has another name already, I would love to know.
QuestionsHave you seen this hitch before?
It seems very secure to me in my informal testing. Does anybody have any opinion on its security?
What about its strength? With that sharp bend in the rope, I wonder how strong it is.
Thank you for your time,
Richard Peterson