If we take into account all their variations, the number of the simple, symmetric, stable and secure bends (4s
) we know is something around 200. In just a small percentage of them, (around 15%), the two links of the bend are topologically equivalent to the unknot - i.e., they are not overhand knots, fig.8 knots, double overhand knots, fig.9 knots, etc. That means they can be utilised as "base" knots for bowline-like end-of-line loops, because they will be completely untied the moment the collar structure will be pulled off from the nipping structure. However, I should mention that this strategy does not deliver many interesting bowline-like loops - because, in a bend, we have two loaded ends, while, in a loop knot, we have three - so the ends and the means of the knot structures in those two types of knots are quite different.
I believe that
all those bends are, by now, known and published : in Ashley, Miles, or at this forum. So, when it happens to me to tie a "new" bend, I am surprised - I always assume that I have seen it but I have forgotten it - or that it should have been published somewhere else, and it has been remained unknown to me, just because I have not read any other knot books.
The bend presented in this thread is nothing else but the ABoK#1451, but I have forgotten it - and the interesting thing is that I have re-tied it while I was trying to figure out a "base" knot for a new bowline-like loop, NOT another bend knot !
So, it was an opportunity for me to examine this bend in more detail, as a bend and as a "base" knot for a bowline-like end-of-line loop as well.
Ashley remarks that it is easily untied but not so strong. I suppose he does not like the sharp turn followed by the standing part(s) ( a turn around two rope diameters, which, in fact is a turn around only one, because of the position of the two rope diameters, the one
behind - and not
next to- the other, as one can see in the attached pictures). I think that this disadvantage might disappear in a
slipped version, where we will have a third diameter going through the standing part s loop. Three rope diameters inside a nipping loop are always placed in a triangulated position, each one adjacent to the other two, so in the slipped version of this bend the standing part will be forced to turn around a wider first curve.
Regarding security, I may say that the ABoK#1451 bears some resemblance to the Oval bend (1) - in the way the tails are secured in the knot s nub by going over/under/over ( or under/over/under) three parallel strands.
I have tied this bend on the firmer / stiffer ropes I have ( as the rope shown at the attached pictures) , as well as on the most flexible / soft ones - it always worked perfectly, without "eating" / consuming any portion of its tails. It had never slipped or jammed, and I have not been able to force it to capsize - but I have to say that I have not yet tried it at very high loads.
I believe that the end-of-line loop corresponding to the (one-sided) slipped version of this bend would be an interesting bowline-like crossing knot loop, easy to tie and untie, that deserves to be explored. (See the attached pictures).
1)
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3741
