Why would I tie this knot when the Zeppelin Bend is clearly superior and has proven itself time after time in real world applications?
There's only about two bends that can even rival the Zeppelin Bend IMO, that being the Ashley Bend and Butterfly Bend...everything else just doesn't have the symmetry, security, strength and ease of untying after being loaded. I'm a big fan of the Double Harness Bend but it's major issue is that it can be tough to untie if you can't get those collars to push up...but it's a beautiful bend.
Ashley said the perfect bend was the Carrick Bend, but I've always questioned it's security for some reason...I have zero evidence to back that up, just my opinion from eyeballing it. If my life's on the line or anyone else's, I'm using the Zeppelin Bend.
I'm still looking for all these proven uses of the
zeppelin--esp. after the one supposed to have spawned it was said
to be a myth! One might be chary of the looseness of the
z. and favor
Ashley's #1425 for its tightness when set.
Or because one found it stronger, albeit slightly (as though
this could matter!). And I continue to be amused at the
worship the
butterfly gets as an end-2-end knot when
Ashley's #1408 is "clearly superior" --i.e., at least symmetric
and otherwise a match!? (Though we might find that some
orientations of the former make its asymmetry into a charm.)
The
carrick bend is apparently favored by the rugged Alaskan
crab fishermen to join pot warps (when one line's not enough);
I think that they might fancy the
zeppelin (or #1452 [nb:
fifty-two, not twenty-five, here]); but maybe they take the
precaution of taping the
carrick's tails together --the sort of
securing I find in much east-coast commercial-fishing knotting--,
and then the adjacency of the tails is a plus.
Not every ends-joint is wanted to be (easily, or at all) untied.
The
fisherman's knot is de rigueur for much com.fish. work,
for it stays tied, is strong, presents ends along SParts for
easy securing, and is compact. Nobody in this business would
want any of these other end-2-end knots over the
fisherman's;
the
dbl.harness might get some attention, though.
And, really, we should all ask :
where do you get ANY indication
of the zeppelin bend's strength? For the lack of evidence,
there is a LOT of noise out there, it seems to me!
--dl*
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