I am not certain where this should be posted, so if necessary, please move it to the appropriate area.
I have on several occasions noticed the phrase "in the wild" in reference to knots seen in use in the real world -- presumably in contrast to the theoretical or academic. I would like to present a knot which I have never seen in any book/article/referenced. It is an end-of-line loop used in steel cable.
I learned it from my father working in the woods during my childhood/youth. I assume but do not know that he learned it during his years working in Oregon and Washington for the Oregon American Logging Company. We used to use a Cat (Caterpillar brand bulldozer) with a winch and fairlead mounted on the back to drag logs. The 5/8" or 3/4" cable with a loop and a bullhook (a large hook which the loops on chokers were attached to -- in high-lead logging it was called a butthook) on the end. Several times over the years, while logging, we broke the cable somewhere near the loop (the part of the cable which, obviously got the hardest use). Ideally, nowadays, the loop at the end of the line should be made with a flemmish eye splice with a metal sleeve hydraulically pressed on securing the ends of the strands, or with a simple fold back splice where a the line is folded back on itself and secured with a metal sleeve, again using a hydraulic press. But this was 30 to 40 years ago, and we were not a large operation -- just a father and his sons -- and it wasn't convenient to stop work so my father could go and splice the loop. And we couldn't afford to have the loop pressed. So my father tied a loop at the end of the line, and we continued dragging trees.
Now you might object, saying that it is beyond puny human power to tie a knot in 5/8" or 3/4" steel rope. And you would be correct in most cases. This knot, however (my father called it the loggers' knot -- I am calling it the Big John Loop, in his honor) this knot draws up reliably when loaded. The working end has only to be kept from slipping too much at the beginning of loading. In logging, we loaded the knot by attaching a turn of logs to the hook and pulling (slowly) with the winch.
The knot is tied by first making an overhand knot. The working end is then passed through the eye of the hook or through ring that will be attached to it (if one is to be attached -- this was never an issue for us). the working end then continues around through the center of the overhand knot two more times, making the topological eqivalent of a triple overhand knot. When the hook attached to an anchor and the standing end is loaded. it reliably pulls up into a loop.
The knot seems to behave just as reliably in other types of rope and cordage, but I have not done any extensive testing. I have tried the loop with 6 lb. monofilament and it did slip slowly -- one more pass through the center solved that. I believe this knot could be used in many practical situations if more people knew it.
If anyone has seen this knot in use or described, I would certainly like to know. If not, I would like to call this the Big John (Steel Cable) Loop, after my father, who has recently been diagnosed with 4th stage prostate cancer.
The photos show a hook attached to a (much smaller) cable using this loop knot. The working end was left free during loading. The knot has not yet been completely tightened -- I didn't have anything at hand that needed that hard of a pull from the comealong.
