Author Topic: Samisen bends  (Read 3114 times)

xarax

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Samisen bends
« on: May 07, 2014, 05:48:28 PM »
   The end-to-end knots / bends, and the eye-knots / loops, are very different kinds of two-line knots : obviously, the former are loaded from two limbs, while the later are loaded from three. It is customary to start from bends, and, by connecting the Standing end of the one link to the Tail End of the other, generate "corresponding" loops. However, this "correspondence" is not a real "similarity" ! When the nubs of the knots are loaded differently, they "fold" differently, they settle in different final compact forms, and they behave differently regarding slippage and strength : in short, they become nubs of different knots.
   Sometimes a mediocre bend can be transformed into a very good loop, and sometimes a superb bend can be transformed into a mediocre loop - as it happens, for example, in the case of the Zeppelin bend, and the "corresponding" fake, so-called "Zeppelin loop" ( which is not a Zeppelin-like knot, can not be tied or untied easily, its one link "locks" before the other, and it can not even be "sold" by its proponents to the willing customers / believers in a decent way  :) ).
   However, as it might have been expected, the exact opposite can happen, too : Starting from a loop, we can consider the bend which is composed by the joining of the structure tied on the Standing Part before the eye, and the structure tied after the eye ( that is, the structure tied on the returning eye leg of the ex-loop ). That is the subject of this thread : Starting from the 5 Samisen TIB bowlines, presented at (1), we can study the "corresponding" bends, which I will collectively call "Samisen bends".
   As I said, I do not want to convey the false impression, that the Samisen TIB bowlines and the Samisen bends are the same knots, or even "similar" knots ( as we use to say too often, unfortunately...) ! Also, I should stress that the knots shown in the attached pictures should only be seen as mere tying diagrams of loose knots, where the Standing and the Tail End of each link is NOT specified. The interested reader should start from those tying diagrams, load the ends in the two different ways, and see what happens. So, the possible Samisen bends are 10 - although some of them are weak or not very stable bends, and should better be avoided.
   I am not a proponent of the asymmetric bends - but then, who is ? Common sense ( of which we all believe that we have enough !  :)) tells us that the asymmetric knots are many more than the symmetric ones. Why, then, the symmetric bends are many more than the asymmetric ones ? There are MANY reasons, which are not the subject of this thread, so I will not say anything else about this matter. ( I do not even like the two most simple, fine, and very useful, Sheet bends, and that is why I had been driven to re-discover the Tumbling Thief knot - which I was seeing as a "Symmetric Sheet bend". For the class of the nice HH asymmetric bends, and their "corresponding" loops, see (2) ).
   However, the fact that we can enumerate and classify so many knots ( 5 loops and their 10 "corresponding" bends ) in a general, unified way, seemed very interesting to me. Of course, it would take me some time to become able to see the Span loop ( ABoK#1049) and the ABoK#1055, as Samisen knots, but I hope I will survive until then ... :)

1. http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4883
2. http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4116
 
This is not a knot.

xarax

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Re: Samisen bends
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2014, 05:49:42 PM »
   And my favourite, the Samisen bend 5.
This is not a knot.

 

anything