Consider the knot in the image below.
It is a Reef Knot (tied left-handed) with Bowlines (tied right-handed) on each end; and with the tails tucked through the center of the Reef Knot and then through the nipping turn of the opposite Bowline. The knot was tied in 3mm Amsteel Blue (Dyneema SK75).
Because each turn in the Reef Knot and the nipping turns in each Bowline now encompass 3 strands instead of 2, I expected that:
- the bend would be stronger, and
- the bend would be less secure
than the untucked version I had tried previously. Given that the previous bend had occasionally slipped, I anticipated that this bend would slip too.
Well, I tried it twice. The first time, one Bowline drew up tight and the other not quite snug. When the standing end on the not snug side started to break (strands fracturing) I stopped pulling and inspected the bend. Both Bowlines had
partially capsized. The nipping turns had migrated into the knots, but had not pulled through the collars and so did not fully invert. The location of the partial breakage was
at the entry to the collar, not at the nipping turn as is the typical failure point for a Bowline. The central reef knot was not nearly as tight as the untucked version. I was able to untie both bowlines and the reef knot by hand (no tools) without much difficulty.
On my second try, both Bowlines drew up snug to the Reef Knot. One of my end loops (an Angler's Loop) broke first. This photo shows the bend after loading.
Both Bowlines had partially capsized, just like the first try. I had left fairly long tails on the bend, but it didn't swallow much of them when tensioned. Again, I untied the entire bend by hand (no tools needed) without difficulty.
This bend is a bit bulky and complicated, but it did hold and - unlike all previous attempts - could be readily untied after hard loading. That is something I began to doubt was possible with Dyneema.
Regards,
Eric