Knot problem

[bertud]

good day to all, I know a knot before but I just forgot its name and its technique, I need help here. The knot was used to secure when climbing down a tree branch using one rope, it tightens due to load, but the rope can be easily be untagled once you are on the ground.

[KnotNow!]

Many things we did in our younger days are considered dangerous as we grow older (and our bones take longer to heal).  If you see Ashley's Book of Knots, # 391 you will find a knot which fits your description.  I am ashamed to say I've used it.  A single line, doubled, can be easly be retrieved without the risk.  The arborists and the mountain climbers have taken measures to protect life that make stunts like this... well just that, dangerous stunts.  Show off stunts.  Tempt death.  That said; a ABOK # 1596 or ABOK # 1600 and ABOK # 1605 or #1606 will often be found around my home... but only if you arrive while I'm still descending.  Truely.. these are dangerous knots. Do as I say, not as I do; and trust the person "on belay", use mechanical aids, double the rope and live to die of something else other than a fall from aloft.  

[Breton]

Ah-hah, the old 'prisoner in the tower' problem, probably originating from a lecture on the half-hitch and later accepted into legend.  Apart from its lethality, it does have certain other drawbacks, eg, persuading the guards to bring one 100' of stout cordage with one's supper tray, finding something to anchor it to after cutting the bars away, swimming a shark-infested moat with a coil of soggy rope around one's neck, etc.

My favourite version of this Patrick O'Brian's in which the heroes persuade a washerwoman to provide them with all sorts of fancy rope and tackle and then complain about the quality of the sister blocks.  Brilliant irony.

[drjbrennan]

Many things we did in our younger days are considered dangerous as we grow older (and our bones take longer to heal).  If you see Ashley's Book of Knots, # 391 you will find a knot which fits your description.  I am ashamed to say I've used it.  A single line, doubled, can be easly be retrieved without the risk.  The arborists and the mountain climbers have taken measures to protect life that make stunts like this... well just that, dangerous stunts.  Show off stunts.  Tempt death.  That said; a ABOK # 1596 or ABOK # 1600 and ABOK # 1605 or #1606 will often be found around my home... but only if you arrive while I'm still descending.  Truely.. these are dangerous knots. Do as I say, not as I do; and trust the person "on belay", use mechanical aids, double the rope and live to die of something else other than a fall from aloft.  

You guys must know ABOK backwards, I'm quite impressed, if we ever meet you'll see me do the "I'm not worthy" thing.

[KnotNow!]

Well, Yes, I do know ABOK quite well.  I got my first copy 44 years ago and have spent hundreds of hours with the book and some cord (perhaps thousands of hours... I didn't keep a log of time spent).  I have one at the bedside, one at my desk, one at my computer (too lazy to carry one around in my pocket... pocket is too small anyway).  It seems to be put together the way I put things together... so ABOK logic seems right to me.  That makes it easier for me to find references very quickly.  The opposite can be said of "The Complete Encyclopedia...." by G & H.  I can't find anything in there when I need it, only later when looking for something else.  I have a very small knotting library but that is just for the sake of not overlooking something which may not be in ABOK (of which there are a few items).  Mr. Budworth published a delightful "Ashley Trivia Quiz" in our little news letter "Knot News" from which I gather he would be hard to trip up on his knowledge of ABOK.

[Kyle Shannon]

I was an arborist in the past and it is actually why I started with knots.  If I understand what you are asking, the knot or knots are a tautline hitch (ABOK 480) which is just a variation of the rolling hitch, and a "Blake's Hitch".  The technique is referred to as "Ddl" or Doubled Line technique.  The rope is passed over a limb or through a friction reducing device on a limb and tied to itself to make a closed loop.  The tautline or Blake's hitch is tied to the standing end and used to ascend/descend.