Knotting and splicing ropes and cordage

Knotting is an ancient device with which very early inhabitants of this earth must have been acquainted. From the beginning, mankind must always have used some kind of knot to j...

The simplest knot that is made is the overhand knot (Fig. 1). It is very useful, and forms a part of many other knots. To make it, the standing part of the rope—that is, the mai...

One of the simplest eye knots is shown by Fig. 15, and is known as the “running” or “slip knot.” A bight is first formed, and an overhand knot made with the ends round the stand...

Often it is necessary to fasten a rope to a ring, and there are a variety of methods of doing this. Fig. 43, for instance, shows the end to be passed through the ring, and a big...

A “wedding knot” or tie, used for fastening together the eyes at the ends of two ropes, is shown by Fig. 70. It is made by passing rope-yarn or marline through the eyes backward...

Although these knots are termed fancy knots, they are not necessarily used for ornamental purposes, but are often of considerable utility; indeed, they could hardly be done with...

Splicing is a method of joining ropes by interweaving together their strands. When ropes are to run through blocks they cannot be joined by knotting, as the knot would prevent t...

Seizing implies the fastening together of two ropes, or different parts of the same rope, with several closely placed coils of small rope, spun yarn, etc. The several kinds of s...

Hammock making requires a netting needle of one of the shapes shown by Figs. 160 and 161. It may be made from a piece of 3/16-in. pearwood, beech, or boxwood about 8 in. long by...

Lashings are seizings of rope for heavy work, such as scaffolding; and the lashing of poles, ledgers, and putlogs may be now considered with advantage. Heavy scaffolding is best...

Wire ropes are now used to such an extent, and in such a variety of ways, that a knowledge of the best methods of handling them cannot fail to be useful to the many thousands wh...