Jere Lull wrote:
In article ,
Terry Spragg wrote:


Garland Gray II wrote:


I'd put two half hitches on that list, right behind the bowline

Would you call that a reef knot, or a granny?


Two half hitches are neither reef knot nor a granny. Nor are the reef
and granny the same.

Sorry, I think I can convince you otherwise.

Try this: Untie your sneaker. Step by step, retie it. Tie the
first overhand "knot", and look carefully. It's a half hitch, you
can hold one end taut (this becomes the bitter end of the standing
part, since you can't mess with it, it gets very bitter if you twist
the free end on it, and it's the other end or the working part, the
free or moving end) and look at what happens when you move the other
end around, left to right, above or below the standing part. You
get a half hitch. Tie another.

I depends on the orientation (left or right) of the exit of the
(knot bitter, nor taught bound, end, but the the working, free,
end), as to wether you will end up with a reef or a granny. Two half
hitches is an inverted reef, if you orient the underside rotation of
the top half hitch in the "correct" way, depending on whether you
start on the left end or the right end. Relativism is involved.
You know, tie a reef. Pull one line tight, slide the two half
hitches off. Tie the second half hitch the other way, and you got a
granny, if you stretch the "used to be the free end" taut, and look
at the result. It's a mathematical relationship expressible in the
languge of knots, much of which I do not know. There is an
intermediate stage to this transformation, and it is called a clove
hitch, all from various combinations and views of two half hitches.
Turn the clove hitch (tied around the other shoelace) inside out, so
to speak, and you get a granny, all because you pulled one or the
other end straight.

Convinced?

Terry K



Now, one knot that I use all the time that I don't know the name of is a
relative of the first: a half hitch with a loop taken through the hitch
instead of the bitter end. I use it to gasket the main and temporarily
set the fenders. Releases by simply pulling on the free end. Can be
locked by taking the loop through a second hitch. Very handy and very
fast to undo, even under fairly high strain.