There are a handful of occupations and/or hobbies which reward those interested in the craft of knot-tying. The big ones include boating, camping, climbing, and fishing. (There may be hobby overlap.) Arborists, equestrians, and surgeons need specific, functional knots, too.
Turns out so do lab technicians.
We’re slowly adding knots to our repertoire, for all manner of purposes. Pictured above: a doubled-up double overhand stopper. (A single knot was insufficiently stopper-ing given the thread diameter and pendulum bobs on hand.) Alpine butterflies, bowlines, non-slip mono loops, trucker’s hitches. Now we just want an excuse to use the Double Dragon Loop!
When we describe a typical day in the shop, we always hedge and point out that there is no such thing. Walking in to work every morning, you wonder what surprises the shop has in store. At any time, the most unusual requests will walk through the door. Yes, we set priorities. Some needs are more pressing than others. Certain departments (the ones whose budgets support us) get preferential treatment. Some jobs can simply be done in just a few minutes.
We’ll stop all but the most important, time-sensitive work to fix a problem that only takes a few minutes.
Then there are the times when a project is going someplace unexpected. Testing out new ideas. Research outside the usual comfort zone. To be clear: research is always stretching into new, unexplored territory; that’s what makes it so fascinating! But sometimes that territory includes stepping outside the lab.
Physics: not typically set up for regular fieldwork.
Recently it’s become important to brush up on knot-tying. Good, sturdy, easy-to-remember knots for an unusual situation. Testing, tying, repeating. (Making a few mistakes; correcting.) Settling in on the bowline, the alpine butterfly loop and bend, and the trucker’s hitch. Good names. Better knots.
The bowline – rabbit, hole, tree, etc. – is simple to tie, won’t come undone under load, and makes a sturdy loop to fix one end of a rope. A dedicated individual can even tie it with one hand. Let’s all hope it doesn’t come to that.
The alpine butterflies are a pair of near-identical knots for different purposes. The loop creates a sturdy loop in the middle of a length of rope, and can be used to shorten a rope, too. It won’t slip or bind, and no matter how hard you pull it, it’s still a breeze to untie with fingertips. A bend, in knot-tying parlance, connects two lengths of rope, and the alpine butterfly bend is simply a variant on the loop where two ropes of about the same thickness tie together. Repair a damaged rope. Create a longer one. Tie one length into a giant circle. You’ve got options.
Plus, they look neat during the tying process, which wraps the rope about one hand in a butterfly shape before snugging tight. Makes it super-easy to remember, and if you’re learning a series of scouting knots, you know you’re going to end up someplace you can’t check your phone for a last-minute refresher.
Practice, practice, practice.
And then… the trucker’s hitch. It can start with an alpine butterfly loop (so why not?), then loops back about itself to provide a pulley-like mechanical advantage to tighten it down. Just keep pulling the loose rope until you reach the right tension, freeing you from the need to perfectly guess your length. A pair of half-hitches finish it up, distinct from the load pressure, making it a snap to untie when the time comes.
So. Bowline to start at one end. Alpine butterfly for a solid loop, leading into a trucker’s hitch that can tighten down as hard as we can make it. Keep our loads solid and stable in the wind and weather, and they’ll still untie in moments when we’re done.
Can-knot wait to see how this plays out in the field.
