Making a Fast Rope for Climbing has certainly been a fun project to undertake for our Knot of the Week!

Today we’ll be demonstrating the last steps in completing your rope, which are whipping and fusing the bitter end. Whipping and Fusing are traditionally methods to prevent a rope from unraveling and to stop fraying. We’re essentially using these techniques in the same way on our Fast Rope, to strengthen and protect the end.

The reason we chose to terminate the Fast Rope in this fashion is that in reading the Mil-Spec for Fast Rope construction, it distinctly mentions that “The free end shall be seared and whipped.” Seared is just another word for fused and fusing is actually the proper terminology.

Whipping

The first part of this process is to whip the bitter end with paracord. What’s great about the techniques we’ll show you for whipping and fusing, is that they can be applied to any rope that you might need to whip and fuse.

On our whipping, we used around 25 feet of paracord that created a 6″ length of whipping. In counting the wraps it comes out to about 50 times that the paracord wraps around the circumference of the fast rope.

The important thing about whipping is that you must ensure that each wrap is tight, and continued pressure is placed on each wrap. This is how you’re able to see the dimension of the rope pattern through the paracord in the photos. While looking cool, it reflects that that paracord wrapping is extremely tight and will hold properly.

Fusing

After whipping the rope, which we demonstrate below in the video and photos, you’ll then need to fuse the ends of the 4-Strand Braid together. To do this, you have a few options. As you’ll see in the video as well, the point at which the whipping starts is just above where your final taping started to secure the end of your Fast Rope. Hopefully you did tape the end to prevent it from unraveling.

The first and best option in our opinion is to purchase a Rope Cutting Gun. These are very inexpensive, and if you regularly work with rope or paracord, will pay for themselves time and time again. By using one of these tools, it will not only save you time, but your fusing will come out much better. The gun will make short work of even the eight strands of your Fast Rope and as it presses through the rope it will fuse each individual strand together with the others.

If you’re attempting to do this without a Rope Cutting Gun, you’ll need to ensure that after you cut each of the eight strands that you not only fuse each one, but that they get fused to each other as well. Honestly it’s a pain in the ass without this gun and we’d highly recommend picking one up.

You can remove the tape after your whipping is set in place, right before you start your fusing. The whipping should hold everything in place nicely, but be careful if manually cutting each strand without the gun.

Wrap Up

Our Fast Rope construction started with those eight sections of 35 ft. 7/16″ Bluewater Assaultline Static Rope and wound up being right at 22 feet in the end. We’d originally hoped to end up with a 30 ft. Fast Rope, but you can now see exactly how much the braiding, eye splice, whipping and fusing really eat up in terms of length. Keep this in mind when you’re calculating the desired length on your Fast Rope.

We’ve included photos and video below, so be sure to check those out for instructions. Now all that’s left to do is girth hitch your Fast Rope and start climbing! We’ve got an article in the works on proper climbing techniques that we’re looking forward to completing, as we get a lot of questions on what the proper form is.

Hope you enjoyed the series and are looking forward to building your own Fast Rope. It’s a challenging project and one that is truly empowering to undertake. It will certainly give you a new appreciation for working with rope and what you’re capable of creating!

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 1, 4-Strand Round Braid

Building a Fast Rope for Climbing: Part 2, 4-Strand Eye Splice

We continue our look into decorative knots this week with another popular pattern called the Crown Knot.

You’ve probably seen the Crown Knot in keychains and other interesting projects.

Today we’re going to show you how to tie a four-strand Crown Knot, and why it’s a great way to carry paracord.

It isn’t used solely for decorative work however, as it can also be used as a stopper knot to keep a rope from pulling through a hole, and the three-strand Crown knot can form the basis of a back splice.

Using paracord to make a keychain, bracelet or something else you carry daily, will ensure that you always have some readily available in an emergency.

If you remember back to our article on the Mini Survival Kit, we recommended that in addition to the kit, you also carry some paracord with you.

Crown Knot » Decorative / Stopper

(Strength: 5/Secure: 4/Stability: 5/Difficulty: 4)

Please refer to our Knot of the Week introduction post for a description of what these ratings mean.

The Crown Knot pattern works by returning the working strands back upon themselves.

Uses:

• Stopper knot
• Starting a back splice
• Decorative knot work
• Carrying paracord for emergency purposes

Tying Instructions:

We tied this four-strand Crown Knot using a 26″ black length of paracord and a 26″ desert camo length of paracord. We’ve used two different color strands of paracord to simply show the pattern more clearly.

1. Find the middle of both strands of paracord and halve them
2. Create an “X” with the two strands of paracord
3. Take the top most strand and make one turn around the bottom strand
4. Take the right side bottom strand and bring it over the first loop created by the turn, and over the second
5. Take the left side bottom strand and bring it over the second loop and under the first
6. *Please follow along with the photos or the instructions could get awkward*
7. Tighten each working end individually
8. Flip the knot you’ve just created over (this side will become your “working side”)
9. Orient this side so that you have the desert camo paracord coming from the top and bottom and the black from the right and left
10. *Follow the pattern below*
11. Right side over, Top down, Left over, Bottom up and tuck under right – tighten
12. Now you’ll reverse the order of the right and left sides
13. Left side over, Top down, Right over, Bottom up and tuck under left – tighten
14. Continue to alternate these two patterns until you reach a desirable length
15. Tighten each working end one last time
16. Cut off the ends of the paracord one at a time, leaving about 1/16 of an inch
17. Burn the ends, and provide pressure while cooling to fuse the melted paracord into the surrounding paracord
18. A keychain can be threaded through the top section of the Crown Knot for display on a keychain

View the Flickr gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!

For this week’s Knot of the Week, we’d like to introduce the Monkey’s Fist.

The last two weeks we’ve been discussing Decorative Knots, and while the Monkey’s Fist is often used to finish off decorative knot work, it also has another more common practical application.

Primarily the Monkey’s Fist is tied ton the end of a rope to be used as a heaving line, or a line to be thrown over distance. This heaving line could then be attached to a larger or heavier line and pulled into position.

A Monkey’s Fist was historically used to run a line for ship-to-ship operations due to the fact that it could be tied with a weighted core inserted and endure many tosses back and forth.

Currently Shot Line is used in U.S. Navy ship-to-ship transfers during UNREP (Underway Replenishment).

Shot line is connected to a projectile housed in an adapter at the end of an M14, fired by a blank round and received by the opposing ship’s crew.

The Monkey’s Fist can also be used as a stopper knot, to stop a knot from passing through a hole.

We’ll be tying the Monkey’s Fist today with a large marble as the weighted core, but anything could be used from a golf ball to a metal nut.

Monkey’s Fist » Decorative / Stopper

(Strength: 5/Secure: 5/Stability: 4/Difficulty: 4)

Please refer to our Knot of the Week introduction post for a description of what these ratings mean.

Uses:

• Decorative knot work
• Heaving line (with or without weighted core)
• Stopper Knot

Tying Instructions:

In this demonstration the Monkey’s Fist was tied in 8mm Climbing Rope to aid in the visual instructions. A large marble was used for the weighted core.

1. Make three vertical coils
2. Enclose the vertical coils with three more horizontal coils
3. *Ensure that everything is tight in your hand when working with this knot as it will come unravelled easily in these early stages*
4. On the third horizontal coil pass the working end through and start wrapping three more horizontal coils at a right-angle to those you just made
5. At this point or before the final right-angle coil is made a weighted core can be inserted (see photos and video)
6. *These final right-angle turns will lock the knot together*
7. The basic structure of the knot will now be formed and all that’s left to do is tighten it up
8. Starting an one end of the knot, pull the unwanted slack through the knot to the other side
9. Continue pulling the slack through the knot until it reaches the desired tightness
10. *If a weighted core is not used the knot might take on a somewhat flat appearance*
11. The working end of the line can now be knotted to the standing part of the line
12. Congratulations! That wasn’t so hard was it?

View the gallery or YouTube video below and follow along with the steps above!