Today’s Knot of the Week builds on our first example of a Japanese Square Lashing, with the Japanese MK II.
While the Japanese are known for their intricate knot work on bamboo structures, we feel you’ll see the benefit in the time saved using these lashings. They’re truly faster than traditional lashings you may have learned in Boy Scouts.
The demonstration we’ve provided in our photos and video below show the Japanese MK II being tied with Paracord, but it’s always best to use natural fiber rope when working with timbers or spars. [Read More…]
You may be saying to yourself, “You guys have already covered Square Lashing before!” That we have, but today we’d like to introduce you to an alternate way to tie lashings called the Japanese Square Lashing.
This method we’ll show is tremendously faster to tie and yields the same secure results that a traditional Square Lashing does. In addition to being faster, we feel that it’s also an easier way to lash together two spars/poles.
If you’ve ever looked at traditional Japanese architecture, you’ll have no doubt seen a Japanese Square Lashing. The traditional Japanese culture has always favored using natural fiber rope to secure bamboo structures and many other architectural wonders.
We’re so certain that you’ll appreciate the simplicity of this lashing, you may never go back to using a Clove Hitch to start a lashing again! [Read More…]
In today’s Knot of the Week, I’ll show you such a simple way to create a Rope Ladder, you’ll wonder how you never knew about it!
That’s the way I felt when I was shown this technique at Boy Scout Adult Leadership training I attended this past weekend. I’ve lashed together a Rope Ladder before, but never with this simple of a technique!
What you’ll see is a field expedient way to quickly throw together a ladder in a rescue situation or to complete the final touches on a Pioneering project. A truly a versatile technique that you should throw into your knotty toolbox. [Read More…]
We’ll be taking a different approach to our Knot of the Week Series for the next three weeks, as we bring you a few articles on creating your own Fast Rope for Climbing.
Fast Rope Insertion & Extraction Systems (FRIES) provide safe and efficient methods for inserting and evacuating personnel to and from specific targets. Fast Ropes come a few different ways, which is with an eye splice or a metal ring for hook up to the davits found on some helicopters.
They’re also available with and without the loops for extraction. As this KOTW is for creating a climbing rope, we’ll be creating a Fast Rope with an eye splice and without extraction loops.
Today we’ll be getting into how you create the 4-Strand Round Braid that’s used to braid a Fast Rope, followed by instructions in the coming two weeks on eye splicing the Fast Rope, and either back splicing or whipping the bottom end. [Read More…]
Today we continue our KOTW Lashing series with the Diagonal Lashing.
The Diagonal Lashing is “diagonal” because it’s used to bind poles that cross each other at a 45° to 90° angle. Binding poles together in this way will prevent racking and add stability, thus preventing them from moving apart.
A Diagonal Lashing can replace a Square Lashing (which is stronger), but not vice-versa. [Read More…]
Continuing with our Lashings on the Knot of the Week, today we’ll be looking at the Round Lashing and discussing the variations and uses.
The Round Lashing is commonly used to lash up triangular A-frames of poles for rigging a block and tackle. If joining timber poles is what you’re after, like in creating a flag pole, you’ll want to exclude the frapping turns to secure the poles tightly to each other.
You’ll often see this lashing referred to as a Shear Lashing or Seizing, which we’ve gone over previously on the KOTW. We like to keep things simple and refer to this as a Round Lashing that you can use with or without the center frapping turns.
Two of these lashings can also be used for further security when joining poles. If what you’re joining will be weight-bearing, you’ll need to use a Square Lashing which is designed to hold weight. Think of the Round Lashing as what to use on the horizontal floor of the levels in a structure or the slats on a raft. [Read More…]
After a brief hiatus, the Knot of the Week returns this week with the first of a few articles on lashings.
Lashings are an important part of any knotty professor’s repertoire, and an all around good skill to have. Today we’ll begin with the most common type of lashing, the Square Lashing.
A Square Lashing is used to bind two (timber) poles together, and commonly seen in use by the Boy Scouts on those massive pioneering projects. Weight bearing sections of these structures utilize the Square Lashing.
We’ve briefly touched on lashings in our article on Common Rope Seizing, which is technically also referred to as a Round Lashing. [Read More…]
In today’s Knot of the Week, we’ll be showing you how to use common seizing to join two parallel pieces of rope.
Seizing can be a great alternative to knotting or splicing, but is not as strong as a dedicated splice. For instance, in the article demonstration we’ll be creating an eye with our seizing. While a good method, it’s nowhere near as strong as a splice.
Terminology can get a bit tricky as this appears to be a lashing, but lashings are typically defined as the joining or binding of timbers. While seizing even starts the same way as a lashing, with a Clove Hitch, they’re technically different.
Another nugget of terminology here is that the last turns through the center of this seizing are referred to as Frapping.
[Read More…]
Our Knot of the Week series continues this week with a new twist. We’ve decided to shoot video to accompany the Sheepshank this week which is embedded below.
This is just a trial, so let us know what you think in the comments. If this is something that’s well received, we’ll continue to add video to each new Knot of the Week.
The Sheepshank is a worthwhile knot to add to your inventory. If you’re ever working around ropes this knot could potentiality mean the difference between having a useless rope and one that will carry you through. [Read More…]
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