The Eight Basic Boy Scout Knots

Knots. One of man's most primitive tools. With this tool, you can build almost anything. At Scout outings and around your house, you have probably tied many knots. Some were simple, and maybe some were hard. Knots can help you tie a fish hook on your fishing pole, help you tie down your tent while camping, or help in a mountain rescue. The point is, knots are important. This section of our website will help learn a few basic knots you need to know for rank advancement.

The Bowline is one of the most used loop knots. At the end of a rope, the bowline forms a strong loop that will not slip or jam.

Most of the time however, the bowline is used when ever we have a competition on who can tie it the fastest around their waist. Which is always fun.

The Square Knot is probably the best known and most widely used knot. It serves to join the ends of two ropes, and has the advantage of strength and ease of tying and untying.

It slips or jams only if pulled around a corner. People use square knots to tie packages and to fasten towing lines, it is also called the "first aid knot."

Most people use a variation of the square knot to tie their shoes. An improperly tied square knot is called a granny knot. A granny knot may come loose under pressure and should not be used.

Two Half Hitches are used to fasten a rope temporarily to a post, hook, or ring.

The Boy Scout book says this is a good not for tying your tent down, or for tying a clothes line to hang wet clothes and towels.

This not is usually used because of it's slip feature. The knot slides with the greatest of ease, to make the loop bigger or smaller.

The Sheet Bend was a knot that the sailors used to tie on their ships. They tied the sails together, which were sheets.

This is a good choice when tying two ropes together, especially when the ropes are different sizes.

The Taut-line Hitch. This is a remarkably useful knot; it's adjustable AND trustworthy. Anyone who uses a tent should know this knot.

It is the best way to adjust your lines to the tent-poles. It is the most simple of the adjustable knot family.

The Clove Hitch. This is a very important knot, especially in your lashings. Make sure you work it up properly; pull lengthwise only at both ends.

If you pull the knot at different angles, it's likely to become unreliable. If you use it be sure that both ends are pulled straight out.

The Timber Hitch is used to attach a rope to a log. This knot tightens under strain, but comes undone extremely easily when the rope is slack.

So be sure to keep it tight. The timber hitch is very useful for dragging logs back to the camp fire, or clearing forest.

The Figure-Eight. This knot is larger, stronger and easier to untie than the overhand knot.

It does not harm your rope as much as the overhand knot does. So therefore sailors use this knot in most cases.

Other than that, there is not much use for it, other than impressing you board of review.

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For More Information About Knots, and How to Tie Them:

www.realknots.com
Here it is! Every knot you can think of (yes boys, even the neck tie). This site also has a TON of knot related links.

www.arkie.net/scouting/Knots
A good number of links about tying knots. Many of the sites listed have animation's for tying basic knots.