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THK FORMER
A RATHER OLD INVENTION AND NOT AT ALL A RECENT ONE AS ONE MIGHT BE LEAD
TO BELIEVE
...
here is what is said page 110
Charles E. GIBSON  Handbook Of Knots And Splices and other work with hempen
and wire rope
(1963 )

[open quote]
Using a Former to make a Turk's Head **] has the advantage that the knot can be made
round an object of any material, including metal, since pins are driven into a quite separate
 piece of wood.

This is the former, a board which rarely needs to be more than 4 i.square and on which
can be fashioned a Turk's Head of almost any complexity, with the valuable attractions
that all the tucks are made on the same side of the object so that there is no need to
keep turning it over or moving round to the back ;that it is easier to remember where to
make the tucks ; and that the tucks, when made, hold themselves in place......



....** As devised by Mr John ALEXANDER and describes in "Knots, Splices and Fancy
 Work
"by Charles L. SPENCER  ( Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942)

 [end quote]

I am ready to bet that this come from much earlier than 1942 !

Hope you will enjoy that "not so novel idea".



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Remembering my long ago gone diving days (practice and teaching)
HOW TO MAKE A BOWLINE WITH A LINE UNDER STRAIN AND USING
ONLY ONE HAND

 You are a diver / swimmer in need of help , someone throw you a line and you need to
somehow attach it securely onto you so you can be pull and then hoist on board.

Of course the end of the SPart will be on the helping boat and there will be some pull
on it.

First take a firm  hold of the line (yellow circle in the drawing) with your left hand (this
is for a right-handed person) , doing so you get a slack part of line between your hold and
the end of the line.
Pass the slack part around you in your back so that you are 'enclosed' in it.
With your right hand take the WEnd extremity and do this helical move described in
the drawing : in one move you will have "made the burrow and made the rabbit go
outside ready to go around the tree and  dive again in the burrow ': it take an awful
lot of time to explain what is done in the twinkling of an eye really and can save your live.



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SHAME ON A  BOOK COVER : AUTHOR IS ONE OF THE so-called
 EX-SPURT AND
AN IGKT FOUNDING MEMBER AT THAT

Yet look to what beginners are exposed
in matter of learning mistaken concepts thanks to
such publications beneficing of uncontrolled (no examination boards) good reputation.

In my book THE AUTHOR IS SOLE RESPONSIBLE (it is his duty not to sign the
authorization for printing if designer or publisher made a mistake ULTIMATELY
IT IS ALWAYS THE AUTHOR WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE IN MY
OPINION
FOR SUCH AWFUL RESULT.)

This same guy despite very old posts on Igkt forum and my research in Investigation_4  is
still publishing utter silliness on Franciscan Knot !  Just show how well author do their
research for publishing or re-editing ?



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SOMETHING FISHY !

ANOTHER CASE OF MISLABELLING  IN KNOTS' WORLD :
HERRINGBONE !  REALLY ?  NO A MISNOMER 

in Turkshead_24 I wrote

SHORT NOTES ON THE SO-CALLED HERRINGBONE PATTERN 

In architecture the PSEUDO FISH BONE pattern ( “arête de poisson”, the 
so-called herringbone of the English speaking world ) should be opus piscatum  
alas this does not exist except as piffle and balderdash on the Net.

Classical Architectural Texts and Treatises ONLY KNOW of  opus spicatum 
as a well known feature. 

opus  ==  appareillage de pierres  ==  stonework

PISCA = FISH                                  SPICA = WHEAT EAR

Bad 'acquisition' of target  by eyes/brain team that makes the S jump inside the word 
instead of beginning it.

       SPI-catum     giving   faulty  PIS-catum   may be the explanation.

Please have a look at those architectural details
http://www.lunas.org/histoire_de_lunas/histoire_ndnize2
http://www.montjoye.net/Ivry_la_bataille_chateau

Why the English world chose herringbone rather than mackerel or sardine bones is still 
a mystery to me. 
We French, much more open in our options, just say ‘fishbone’ or ‘arête de poisson’ ,
any fish will do, not limiting ourselves to herring ! 
May be that has to do with our very different cooking style !

I should have been a bit more virulent. ( added 2010 July 6th)

I WANT TO INSIST ON THIS SILLY DESIGNATION BY THE WORLD OF
KNOT :

clearly the structure is NOT that of a fishbone BUT that of a WHEAT EAR.


IN COMPLIANCE WITH SIMPLE OBSERVATION IT SHOULD BE WHEAT
PATTERN
! NOT HERRINGBONE PATTERN.


In the fish's skeleton the 'bones' are 'aligned' two by two ( just as we have ours ribs two by
two : a pair on a vertebra.)

Once again simple observation is all that is necessary = the label HERRINGBONE IS
MISTAKEN, EGREGIOUSLY SO.
Just look a the pattern in a Standard Herringbone Knot or in a Standard Herringbone
Pineapple Knot and you will see that the 'layer' joining two adjacent ///// or \\\\\\
is not 'straight' but 'in zig-zag'.
zig-zag =  disposition seen in  wheat ears but NOT seen  in the fish bones.

The point to observe is the  'point of the V ' you see that the 'junction' of the \ branch with
the / branch  is either 'meshed' ( wheat ear and herringbone patterned knots ) or 'strictly
point to point ( fish)

BUCKWHEAT  and WHEAT found less than a mile from where I dwell.


After those photographies of mine here are three that I found on the Net :
Just have a look at this splendid wheat (I am following the label but for me it rather looks
like buckwheat) : http://www.ise5-14.org.uk/members/Photos/Plants/seed%20dispersal/
wheat%20ear%20(animal).JPG

if link is broken and only then : here

A fantastic glass fish skeleton at
http://www.lunaangelica.com/images/stories/Fishbone-2.jpg
if link is broken and only then : here

A good fossil  showing the bones  http://deepgrace.springnote.com/pages/2505858/
attachments/1092932

if the link is broken and only then
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fun it is to chase small mislabelling (a constant it seems to be in the knot tyer's world ,
I wonder, I wonder ....I wonder if the knot makers as a group are not the worst 
'observers' I have ever met ; may be that explain while as a rule they ( seem to me to) 
prefer ready made 'recipes' to full understanding of the innards of a knot ?
A bit like spiders running on pre-programmed instinctual recipes rather than going like
thinking beings running using on the spot adaptation via elaborate intelligent adaptative
behaviour.
Well spiders can spin wonders even if they do not understand why and how they do
them so no skin off the spider's nose ;-)  )


Another mislabelling IMO is the so-called PINEAPPLE =
those knots DO NOT follow the pineapple pattern AT ALL : no phyllotaxy in the knot,
 no logarithmic spiral at the surface of the knot as there are in the fruit ( another botched
labellings and very bad observation of nature by God know who !
Sunflower phyllotaxy ( easier to get than the pineapple )

You will need to be very inattentive not to see how inept it was to name PINEAPPLE those
knots which have ABSOLUTELY NO phyllotaxy-like pattern !
This is a sunflower but in a pineapple fruit the phyllotaxy is similar.
Another one to chalk up to the ignorant(s) ?
In fact this faulty   'observation of Nature' is easier to do in the case of the PineApple that
in the case of  fish / wheat.



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Added 2010 August 5th
WHEN WHAT COULD BE (MIS)TAKEN FOR A REPRESENTATION OF A
KNOT IS INDEED A REAL KNOT : A KNOT DOOR KNOCKER.


This photography was shot a few days ago in PROVINS  (medieval town 90 km from
Paris - UNESCO CATALOGUE of world heritage centre - since 2001 -
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/873  ) )

It is NOT a representation of a knot but a knot IN FACT DONE by the usual method
but not in cordage but in METAL : that is quite a craftsmanship feat.



I also happened to cross road with this door ;-)  I immediately took a liking to it :
perfect illustration : all the appearances of being an entry door but just a dead end, just like
some forum just being a dead-end mutual admiration society.
Just my own personal moment of sadism. Bad karma !


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Copyright 2005 Sept - Charles Hamel / Nautile -
Overall rewriting in August 2006 . Copyright renewed. 2007-2012 -(each year of existence)

Url : http://charles.hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/