page 2
Without the freedom to make critical remarks, there cannot exist sincere
flattering praise - Beaumarchais.
HOW TO QUICKLY GET NON DANGEROUS CORES FOR SPHERIC KNOTS
To easily make to order a core ball (globe) I use aluminium foil. ( The kitchen sort,
used for cooking and preserving )
With the French brand (do not know if the one you can get will be thinner or thicker or
equal) I use I roughly follow this procedure :
- packing the ball hard though not 'pounding' on it or using really maximal force.
- starting figure : square of aluminium foil. Though in fact it can be 'an irregular square', that is a rectangle as it is the area of it that is the real parameter.
If D is the diameter of ball in millimetre
and S is length of the side of the square in centimetre
I realize that it is not very neat to mix different units (cm and mm) in the same formula but it makes from easier manipulation and mnemonic if not for mathematical correctness.
Doing this you approximately get a ball that has a D in millimetre expressed by a "number" that is equal to the number measuring the square side in centimetre
This is 'valid' or rather 'usable', in a non strictly linear manner, with squares between
5cm X 5cm and 30cm X 30cm.
RECURSIVE MOVE GET YOU A SQUARE MAT
I was doing doodles thinking about a perfectly square mat with the maximum of economy.
This is what happened to be drawn on my paper.
I made it in cordage too.
COULD THIS BE A NEW WAY TO 'SHOW' A KNOT
I think that for some knots this can be one way to show it satisfactorily.
added 06 Jan 2011 this seems to have inspired the author of a book published in
December of 2009. my post date from 2004-2005 and I have never seen anywhere this way of doing things! Book is to be avoided -over costly for its real worth, nothing new, just a collection of already threadbare projects! Photos are so badly done re contrasts, light and choice of colour proper for our best eyesigt which are green and yellow that mos tof the crossings are undecipherable and that is saying nothing about thetoo many out of sharp focus shots !
EBONY AND WHITE TURK'S HEAD
I was interested by the contrast between this very dark, smooth parallelepipedic piece
of exotic wood and the ultra-white cordage being added to the apparent contradiction of hiding the beauty of one under the rather mundane appearance of the other.
HOW TO 'SMOOTHLY', that is only using 'continuous moves' ,
TRANSFORM A BOWLINE INTO TWO INTERLOCKED REEF KNOTS
(no rethreading - no gluing - no cutting)
Just try it and when done go and see my way to do it.
The two interlocked reef knot are 'equivalent' to the bowline.
HOW ABOUT USING A WORKING MODEL ROPE WALK TO DO PUBLIC
PRESENTATION
Here is an historical masterpiece that was once in France Royal collection and is now on show at Le Musée National de la Marine at Le Trocadéro in PARIS.
This piece is actually working 'to scale'.
There are ways to do one with 'LEGO' bricks that is working and it could be an
'educational' show.
VANDA (a Chartreux she-cat, friend of my Thai-Siamese cat UTMO) is giving
her (no 'its' for such a creature!) sincere appreciation joined to her considered
and learned opinion about my topological endeavour about knots
You cannot beat her way of putting forth what she thinks about that :
"only fools use ropeto play instead of mice".
She is literally dumbfounded and rolling on the floor laughing a cat's laugh at such silliness.
A 'LATERAL' SPLICE
Trying different ways to do a 'perpendicular' splicing this is what I did.
Do not have any specific use for it though.
A conversation piece it is at the moment.
A 'ONE STRAND' PSEUDO-SPLICE
Wanting to get the 90¨or 95% performance given by a splice while using a polyethylene braided rope I arrived at this sort of weaving.
Some 19th century text state that a splice is responsible for a 1/8th diminution the strength of the rope, so leaving 7/8th , 87.5%, of this strength.
Waiting for Jimbo to test it with a mechanical shovel.
SIMPLE TRIPOD LASHING
Cannot be simpler to lash 3 sticks together to make a tripod.
Based on the ubiquitous overhand.
ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF RESPECTING THE LAY OF STRANDS
using ABOK #2772 Marline Eye Splice or Tucked Eye.
At the occasion of the reading and study of a report about a fatal lumbering accident where this tucked splice was in use I tried some 'experiments' :
doing permutation in the strands used and soaking the 2mm nylon 3S cordage I used in WD 40 or in TEFLON to get it quite 'sliding and slipping'.
I am now convinced that it is of prime importance to disturb the lay of the rope only in the most minimal manner. In order to do that you have to count the strands.
To obtain that minimal disturbance the best way is not to use two tucks as Ashley shown but to be sure to do as many tucks as there are strands in the cordage, and to make sure that each of the strands is used once. Never use the same one twice.
This sort of equilibrate the 'pinching' action of the strands.
Make sure of the residual potential sliding under heavy loads by putting either a stopper or a half-hitch.
To test the concept just try it with fibrillated staple polypropylene (sleek and springy!) 3S cordage 8mm in diameter with the tucks soaked in WD 40.
Try the way I show and then try putting 2 or even 3 tucks under the same strand.
Then try again but quite haphazardly and after pulling study if the tucks were under different strands or under the same one or 2 of them instead of 3.
MY TWO WAYS TO MAKE A CONSTRICTOR KNOT.
This first one does not need to gain access to the extremity of the part on which it will be put while for this second one ask for it. (See in Friend's Page Jimbo and Roy contributions about the Constrictor)
HOW TO 'TRANSMIT' A KNOT OVER THE PHONE
There are several different ways to transmit knot :
I preferred the "turtle way", just as in old basic computer language the turtle was
programmed..
*Any* knot can be made into a diagram - more or less easily of course -
so this manner of doing could be one among many other.
Only thing that may present a difficulty is giving the most careful attention to the choice of the 'frame of reference', when creating a 'common ground' that is to be really 'common' to
the involved parties.
Of course between people used to each others it is possible to directly give 'drawing
orders':
-- start at the middle of the of the page,
-- go down south for 7 cm,
-- makes a left turn go 3 cm,
-- makes a left turn go 5 cm....and so on.
If 'sender' as already made the drawing it is a piece of cake.
Basic material :
-Graph paper : equal units on vertical and horizontal
-(x) axis is at the top the sheet held in the normal way ( top is 'North' for the draughtsmen)
-(y) axis is at the leftmost side ( West)
-(x) axis is oriented from West to Est
-(y) axis is oriented from North to South
(coordinates are in (x // y ) order.
In absence of indication last point is joined to the 'being given point"
Now here is a simple one ( hitches are a bit more complicated.)
- Fixed loop
- point of departure SPart
- join ( 3 // 0) to ( 3 // 5)
- join [ last point ( 3 // 5 ) to ] ( 5 // 5)
- join last to ( 5 // 4)
- Join to ( 2 // 4)
- ( 2 // 9 )
- (4.5 // 9 )
- ( 4.5 // 2 )
- ( 2.5 // 2 )
- ( 2.5 // 2 )
- ( 4 // 3 )
- last point = end of 'tail' : ( 4 // 7 )
Now slow retracing the drawing from the beginning will meet 7 crossings (each 2 times so having a control) H = High or Over L = Low or Under reference being "the way you are going at that
instant"
First encountered at (3 // 2) is H
Second encountered at (3 // 3 ) is L
Third is at ( 3 // 4 ) and is L
Fourth at ( ( 4 // 5 ) is H
Fifth at ( 4.5 // 5) is H
Six (4.5 // 4 ) is L
Seventh ( 5 // 4 ) is L
Eight is already done and is at ( 3 // 4 ) now viewed as H ( verification )
Ninth is already done and is (4.5 // 5) now viewed as L ( verification )
Tenth is already done at (4.5 // 4) now viewed as H
Eleventh is already done at ( 3 // 2 ) and is now viewed as L
Twelfth is already done and is ( 3 // 3 ) and is now viewed as H
Thirteenth is already done and is ( 4 // 4 ) and is now viewed as H
Fourteenth is already done and is ( 4 // 5 ) and is now viewed as L
FROM LAPP BOWLINE TO ALPINE BUTTERFLY BOWLINE
Quite easy in one simple move as you will see here. and there are the bends
Some words about INVENTION, CREATION, FINDING about knots and in
particular THIS FALSE THK (THK ALTERNATIVE AT MOST)
You get the diagram if you want to make one.
About two years ago (2006 May) I was attempting expending a THK.
I made a mistake without realizing it and went along to finish with that knot in my hands.
Here is the full diagram for enlarging a 5B 5L THK to a NON THK with 5B 'external" and 4B 'internal' with 5L
Invention ? discovery ? creation ? finding ?
Invention : in my French mind map (from Latin) this suppose that is is the product of
imagination working toward a previously unknown 'item'.
Well my imagination was not "working", that is wantonly, deliberately working toward *this* particular knot. In fact it was working toward another entirely different knot.
So this is not invention just because of that notion of "absence of goal seeking".
But as for it being something that did not exist in "my personal Universe' it could have been.
Discovery : still in my French mind map this is getting something that was previously
unknown, ignored, or hidden. In any case it was "pre-existent" to the 'putting it to light'.
Well it could be a discovery if one applied "ignored" or "unknown" to myself or some other
knot tyers. Using "hidden" would be taking a Platonic view of think.
Creation : well if it means "making" , "crafting" something new ( at least to me and some other persons) then certainly this applied.
But creation seems to me a "deliberate and reflected upon action" which it was not as I was mistaken.
At the most it was a "creative mistake".
Finding : this entails, serendipity, happenstance, chance in getting something without having been really trying to get it most often. remember I was ***not***trying to find that result.
This is the less unsatisfying word in the present case, though I would be tempted to say that it was not the me that found the knot but rather the knot that found me! Just as I usually say, if pushed, that we are not passing through time but that time is passing through us.
ASHLEY AND THE BLINDS or ASHLEY TAKING US FOR A RIDE (well he
must be a good chauffeur seeing how many members of IGKT of the Authors ilk
have miss that one ( and others "approximations")
ABoK #783 : the TWO-STRAND FOOTROPE KNOT. No special mention in Ashley's prose
ABoK#1452 :: ANOTHER ORIGINAL BEND...as it stands the method of tying is more complicated than could be wished but this can probably be remedied , in Ashley's own words.
My comments : to disguise the thieving?
or is it just a forgotten reminiscence that he attribute to his inventiveness ? this show that Ashley is very far from being the infallible Pope some take him for, this show too that so called specialists of IGKT are not really top of the world as discernment go.
THESE KNOTS ARE BUT ONE AND THE SAME STRUCTURE !
Proof in pictures : ONE TWO
By the way, in the #1452 contains too much unuseful crossings that makes it "complicated" when compared to the Footrope knot #783 and makes Ashley's pseudo invention a less than good realisation.
Copyright 2005 Sept - Charles Hamel / Nautile -
Overall rewriting in August 2006 . Copyright renewed. 2007-2014 -(each year of existence)
Url : http://charles.hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/