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Without the freedom to make critical remarks, there cannot
exist sincere flattering praise - Beaumarchais.
HOPING TO PUT TO REST THE SUBJECT OF MATTHEW
WALKER Knot as an OBJECT OF WORSHIP that it is sacrilegious to not
admire.
A pure utilitarian (shroud lanyard stopper) knot that has, for reason absolutely unfathomable to me, taken the fancy of "ornementalist" knot tyers that are making it "The Holy Grail" of knotting !
Seems that a lot of people are led to believe this is an awfully difficult knot.
Well it you can do an overhand knot you can do two , if you can do 2 you can do 3.
If you can chain them on onto the others there you are : a MKW.
Of course the more strands (utterly silly (!) beyond 4S from the practical point of view of a sailor). the more it is an exercise in concentration and attention.
A bit like musical arpeggios elevated to the ranks of Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould.
Anyway whatever the number of strands this consist only and simply of "permutation".
Here the MWK shown
--- simple educational diagram for the anxious ( inspired by a splendidly clear drawing from 1924 , well before Ashley )
--- photography one : MWK closed
--- photography two : MWK opened 1 ( remember this is basically an UTILITARIAN stopper knot and nothing else.
--- photography three : MWK opened 2
TREFOIL ( overhand ) IN MOEBIUS STRIP
That is a mathematical jest given the relation between "trefoil" and "moebius strip".
A complex rather than a complicated knotting done using the method I imparted in my page PUBLICATIONS 2 about Moebius made easy.
The trefoil shown "as is"
The trefoil with sticks to help seeing its structure
ILLUSTRATORS ARE THE BANE OF KNOTS PUBLICATION
Here is a TRUE story illustrating a fact known since a lot of time ! centuries !
I found this illustration ( see the long winded story )
So I contacted the persons involved and offered this illustration.
They were very agreeable and asked if they could use my illustration. That I granted without any restriction as I am not the owner of knots !
They came up with this illustration on their site.
I warned them that their illustrator had once more botched it and offered this correction.
Less than 24h after having been told they put this rectified one on line
OTHER TRAILS TO EXPLORE for those with The Ashley Book Of Knots are
#200 and 201
#331 ( the most elegant ? )
#1050
#1193 ( 2 different results here )
#3851
#3854
But none are so economical in cordage and so quick to do.
A BOUT "NEW KNOTS", "NEWLY INVENTED KNOTS"....
I suggest that 'by default' when the proposed knot is not found after an attentive and
extensive study of all known publications it still remains a non negligible possibility :
that, indeed, it has already been 'invented' before.
This quote from Johann Wolfgang Von GOETHE (1749-1832) seem to me to apply :
" TOUTES LES PENSEES INTELLIGENTES ONT DEJA ETE PENSEES ; IL EST
SEULEMENT NECESSAIRE D'ESSAYER DE LES PENSER DE NOUVEAU "
" ALL INTELLIGENT THOUGHTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN THOUGHT ; IT IS
ONLY NECESSARY TO TRY AND THINK THEM AGAIN "
not forgetting French moralist and writer Jean de LA BRUYERE (1645-1696) in the
opening of Les Caractères où les Moeurs de ce siècle.
" TOUT EST DIT ET L'ON VIENT TROP TARD DEPUIS PLUS DE SEPT MILLE
ANS QU'IL Y A DES HOMMES ET QUI PENSENT "
" ALL IS SAID AND WE COME TOO LATE AS THERE HAVE BEEN MEN WHO
THINK FOR MORE THAN SEVEN THOUSANDS YEARS. "
" in fact men have being thinking is from quite a lot longer than 7000 years but at he time La Bruyère could not have known that.
Added 2011 May 21st
MY MUSINGS ABOUT SPHERICAL COVER...creation / invention / finding / discovery /derivation...whatever you want to call that depending upon your philosophical school of appurtenance ;-).
Caveat : the Pins notation is not one I would recommend and I just used it for the sake of experimenting with it as some seems to like it over the more properly structured variety.(see my document on Pins Notation in bats belfry_14 )
Added 2011 May 24th
An attempt to follow Schaake's advice : the only way to get a valid comparison of
knots is to make isometric diagrams of them.
I hope that at least the more clairvoyant will find that illustration enlightening !
Added 2011 June 24th
My musing as response to a question posed by Dominic TAYLOR on a series of THK
5L 3B 7L 5B 9L 7B.........
My quick and dirty foraging on this trail is a 36 pages pdf available for download for
those interested
Added 2011 July 11th
Still following Schaake's advice : the only way to get a valid comparison of
knots is to make isometric diagrams of them. as in the May 24th topic above.
Here comparison between FOUR bends:
Alpine Butterfly
Ashley or #1452
Rigger ( or Smith-Hunter )
Zeppelin ( attributed
without any proof to Rosendahl. Same Rosendahl (according to one editor's footnote)
denied in a letter any knowledge of it.
sorry those were somewhat less than correct
Large illustration
Small illustration
here is a 2011 Sept one
and the second one
Added 2012 July 16th
After 5L 5B of the before last topic in My musing I was playing this morning and a
4L 4B happened to be formed in my hand.
I have no doubt that everyone know that it cannot be a "true" THK ( a REGULAR
Cylindrical Knot )
As it is SINGLE STRAND it cannot be ( the stupidly called THK or multi-strand THK ) a SEMI-REGULAR Cylindrical Knot.
So what is the knot seen here ?
How can you make one ?
In fact it is a IRREGULAR NESTED-BIGHT CYLINDRICAL KNOT as you will
see in this PDF
More details of the nested-bights
Here is how to do it
Added 2012 17th
an "apparent" 5L 3B gotten by extending a 3L 2B
???....from a 3L 2B ?
but...that is a violation of the rules of enlargement as a 5L 3B can only come from a
1L 1B by LEFT side enlargement.
Though single strand it is *not* a THK but a n IRREGULAR NESTED-BIGHT
CYLINDRICAL KNOT and I did it like that.