Constrictor knot
Encyclopedia
The constrictor knot is one of the most effective binding knots. Simple and secure, it is a harsh knot
that can be difficult or impossible to untie once tightened. It is made similarly to a clove hitch
but with one end passed under the other, forming an overhand knot
under a riding turn. The double constrictor knot is an even more robust variation that features two riding turns.
's 1944 work The Ashley Book of Knots
, this knot likely dates back much further. Although Ashley seemed to imply that he had invented the constrictor knot over 25 years before publishing The Ashley Book of Knots, research indicates that he was not its originator. Ashley's publication of the knot did bring it to wider attention.
Although the description is not entirely without ambiguity, the constrictor knot is thought to have appeared under the name "gunner's knot" in the 1866 work The Book of Knots, written under the pseudonym Tom Bowling. Bowling described it in relation to the clove hitch
, which he illustrated and called the "builder's knot". He wrote, "The Gunner's knot (of which we do not give a diagram) only differs from the builder's knot, by the ends of the cords being simply knotted before being brought from under the loop which crosses them." Oddly, when J. T. Burgess copied from Bowling, he changed this text to merely state "when the ends are knotted, the builder's knot becomes the gunner's Knot." Although this clove hitch with knotted ends is a workable binding knot, Burgess was not actually describing the constrictor knot. In 1917, A. Hyatt Verrill
illustrated Burgess' clove hitch variation in Knots, Splices and Rope Work.
The constrictor knot was clearly described but not pictured as the "timmerknut" ("timber knot") in the 1916 Swedish book Om Knutar ("On Knots") by Hjalmar Öhrvall. Finnish scout leader Martta Ropponen presented the knot in her 1931 scouting
handbook Solmukirja ("Knot Book"), the first published work known to contain an illustration of the constrictor knot. Cyrus L. Day relates that, "she had never seen it in Finland, she wrote to me in 1954, but had learned about it from a Spaniard named Raphael Gaston, who called it a whip knot, and told her it was used in the mountains of Spain by muleteers and herdsmen." The Finnish
name "ruoskasolmu" ("whip knot") was a translation from Esperanto
, the language Ropponen used to correspond with Gaston.
The slipped constrictor can also be tied in the bight and slipped over the object to constrict. Despite its advertised advantage (quick release), the slipped constrictor knot can also be hard to release when worked extremely tight in certain rope materials.
The constrictor knot is appropriate for situations where secure temporary or semi-permanent binding is needed. Made with small-stuff
it is especially effective, as the binding force is concentrated over a smaller area.
When tying over soft material such as the neck of a bag, hard stiff cord is more effective. When tying over hard surfaces, soft stretchy line is preferred. The constrictor knot's severe bite (which makes it so effective) can damage or disfigure items it is tied around. To exert extreme tension on the knot without injuring the hands, one can fashion handles using marlinespike hitch
es made around two rods.
Constrictor knots can be used for temporarily binding the fibres of a rope (or strand ends) together while splicing
, or when cutting to length and before properly whipping
the ends. Constrictor knots can also be quite effective as improvised hose clamp
s or cable tie
s. Noted master-rigger
Brion Toss says of the constrictor: "To know the knot is to constantly find uses for it…"
A heavily tightened constrictor knot will likely jam. If the ends are long enough, one can sometimes untie it by pulling one end generally parallel to the bound object and a bit up away from it, and prying it into the opposite end's part to open the knot. Tools that can be forced between parts of the knot (such as picks and marlinespikes) may help.
If the ends have been trimmed short, or the knot is otherwise hopelessly jammed, it can be easily released by cutting the riding turn with a sharp knife
. The knot will spring apart as soon as the riding turn is cut. If care is taken not to cut too deeply, the underlying wraps will protect the bound object from being damaged by the knife.
, in the fashion of a reef knot
, to help stabilize it. Those recommendations aside, constrictor knots do function best on fully convex objects.
If the constricted object (such as a temporarily whipped rope) ends very close to where a constrictor binds it, a boa knot
may prove a more stable solution.
Knot
A knot is a method of fastening or securing linear material such as rope by tying or interweaving. It may consist of a length of one or several segments of rope, string, webbing, twine, strap, or even chain interwoven such that the line can bind to itself or to some other object—the "load"...
that can be difficult or impossible to untie once tightened. It is made similarly to a clove hitch
Clove hitch
A clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most essential knots. A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot. It can be used as a binding knot, but is not...
but with one end passed under the other, forming an overhand knot
Overhand knot
The overhand knot is one of the most fundamental knots and forms the basis of many others including the simple noose, overhand loop, angler's loop, reef knot, fisherman's knot and water knot. The overhand knot is very secure, to the point of jamming badly. It should be used if the knot is...
under a riding turn. The double constrictor knot is an even more robust variation that features two riding turns.
History
First called "constrictor knot" in Clifford AshleyClifford Ashley
Clifford Warren Ashley was an American artist, author, sailor, and knot expert. He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, son of Abiel Davis Ashley and Caroline Morse. Ashley married Sarah Scudder Clark in 1932 and had two daughters, also adopting his wife's oldest daughter from a previous...
's 1944 work The Ashley Book of Knots
The Ashley Book of Knots
The Ashley Book of Knots is an encyclopedia of knots first published in 1944 by Clifford Warren Ashley. The culmination of over 11 years of work, it contains some 7000 illustrations and more than 3854 entries covering over 2000 different knots. The entries include instructions, uses, and for some...
, this knot likely dates back much further. Although Ashley seemed to imply that he had invented the constrictor knot over 25 years before publishing The Ashley Book of Knots, research indicates that he was not its originator. Ashley's publication of the knot did bring it to wider attention.
Although the description is not entirely without ambiguity, the constrictor knot is thought to have appeared under the name "gunner's knot" in the 1866 work The Book of Knots, written under the pseudonym Tom Bowling. Bowling described it in relation to the clove hitch
Clove hitch
A clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most essential knots. A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot. It can be used as a binding knot, but is not...
, which he illustrated and called the "builder's knot". He wrote, "The Gunner's knot (of which we do not give a diagram) only differs from the builder's knot, by the ends of the cords being simply knotted before being brought from under the loop which crosses them." Oddly, when J. T. Burgess copied from Bowling, he changed this text to merely state "when the ends are knotted, the builder's knot becomes the gunner's Knot." Although this clove hitch with knotted ends is a workable binding knot, Burgess was not actually describing the constrictor knot. In 1917, A. Hyatt Verrill
Alpheus Hyatt Verrill
Alpheus Hyatt Verrill, known as Hyatt Verrill, was an American archaeologist, explorer, inventor, illustrator and author. He was the son of Addison Emery Verrill , the first professor of zoology at Yale University.Hyatt Verrill wrote on a wide variety of topics, including natural history, travel,...
illustrated Burgess' clove hitch variation in Knots, Splices and Rope Work.
The constrictor knot was clearly described but not pictured as the "timmerknut" ("timber knot") in the 1916 Swedish book Om Knutar ("On Knots") by Hjalmar Öhrvall. Finnish scout leader Martta Ropponen presented the knot in her 1931 scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
handbook Solmukirja ("Knot Book"), the first published work known to contain an illustration of the constrictor knot. Cyrus L. Day relates that, "she had never seen it in Finland, she wrote to me in 1954, but had learned about it from a Spaniard named Raphael Gaston, who called it a whip knot, and told her it was used in the mountains of Spain by muleteers and herdsmen." The Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
name "ruoskasolmu" ("whip knot") was a translation from Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, the language Ropponen used to correspond with Gaston.
Tying
The method shown below is the most basic way to tie the knot. There are also at least three methods to tie the constrictor knot in the bight and slip it over the end of an object to be bound.- Make a turn around the object and bring the working end back over the standing part.
- Continue around behind the object.
- Pass the working end over the standing part and then under the riding turn and standing part, forming an overhand knot under a riding turn.
- Be sure the ends emerge between the two turns as shown. Pull firmly on the ends to tighten.
Double constrictor knot
If a stronger and even more secure knot is required an extra riding turn can be added to the basic knot to form a double constrictor knot. It is particularly useful when tying the knot with very slippery twine, especially when waxed. Adding more than one extra riding turn does not add to its security and makes the knot more difficult to tighten evenly.- Make a turn around the object and bring the working end back over the standing part.
- Make a second turn following the same path as the first
- Pass the working end over the standing part, then thread it back under the standing part and both riding turns, forming an overhand knot under two riding turns.
- Be sure the ends emerge between the turns as shown. The double constrictor may require more careful dressing to distribute the tension throughout the knot. After working up fairly tight, pull firmly on the ends to finish.
Slipped constrictor knot
This variation is useful if it is known beforehand that the constrictor will need to be released. Depending on the knotting material and how tightly it is cinched, the slipped form can still be very difficult to release.- Make a turn around the object and bring the working end back over the standing part.
- Continue around behind the object.
- Pass a bightBight (knot)In knot tying, a bight is a curved section, slack part, or loop between the two ends of a rope, string, or yarn. The term is also used in a more specific way when describing Turk's head knots, indicating how many repetitions of braiding are made in the circuit of a given knot.-Slipped knot:In order...
under the standing part and riding turn, instead of using the end itself. - Be sure the bight and ends emerge between the two turns as shown. To release, tug on the working end so that the bight passes back through the knot.
The slipped constrictor can also be tied in the bight and slipped over the object to constrict. Despite its advertised advantage (quick release), the slipped constrictor knot can also be hard to release when worked extremely tight in certain rope materials.
Usage
Small-stuff
Small-stuff is a nautical and knot-tying term for thin string or twine, as opposed to the thick, heavy ropes that are more often used in sailing. It is commonly used in a whipping to bind the ends of ropes to prevent fraying....
it is especially effective, as the binding force is concentrated over a smaller area.
When tying over soft material such as the neck of a bag, hard stiff cord is more effective. When tying over hard surfaces, soft stretchy line is preferred. The constrictor knot's severe bite (which makes it so effective) can damage or disfigure items it is tied around. To exert extreme tension on the knot without injuring the hands, one can fashion handles using marlinespike hitch
Marlinespike hitch
The marlinespike hitch is a temporary knot used to attach a rod to a rope in order to form a handle. This allows more tension than could be produced comfortably by gripping the rope with the hands alone. It is useful when tightening knots and for other purposes in ropework.As the name suggests,...
es made around two rods.
Constrictor knots can be used for temporarily binding the fibres of a rope (or strand ends) together while splicing
Rope splicing
Rope splicing in ropework is the forming of a semi-permanent joint between two ropes or two parts of the same rope by partly untwisting and then interweaving their strands. Splices can be used to form a stopper at the end of a line, to form a loop or an eye in a rope, or for joining two ropes...
, or when cutting to length and before properly whipping
Whipping knot
A whipping knot or whipping is a binding of twine around the end of a rope to prevent the fibres of the rope from unravelling.When a rope is cut, there is a natural tendency for the cut end to fray. A whipping is one way to try to prevent this, by applying multiple turns of twine tightly around...
the ends. Constrictor knots can also be quite effective as improvised hose clamp
Hose clamp
A hose clamp or hose clip is a device used to attach and seal a hose onto a fitting such as a barb or nipple.- Screw/band clamps :...
s or cable tie
Cable tie
A cable tie, also known as a zip tie or tie-wrap , is a type of fastener, especially for binding several electronic cables or wires together and to organize cables and wires.-Design and use:...
s. Noted master-rigger
Rigger
Rigger may refer to:* One who attends to the rigging of a sailing ship* Rigger , those who tend rigging in stage performance * Rigger , specializing in moving large/heavy objects* Parachute rigger...
Brion Toss says of the constrictor: "To know the knot is to constantly find uses for it…"
Releasing
If the ends have been trimmed short, or the knot is otherwise hopelessly jammed, it can be easily released by cutting the riding turn with a sharp knife
Knife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
. The knot will spring apart as soon as the riding turn is cut. If care is taken not to cut too deeply, the underlying wraps will protect the bound object from being damaged by the knife.
Security
The constrictor and double constrictor are both extremely secure when tied tightly around convex objects with cord scaled for the task at hand. If binding around a not fully convex, or square-edged object, arrange the knot so the overhand knot portion is stretched across a convex portion, or a corner, with the riding turn squarely on top of it. In situations where the object leaves gaps under the knot and there are no corners, it is possible to finish the constrictor knot off with an additional overhand knotOverhand knot
The overhand knot is one of the most fundamental knots and forms the basis of many others including the simple noose, overhand loop, angler's loop, reef knot, fisherman's knot and water knot. The overhand knot is very secure, to the point of jamming badly. It should be used if the knot is...
, in the fashion of a reef knot
Reef knot
The reef knot or square knot is an ancient and simple binding knot used to secure a rope or line around an object. Although the reef knot is often seen used for tying two ropes together, it is not recommended for this purpose due to potential instability of the knot.A reef knot is formed by tying...
, to help stabilize it. Those recommendations aside, constrictor knots do function best on fully convex objects.
If the constricted object (such as a temporarily whipped rope) ends very close to where a constrictor binds it, a boa knot
Boa knot
The boa knot is a modern, binding knot invented by weaver Peter Collingwood in 1996. His intention was to develop a knot that would hold well when the constricted object was cut close to the winds of the knot....
may prove a more stable solution.