How to do various knots comes to mind. Square knot, A sheet bend, clove and trucker's hitch, prusik, the alpine butterfly knot, and bowlines can all be learned rather quickly, then practiced so they can be remembered easily.
My favorite knots to add to your list are adjustable grip hitch (AGH), siberian hitch, and zeppelin bend.
The AGH is super easy to tie and very versatile. The Siberian is useful for tying a rope around a static object such as a pole or a tree. Bends are rarely useful for me since I rarely need to join two ropes together, but if you are going to learn a bend, you might as well learn the most beautiful one.
Yeah I think the zeppelin bend is the greatest knot ever, extremely secure and 100% jam proof (jam proof means the knot is easily untied even after extreme loads). I can’t think of any other bend that has those two properties, usually it’s one or the other
> Bends are rarely useful for me since I rarely need to join two ropes together, but if you are going to learn a bend, you might as well learn the most beautiful one.
I'm sure I've used a sheet bend at least three times in the last year in random situations. I haven't used the zeppelin bend, but I would say having an easy-to-learn-and-tie-but-effective knot "in your kit" is quite useful; you never quite know when it will come in handy.
I’ve also learned a number of knots. The only knot I ever really tie is the tautline hitch. The average person cannot string up a piece of rope and remove all slack because all they know is the granny or square knot. This knot is also incredibly simple and versatile. If you are reading this do yourself a favor and learn this over the next 5 minutes. The bolin should also be learned because the tautline hitch cannot be used for rescue purposes.
The bowline has other advantages. It's also much faster to tie than a figure-8 follow-through, for example. I imagine it takes less rope, too.
We use the bowline (without backup) in industry. I've never heard of anyone having an issue with it. Any equipment is dangerous if you set it up halfway, walk away, and forget to finish. That's why you never do anything halfway. That failure mode is not specific to knots, or any particular knot.
Interestingly, the bowline and the cat's claw are the same knot, but the cat's claw uses two rope ends rather than one and it's very simple to tie, unlike the tricky bowline.
The problem with this is practical use. I so rarely need to knot something securely or in a special way that it doesn't seem worth the time to learn. I can look things up if I find a use.
Someone close to me taught me how to square knot, so my hoodie-tied-around-my-waist would stop slipping, as I was using a double overhand knot before.
I'd also like to add that learning knots is honestly more of a 5-minute commitment to learn than a 1-hour commitment, but it's definitely still a commitment.
The problem with knots is that there are so many, and even the most popular ones have serious problems.
For example, everyone recommends bowline, but it's unsafe without securing the working end. Everyone recommends square knot, but it's easy to tie incorrectly (getting a granny knot instead).
Figuring out which knots to learn will take a lot longer than an hour. Here's my list:
Also two-half hitches and the taughtline hitch. Ever need to tie a rope to a pole or a tree? Two-half hitches is your friend. It's also really easy to undo.
very much agree - I would suggest as a starting point learning a couple basic knot families and then the more important of how to apply them. Keeping it simple - learn a clove hitch, a figure 8, and a bowline (maybe also a sheet bend). Those cover almost all the use cases you will come across without having to remember many knots. Is an alpine/butterfly better than a figure 8 on a bight for a loop in the middle of a rope? yes, of course, but it’s one more thing to remember. If you like knots, learn all the good ones, there’s a knot for every use. But if you just want to have sone practical knowledge that is used rarely, learn just three or four very versatile knots and when to use them.
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