Knotting and splicing ropes and cordage

“WORK” HANDBOOKS
KNOTTING AND SPLICING ROPES AND CORDAGE WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND DIAGRAMS EDITED BY PAUL N. HASLUCK EDITOR OF “WORK” AND “BUILDING WORLD” AUTHOR OF “HANDBOOKS FOR HANDICRAFTS,” ETC. ETC. PHILADELPHIA DAVID McKAY, Publisher 610, SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE 1907
This Handbook contains, in a form convenient for everyday use, a comprehensive digest of the information on Knotting and Splicing Ropes and Cordage, scattered over more than twenty thousand columns of the journals it is my fortune to edit—and supplies concise information on the details of the subjects on which it treats.
Readers who may desire additional information respecting special details of the matters dealt with in this Handbook, or instructions on kindred subjects, should address a question to The Editor of WORK, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C., so that it may be answered in the columns of that journal.
P. N. HASLUCK.
La Belle Sauvage, London.
KNOTTING AND SPLICING ROPES AND CORDAGE.
Knotting is an ancient device with which very early inhabitants of this earth must have been acquainted. From the beginning, mankind must always have used some kind of knot to join animal sinews, plant fibres, or hide strips which, in ancient days, were the prototypes of the varieties of cordage now employed.
A large number of knots has been invented by the skill of man, and on their strength and correct tying depend the lives of thousands and thousands of workmen—seamen, building trade operatives, etc., day by day. The importance of being able to make the knot best suited for the occasion both rapidly and correctly may come in a new light to some when it is pointed out that both lives and property have over and over again been sacrificed to ill-made knots; and this little volume is put forward in the belief that few things better repay the workman’s time and trouble in learning than the manipulation of ropes and cordage.
Cordage is used almost daily by everyone in some form or other, but comparatively few can handle it methodically. Men break their nails and teeth gnawing at their own knots endeavouring to untie them, and time and material are wasted. Time spent in learning a few of the simple bends and hitches, reliable under strain and easy to unbend when the strain is released, would never be regretted. It is not necessary for a landsman to learn all the numerous uses to which rope is put, but a knowledge of common “bends” is an inestimable convenience, if not a necessity.