CHAPTER VII
FANCY KNOTS AND ROPE WORK
The knots and splices described above are all more for practical use than ornament, although such shortenings as the Single and Double plaits, the Chain knots, the Twofold, Fourfold, and Sixfold knots, and others are often used for ornamental purposes only. A certain class of knots are, however, really ornamental and seldom serve to fasten two ropes together, or to make any object fast to another. They are, however, very useful in many ways, especially aboard ship, and they are so handsome and interesting that every one interested in rope work should learn to make them.
The simplest of the fancy knots is known as the "Single Crown" (Fig. 110). To form this knot unlay the strands of a new, flexible rope for six to eight inches and whip the ends of each strand, as well as the standing part, to prevent further untwisting.
Hold the rope in your left hand and fold one strand over and away from you, as shown in A, Fig. 111. Then fold the next strand over A (see B, Fig. 111), and then, while holding these in place with thumb and finger, pass the strand C over strand B, and through the bight of A as shown in the illustration. Now pull all ends tight and work the bights up smooth and snug; cut off ends and the knot is complete. This single crown is a very poor knot to stand by itself, however, and is mainly valuable as a basis for other more complicated knots and for ending up rope.
To end up a rope with a crown it is merely necessary to leave the projecting ends long and then by bringing them down tuck under the strands of the standing part, as shown in Fig. 112.
