Half Hitch
The half hitch is a very useful thing to know. It is not really a knot, but a loop used in tying many of the harder knots. A double half hitch is needed to make a secure knot and is used for fastening awning ropes, flag rope, etc. The more it is strained the faster it holds. It is a simple way of making a rope fast in a hurry, where a long continued strain is not expected, thus it is used in tying a boat’s painter, which is not a man but a rope fastened to the bow of a small boat.
Bowline
A Bowline makes a noose that is permanent, neither jamming nor slipping. It is useful in hoisting and lowering, as in case of fire, rescuing from drowning, a painter’s chair, etc. It is also used in a guard line, as a halter for animals, or wherever a safe loop is needed.
Take end in right hand: measure with your left sufficient rope for the loop you want; make a bight in your left hand and hold it. Now take the end of the rope in your right hand, put it up through the bight, round the standing part, and down through the bight again: pulling the end and both sides of your permanent loop with the right hand against the standing part in your left hand; (three against one).
Sheepshank
A scout would not waste a rope by cutting it but would shorten it by making a sheepshank. This will stand a great strain without slipping, but will loosen when held slack.
Lay the rope out straight. Cross your hands and take hold of the rope. Take up the slack by drawing your hands past each other. Hold the three parts of the rope between the loop and the end, and put it over the loop, leaving sufficient loop sticking out so the half hitch won’t slip off it; then pull. Do the same at the other end, and put it over the loop, leaving sufficient loop sticking out so the half hitch won’t slip off it; then pull. It can be untied by a quick jerk of the outside ropes forming the bights. To shorten a rope permanently this way, pass the ends through the loops, and the knot will hold for any length of time.
Fisherman’s Knot
This knot is used to tie two unequal thicknesses of rope. It gets its name from the fact that it is always employed in joining silkworm gut for fishing purposes.