15 Essential Hitch Knots

today we're going to go over 15 different types of hitch knots now hitch knots are used to tie a rope to an object or in some cases you're tying the Rope back into itself around an object in some cases we're going to have show you a few friction hitches those are used for tightening up lines such as a guideline or tint line something of that nature and then finally one of the most useful hitches for tying down cargo and that is going to be the Trucker's Hitch we're going to start off today with the half hitch the half hitch in and of itself is not a very secure knot you can see this thing will kind of slip loose but it is an essential knot for tying a lot of other knots so there's a couple different ways to tie the half hitch well a couple different ways to form it you tie it the same way but the first one is you you're going to go around your object then you're going to go over your standing line and you're going to bring it right back through and then you can just kind of tuck it underneath like so and that is a half inch now if you wrap it up like this and you tie it that is also a half hitch basically what this is is a an overhand knot but the overhand knot is tied around the object so if we go around again that is your half hitch now again in and of itself or by itself it is not a very secure knot but it is is an essential knot for tying other knots the next knot is also considered one of the essential knots this is the clove hitch now the clove hitch again like the half hitch by itself is not a very secure knot you can actually work the cloth hitch loose if you have uh the standing end of your rope is subjected to stuff like wind or just variant loads so it's not an extremely secure knot by itself now there are a couple of ways that you can strengthen it or you know make it more secure that I'll show you as well so to tie the cloviage you're going to go around the object that you're tying in my case I'm right-handed so I'm going to come out the right hand side I a lot of some people go under I always start out by knots going over so then we're going to cross over the standing line and we're going to go right back around our pipe and then we're going to come back up through this void right here and then you're going to pull the standing end and the working end in opposite directions to secure it or to Snug the knot and that is the clove hitch now there's a couple of different ways that you can make the clove hitch a little bit more secure because like I showed you before it's not a very strong knot by itself so we'll start off with the clove hitch one way that you can do it is just to add another half hitch if you add a half hitch to the back side kind of the Rope just trails in the same direction now when you you snug this up and get it tight this one actually tightens it up pretty securely and so this is one way to make the cloth hitch a bit more secure the next way that you can do it is you can bend backwards and you can go over and put a half hitch here and this is actually called a different knot this is called the the cloth hitch with uh with half hitch so clove hitch or clove hitch plus half hitch so this is another way that you can somewhat secure the clove hitch I don't particularly like this one because this one also has a tendency you can see it can work itself Loose as well where if you go around the object in another half hitch it seems to be a little bit more secure in my opinion anyway and then there's one final way that you can make the clothage a bit more secure and that is to just add a little stopper knot so in our case we're just going to put a little overhand knot here and then when you snug it all back up now that stopper will stop up against the knot and that will keep the the cloth heads from coming undone and so those are three different ways where you can actually uh make this make the clove hitch a little bit more secure now the next knot is called The Spar hitch and a lot of these three knots the next three knots are going to be pretty close to one another but they do have different names so the first one is called The Spar hitch and it is tied much like the clove hitch starts out but it's how you in the knot which makes it different so let me get this undone and we're going to start off by going over our object and just in the same fashion we did the clove hitch we're going to cross over and then we're going to come around now where the cloth hits you would go up through here this one we're going to go over the top and then we're going to pull up on our first Loop and we're going to slip that right into the first Loop tighten it up and that is The Spar hitch now of these next three knots what makes them more secure is the fact that the trailing end or the working end of the Rope gets trapped under the first Loop and that is the side where you're going to get the load on your rope and so these are much more secure knots now one thing that you might want to consider when doing Spar hitch or a couple of the others that I'm about to show you is you might want to get you a little extra lead and instead of putting the end of the Rope you want to put a bite through it thereby making it a slipped hitch so this is the slips bar that way when you first of all it's very secure and then when you want to undo it you just pull and it comes free very very easily now this next hitch knot actually has two different names I know it as the picket line hitch but it's also referred to as the ground line hitch and you'll notice that it is pretty similar to what The Spar hitch was it's just the the direction that you come in on that first Loop is what changes so take this off and much like the the other two hitches that we started we're going to go over cross over go around our object again we're going to come on the outside now where The Spar hitch came over and under this one just goes you lift up the first Loop and you just working in right back under and that creates the picket line hitch or the ground line hitch this next knot is a very very secure knot this one is called the constrictor and this can be a semi-permanent or permanent knot this one can be very hard to untie once it's been subjected to load so it's kind of advisable if you want to if this isn't a permanent knot and it's something you want to take apart that instead of doing the regular constrictor knot you make it a slip constrictor by putting a bite through the end here so if we take this back apart and just like those other hitch knots it's going to start out the same way go over cross over go back over your object now in this case we're going to go to the outside and we're going to lift up on the X here now and we're going to tuck the end of the Rope right underneath that X and then we can tighten it up and that is the constrictor this is a very very solid knot that will not come undone in fact like I said before it's very hard to get undone when you want to unless you put it in its slip form so to do that you just give yourself a little extra lead and we're going to send a bite through the end of the Rope or excuse me underneath the or our rope here and then when we tie it now we have created the slip constrictor this is an extremely secure knot and when you want to untie it you can actually get it untied in a slip form by just a simple pull and pulling it apart this next knot is called the boom hitch now the value to the boom hitch is is that this knot first of all it's very secure second thing is it's very resistant to side load so if you're tying around a pipe uh and you it's your rope is kind of subjected to side load this thing will hold in both directions pretty firmly especially if you dress it properly you have it really snugged up the the boom hitch just does not give very much now for this one this one takes a few wraps so you're going to have to make sure that you give yourself quite a bit of working in a row so the first thing we'll start off going around our object and much like those other hitches we're going to cross over only this time we're going to add a couple wraps so now what we want to do is we want to trail to the inside of our first Loop and we'll wrap around our object and now we want to trail to the outside of this Loop just follow around the same path we'll snug that up just a bit now this is our second wrap here what we want to do is we want to lift up on the second wrap tuck it through and then you can dress the knot and this is the boom hitch now with the boom hitch it is advisable that you go ahead and add a stopper knot to the back side of it you can put an overhand or figure eight some kind of stop or not in order to make it a little bit more secure at that this is the boom hitch now this next knot is known as a post hitch or a pile hitch and as the name implies it's it's to tie a rope to a post or a pile so to form this what you want to do is you want to have a bite in the Rope I'm going to go around the post and then you want to come up underneath and then you just take that Loop and you go right over the top and then you can snug it secure it and that is the post or the pile hitch the next night is a very easy knot to learn and this one gets used quite a bit this one's called the Buntline hitch now basically what you're doing is you're going to wrap the Rope around the object that you're trying to capture and then you're going to tie a clove hitch onto the standing end of the Rope so that's where it's kind of inherent to learn how to tie the clove hitch so to do this you're going to go over our object and then we're going to cross over we're going to come underneath one time and then we're going to lift right here we're going to go over and loop back down and now we have created if you look at it this is the clove hitch that is on the standing end of the rope and then all you got to do is just kind of snug this this knot up and this is the bump line hitch once you get it secured it stays in there pretty nicely now this next hitch knot is called the round turn with two half hitches and much like the name implies it's kind of two different parts so you have the round turn which goes around the object and then you have the two half hitches or a clove hitch that gets tied onto the standing end of the Rope so to tie this one this one's going to need a little bit extra line as well so we're going to go around the object once and then we're going to go around it one more time that makes one complete turn that's called the round turn then we can cross over we can snug it in like so and then you're going to go over and in the same direction you're going to put one more half hitch so one half inch and then your second one snug it all up and that is the round turn with two half inches the next knot is very very similar to the round turn and two half inches this is called the anchor hitch it's just tied just slightly different and this one is actually a lot more secure so it's going to have the same basic components the round turn plus the two half inches is just how you tie it that's a little bit different so we'll start out for go over our object and we'll wrap around that full round term then we're going to cross over much like we did with the round turn with two half inches but this time we're going to pull our loop back here and we're going to Snug that first half inch in between the object and that first Loop and then we'll snug that up now that forms the basis for the anchor hitch and now we want to just go over one more time put another half hitch and that is the anchor hitch and when you get this one secured and snug it is a very very secure knot because that first wrap is capsizing the working end of the rope and thereby just keeping it keeping that knot together now the next four knots that we're going to look at are called friction hitches these these particular knots allow you to this is something you'll use for like guy lines maybe you're tying a tin up or you're putting a ridge line up what this not these knots allow you to do is you have an adjustable Loop basically so you can tighten this up and you can shorten it once you have pressure on it they'll hold so the first one is called the taut line and this is kind of a common knot this is one you learn in the Boy Scouts so to tie the Top Line you're going to start off by going around the object whether that be a tree a stake whatever and then we're going to cross over and we're going to do one loop on the inside of the main Loop that we have here and then we're going to do a second one now we're going to go to the outside and going in the same direction we're going to put a half hitch on the bottom of that and then once we tighten everything up this is going to form our top line hitch important to get this one snug now the taut line is one that's taught very often but if you're on a pretty slippery rope it's probably not the best of the friction hitches so once it's set though and you have a decent rope you can adjust this forward and back to tighten up your line and every time you put tension on it it should hold or pretty you know hold very very securely the next knot that we're looking at is called the mid shipments hitch now this one is tied very similar to what the top or how the Top Line hits is tied there's just a little slight difference in the two this actually is a little bit more secure friction hitch than what the top line is though so let's take this apart and we're going to start off by going over the object that we want to capture just like we did in the top line and we're going to Loop inside just like on the top line now with the Top Line we we wrap two Loops like this with the midshipman here's where the difference is so instead of going uh that second wrap being on top of the first wrap we want that second wrap to cross underneath of that first wrap and then we can finish it off on the standing end with a with a half hitch and that has formed the mid shipments hit so that's the key difference between the two is the fact that that second Loop passes under the first Loop that we formed around that row and so now we can see you know you can tighten it up and it holds very securely but you can also adjust this one to your liking to get it exactly where you need it this next knot is the most secure friction hitch that I know of but it's a little tough to tie and untie especially if you're trying to to break it down like a camp really quickly this is probably not the knot to use but this is definitely the most secure friction hitch I know of now this is not one that you'll find in e-books that I am aware of this is something that I came up with as a kid so when I was about 12 years old my father taught me how to tie the prussic loop and I love that knot it's a great knot knot that's used for climbing well I made an adaptation of the project Loop to use as a friction knot because I was using the taut line hitch one day and it was on a slippery rope and I just could not get it to hold so I came up with this adaptation of the prussic loop so this one is you're going to need a lot of standing in for working in to tie this particular knot up but when it uh when it is put together I again I don't know of a friction hitch that's stronger than this one so we're going to start off by going over the object that we're capturing and again you want to leave yourself quite a bit of working in now we're going to cross over and we're going to create three wraps on our standing end so there's our first second and third all those wraps working back towards our tide object then we're going to cross over and in the same direction in the same rotation we're going to start going the other way and we're going to work back towards those first wraps so there's one and two and the third one actually doesn't go underneath so at this point I like to dress this up just a little bit and then we're going to go around one more time now instead of sending the Rope through here what we're going to do is we're going to go around and then we're going to come back down the end of the standing line and we're going to finish it off with a half hitch here at the bottom and then you can get this knot completely dressed and when all is said and done this is absolutely the strongest friction hitch that I know of but it is very easy to move back and forth to get it adjusted wherever you want this one just does not slip though uh it's something that I came up with as a kid as far as I know I haven't really seen anybody use this knot and I certainly haven't seen it in any Publications now this last friction hitch is probably the best one of them all and this one's called the Fairman friction hitch and what makes this one the best is you'll notice that it's tied rather similarly to what that adapted uh prussic loop was but the benefit to this one is this can be tied in a slip form and so it is incredibly easy to untie so this is one of the strongest ones and also one of the easiest to untie so to start out with the pheromone friction what you want to do is you go over the object that you want to capture and then we're going to form a loop in a rope like so and you want to make sure that you go under this part of the Rope now you can pinch these together and you can do as many wraps as you want but we're going to go just three wraps so we're gonna go one two I have to keep make sure we keep that knot you know kind of dressed up so that uh this will work properly and three and let me just snug them all together we'll dress it up so now we want to end up with something like this now you can take your working in and you can send a bite through or a slip and then we can tighten everything down and this is going to form our Fairman friction hitch so this one is incredibly incredibly strong much like the uh adapted uh plastic Loop that we were looking at earlier this one moves very very easily but it is incredibly secure whenever you get it to its Titan position and then it's very easy to undo this is one of the best friction hitches that you can learn the last knot that we're going to learn is the Trucker's Hitch now this is a very important knot to learn this takes the place if you don't have a ratchet straps available to you and you need to tie down a load to either a truck or trailer this is the absolute go-to knot for tying or securing a load down hence the name Trucker's Hitch it's used in the trucking industry that's how it got its name so I've tied this one in its slip form that's usually how I will tie the Trucker's Hitch so that it will very easily Come Undone now I've just set mine up with paracord in my little stand here to show you how this is done so the first thing I want to do is I've got the other end of the Rope secured off would be you know to the one side of the trailer or the other and the first thing we want to do is we want to form a slip knot in here that's going to be our tie point and I got that a little close so let me let me redo that we'll set it back a little further so we want to tie a slip knot in here first then we're going to go around the other side in in our case it's a stand but the other side of the trailer and then you want to send this back through the loop that slip knot that we made there now you can use that as a pulley system and you can really really cinch down on this now once you get it taut where you want it then you just kind of pinch the two halves here together and then we're going to go around all these ropes down here we're going to put a half inch or in my case a slipped half hitch and if you leave that pinched then you can really snug that up tight against that knot and now this line is incredibly taut but it's incredibly easy to come apart in its slip form by just a simple pull and because we used a slip knot it will all come out this is the Trucker's Hitch

Channel: TX Tool Crib

Views: 370,867

Keywords: clove hitch, how to tie, fishermans bend, half hitch knot, constrictor knot, how to tie knots, truckers hitch, anchor hitch, prusik knot, bowline knot, clove hitch knot, clove hitch around an object, clove hitch and two half hitches, picket line hitch, ground line hitch, boom hitch, spar hitch, anchor knot, taut line hitch, tautline hitch, midshipmans hitch, midshipmans hitch vs taut line hitch, buntline hitch, half hitch, farrimond friction hitch, boy scout knots

Id: tNtx3K0L070

Length: 21min 9sec (1269 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020