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Comment by almog | Hacker News Reader

I like Knots3D, but there are some alternatives that made it easier for me:

1. The Klutz Book of Knots (it's a book with holes around the pages so you can practice the knots next to their instructions). I think it's supposed to be a kid's book, but I bought for myself few years ago and was probably the resource I used the most.

2. I find it _much_ easier to learn how to tie a knot by watching someone's hands while they explain what they're doing. KnottingKnots on Youtube is incredible at that: https://www.youtube.com/c/KnottingKnots/

I think the knots I use the most, both in everyday life as well as for hiking are (from most used to least used):

  - Trucker Hitch
  - Bowline knot
  - Clove hitch
  - Figure of Eight knot (bend too but less often)
  - Sheet Bend
  - Prusik knot
  - Square knot
  - Taut line hitch

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That's a good selection :^)

This pandemic I started learning about knots as well but IMHO one end up using a very few selection that works for most cases. I admit sharing small selections may not be that useful because people have different life styles but there are some that are almost always useful.

I'd like to add a few 'quick releases' to your selection like the Painter's Hitch and the Highwayman's Hitch. I personally use the Painter's hitch and the taut line hitch to secure my motorcycle's cover on windy days, pretty fun to use!

I'll try to add Painter's Hitch to my repertoire, I can see how it can come handy.

And yes, the selection really depends on one's use case. I think that Trucker Hitch was the most life changing for me. Both for securing items in the car but also as a more versatile replacement for taut line hitch when staking down guylines to the ground (Andrew Skurka has a good demonstration of this use case). Though for your use case taut line is probably best as it's easier to adjust and you probably aren't trying to optimize for minimal line length or weird anchor points)

I’m guessing this is the link:

https://andrewskurka.com/guyline-tension-system-backpacking-...

Specifically the one he calls McCarthy's Hitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOhlEmBwwY

Great list. I would invite you to try a stevedore instead of the figure 8. It's really the same knot with an extra wrap, and it cinches into something the size of a double-overhand but won't jam. It's an outstanding stopper know- the only one I use on sailboats now (and I'm converting many people to it).

I just tried it and at first I thought it really was just a figure eight with extra wrap (a bit like the figure of nine bend), I noticed the difference was not just the extra wrap but also that the working end is finally fed back into the loop from the bottom rather than from the top (as in figure of eight). That last piece I think result in a different final shape.

I feed the working end through the bottom in the figure-eight as well.

I think in both cases, whether the working end should be fed from the bottom of the loop or from the top depends on whether we're crossing the working end under or above the bight the first time: working end that crosses above the bight leads to feeding into the loop from the top and vice versa. That's for figure of eight but for figure of eight above first leads to feeding from the bottom of the loop at the final step and vice versa.

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