The four-in-hand knot is a method of tying a

necktie A necktie, or simply a tie, is a piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat, and often draped down the chest. Variants include the ascot, bow, bolo, zipper tie, cra ...

. It is also known as a simple knot or schoolboy knot, due to its simplicity and style. Some reports state that carriage drivers tied their

rein Reins are items of horse tack, used to direct a horse or other animal used for riding. They are long straps that can be made of leather, nylon, metal, or other materials, and attach to a bridle via either its bit or its noseband. Use fo ...

s with a four-in-hand knot, while others claim that the carriage drivers wore their scarves in the manner of a four-in-hand, but the most likely etymology is that members of the Four-in-Hand Club in London began to wear the neckwear, making it fashionable. The knot produced by this method is on the narrow side, notably asymmetric. For

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

uniforms, and

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

uniforms that include a necktie, the four-in-hand knot is one of three prescribed options for tying the necktie, the other two being the half-Windsor and Windsor.

Tying

The four-in-hand knot is tied by placing the tie around the neck and crossing the broad end of the tie in front of the narrow end. The broad end is folded behind the narrow end and brought forward on the opposite side, passed across the front horizontally, folded behind the narrow end again, brought over the top of the knot from behind, tucked behind the horizontal pass, and the knot pulled snug. The knot is slid up the narrow end of the tie until snug against the collar. Using the notation of '' The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie'', by

Thomas Fink Thomas Fink (born 1972) is an Anglo-American physicist, author and entrepreneur. He has published papers in statistical physics and its applications, written two books and designed an iPhone app. He set up the London Institute for Mathematical ...

and Yong Mao, the four-in-hand knot (knot 2) is tied *Li Ro Li Co T. File:Tie diagram start.svg File:Tie diagram l-r i-o.svg File:Tie diagram r-l.svg File:Tie diagram l-c-end.svg

Other uses

When it is used to attach rope to an object, the four-in-hand knot is known as the '' buntline hitch''. It was used by sailors throughout the

age of sail The Age of Sail is a periodization, period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th century, 16th (or mid-15th century, 15th) to the mid-19th century, 19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in globalization, global trade and ...

to rig ships and remains a useful working knot today.

Onassis knot

A variant of the four-in-hand, with the long end of the tie passed back around and above the just-tied knot, was employed by

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was ...

, who caused it to become briefly fashionable in some circles. Fink and Mao record this variant as Knot 2_on; in shorthand notation, it is written Li Ro Li Co T Ri Co.

References

External links

* {{Necktie knots Necktie knots de:Krawattenknoten#Four-in-Hand

Tying

Other uses

Onassis knot

See also

References

External links