Stevedore Knot
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The stevedore knot is a
stopper knot A stopper knot (or simply stopper) is a knot that creates a fixed thicker point on an otherwise-uniform thickness rope for the purpose of preventing the rope, at that point, from slipping through a narrow passage, such as a hole in a block. To pa ...
, often tied near the end of a
rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...
. It is more bulky and less prone to jamming than the closely related
figure-eight knot The figure-eight knot or figure-of-eight knot is a type of stopper knot. It is very important in sailing, rock climbing and caving as a method of stopping ropes from running out of retaining devices. Like the overhand knot, which will jam under ...
.


Naming

In ''The Art of Knotting & Splicing'', Cyrus Day explains that "the name originated in a pamphlet issued about 1890 by the C.W. Hunt Company, which sold rope under the name 'Stevedore'. It was subsequently adopted by dictionaries, engineers' handbooks, and other works of reference, and it is now firmly established in books, if not in the vocabulary of seamen."Cyrus Lawrence Day, ''The Art of Knotting and Splicing, 4th ed.'' (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986), 40. Despite this history, many sources, including The Ashley Book of Knots, presume that the knot was used by stevedores in their work loading and unloading ships. The apparent aspect of the knot favored by transmission-line workers (to which the Hunt pamphlet was targeted) is the knot's remaining easily untied after heavy loading. It should also be noted that the extra wrap that it has over the figure 8 stopper will, with flexible cordage, give better security when set.


Tying

The knot is formed by following the steps to make a figure-of-eight knot, but the working end makes an additional wrap around the standing part before passing back through the initial loop in the same direction it would have for a figure-of-eight knot (which yields a more secure & stable knot than were it to be a half-wrap less (a "Fig.9")).


See also

*
List of knots This list of knots includes many alternative names for common knots and lashings. Knot names have evolved over time, and there are many conflicting or confusing naming issues. The overhand knot, for example, is also known as the thumb knot. The ...
* Figure-of-nine loop


References


External links

* {{Knots