How To Tie The Bowline

The most famous knot in the world.

[@DaddyBeanDaddyBean]

That is the easiest bowline method I've ever seen. Thank you!

[@J_ismyname48]

I learned this at the age of 6 and after 40 yrs I still use it more than any other knot aside from a truckers hitch.

[@JBplumbing12]

Yes, 50 years later I still use all my old scout knots around the farm and when camping; the bowline, sheet bend, clove hitch, timber hitch, and numerous others knots and hitches that I cannot recall the names of but I know and use them all,..... and of course, the trucker's hitch. Knots are like wrestling and jujitsu holds; once you know them they stay with you for life, even though you forget their names.

[@DanielRamirez-go7kc]

Its crazy how the older you get the more use of knots you learned when young come in handy lol

[@gamedinnah]

Same here

[@stevel1475]

Dad didn't teach me anything. Thanks for the good instructions, will always remember where I learned this knot!

[@Colt45.]

I use it almost daily but have never seen it done that way. My dad was in the Navy and taught it to me as a boy camping over 60 yrs ago. Thanks

[@rockymntnliberty]

Never seen it tied that way. I have always tied it like I learned it, the squirrel comes out of the hole runs around the tree and back into a hole.

[@baarni]

Same… but it’s a rabbit

[@JizzyPalms]

This makes total sense. Rabbits squirrels trees and holes where the racoon poops. I'm so confused 😅

[@rockymntnliberty]

@@baarni No, it's a gopher.

[@RonaiHenrik]

same, but it's a fish and a cave :D

[@OscarHernandez-vy7nm]

I find it interesting how different we all learn them, because I learned it this way and when I saw someone do it the way you do I was confused and amazed at the same time

[@Ceilingfan_]

What an excellent explanation and demonstration, thank you sir

[@Christian_Prepper]

*PREPPER PRO TIP: I learned the quick slipknot method to make a bowline when I worked as a longshoreman for more than a decade but I must confess I never thought of a good way to describe the overhand loop. "like you'd turn the ignition on your car"- excellent and easy to remember. Now although that is a good bowline, I'd like to suggest Not dropping the working end down through the slipknot because it always ends up on the inside of the bowline which can occasionally get pinched in between the load/post and the rope during movement. Then in order to release/untie the knot the entire load may have to be moved again to free the working end or worse yet, a worker may be tempted to reach between the bowline and the load and get their hand/glove caught. (I'd like to think no one is ever stupid enough to take risks but then reality strikes and you have an injury) Thus, I suggest running the working end UP through the slipknot from underneath because it not only ends up on the outside but under rare conditions you may wish to use the end to re-enforce the bowline by tying an additional knot around the standing end. Great video. Peace.*

[@tk1269]

Fantastic! Ive never seen it tied using a bight, so much easier! Great work, thank you

[@youcanthandlethetruth6976]

I never knew you could tie it this way. Definitely going to start using this method.

[@RichardBronosky]

I've tied this knot countless times. This is a new technique for me. Specifically, "push a small bite through the loop you just formed". Thank you!

[@txtoolcrib]

You’re very welcome.

[@Rick-xd8gr]

You are a great teacher my friend!

[@Khether0001]

Thats by FAR the best way of doing this knot! Excellent job!!!

[@tonyjohnson8929]

Thank you. Rabbit around the tree, thru the hole.... got me sometimes lol

[@BlackDogBones1964]

Its amazing to think that someone many many years ago spent time coming up with this particular knot.

[@donmcleod8307]

Dad taught me a different way 40 years ago. But this is much easier I agree with a previous comment saying that bowline and a truckers hitch are pretty much the minimum you must know Thanks

[@alexpineiro7960]

Excellent demo on clarity and explanation..Thank you

[@matthewbowerman618]

Excellent nice way of putting it it makes it easy to understand it this way!

[@alejandrogorostiza1197]

I love this. I don't know knots and I want to learn. Show me all the knots you know sensei!👍🏾

[@RErnie-gv1hv]

A useful, and interesting book on knots is, "Why Knot?", by Philippe Petit. Does the name seem familiar? Petit is the guy who walked a high-wire between the Twin Towers in 1974.

[@alejandrogorostiza1197]

@@RErnie-gv1hv thanks for that. I will look it up😁👍🏾

[@RErnie-gv1hv]

@@alejandrogorostiza1197 You're welcome. I hope you can find the book. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

[@Robyrob7771]

I use this knot all the time. Very versatile!

[@kaleb_barbour3]

This makes so much more sense, thanks for finally teaching me!

[@timcoolican459]

Good tutorial of the Bowline. This would be an excellent video for teaching people how to make the knot.

[@BurchellAtTheWharf]

An now I just saw the 13th way to tie a bowline 👌👍

[@williamxlucifer9011]

I SWEAR

[@pedroclaro7822]

I just noticed how similar this is to the marlin spike hitch that I use so much! I do my ‘bowlines’ differently though, I tie an overhand on the tip of the rope so it doesn’t slip, and then tie another one a palm behind it, before I close it I thread the tip back into it, and when I tighten the second overhand it cinches in, and the first overhand prevents it being undone.

[@dragonfirefunctionalfitnes7925]

I've never had it explained this clearly. Perfect vid. 🎯

[@russellf1339]

Now this is content! Thanks for sharing bro 👍

[@diligentsun1154]

This is now the way i do it, Forever. Thanks for the tip!

[@MrRoutal]

Rock climber and aplinist have been using this method of tying a bowline for for decades if not centuries , an I would think sailor for far longer!

[@zeevorourke6876]

These demos are so clear, really well done. Nice that you started with the bowline

[@randerodr7389]

Haven't seen it tied this way. Easier to tie and to remember than the way I've been doing it. Thanks.

[@hughbegg274]

Somehow, I skipped knot tying during childhood. One of my great regrets.

[@RichardBronosky]

Sir, I grant you a 2nd chance at childhood. Don't waste it. Next up, search for "Alpine Butterfly". ☮️❤️🌈

[@johnnyadams1755]

It's never too late to start.

[@WILDINAMERICA]

Great tutorial. Remember the bowline can loosen if continually tensioned and untensioned .

[@rwbishop]

A correctly tied Bowline can be quickly ID'd on sight. Look for the working end exiting to the 'inside' of the loop. Cool video, Thanks!

[@wensong4094]

It's like marriage, you cannot escape

[@TheHuntForSupper]

You got that right!

[@gregvetter5070]

I thought the way I tied a bowline was easy. That's pretty slick.

[@ljones98391]

Thank you for a trip back to girl scout days.

[@augustsmith9633]

Talk about the most convoluted way to explain something...😂

[@GoblinArmyInYourWalls]

I have tied a bowline several thousands of times and I have never seen this, neat.

[@E.L.RipleyAtNostromo]

I’ve always formed the standing end loop in the other direction, ascending right, then come back through the night on the loop with the bitter end pointed towards me. Ends up the same I guess, but the bitter end is on the outside.

[@banshong3997]

Thank you. Best explanation and way of tying a bowling I have seen

[@sinnerface1]

GREAT application!

[@Joeyw-2203]

Great way to tie the bowline. I might finally start using it.

[@justinuitenbroek7889]

What is the point just use a better knot

[@amyduro1967]

I can only do it with the rabbit running around the tree and back into the hole, lol. I learned it that way when I was young and it stuck.

[@AcidxAnarchy]

I can never remember a single knot when I need it. I should practice them some so I can remember lol

[@RErnie-gv1hv]

A useful, and interesting book on knots is, "Why Knot?", by Philippe Petit. Does the name seem familiar? Petit is the guy who walked a high-wire between the Twin Towers in 1974.

[@AcidxAnarchy]

@R. Ernie o.O that does seem vaguely familiar. Interesting, thanks.

[@RErnie-gv1hv]

@@AcidxAnarchy You're welcome. Any library in your ares should have the book. If not, Inter Library Loan will get it.

[@JonathanHolt1988]

This is much easier and quicker than the standard rabbit around the tree method!

[@BjerkeRobin]

Wow.... I just realised that all a bowline is is a sheet bend using one rope... Neat.

[@txtoolcrib]

That is correct. I actually have a video that discusses that very topic.

[@q.e.d.9112]

Nah! A sheet bend is just a bowline using two ropes😊

[@BjerkeRobin]

@@q.e.d.9112 touché

[@tyronekim3506]

That is slick! Many thanks for the video.

[@TheDarkstormy]

I knew how to tie a Bowline, never knew a place that pronounced as a Bowling knot.

[@johnwilson1094]

Wow. A bowline without any tree, rabbit or hole to go into and out of. Like Eyescreamcake says, the running end needs to be tied back on itself for safety.

[@txtoolcrib]

Not necessarily, there are many variations of the bowline than don’t require a safety.

[@MICHAEL-lx5cy]

Simple great way to tie it!!!!

[@woodywoodpecker3643]

Best bowline vid ever

[@sinnerface3930]

EXCELLENT!!! TY!!

[@daemn42]

While this seems easier to tie than the traditional method of chasing the tail over, under, around, and back through.. It seems a little harder to control the size of the loop and length of the tail end. It's easy to get s small loop and a long tail. If you twist the bite the counter clockwise and poke the end through before you pull it tight, you'll get a cowboy bowline (tail on the outside of the loop).

[@barneymccord4759]

Learned that knot in the boy scouts. Early 70s

[@hardrockminer-50]

I learned the bowline in Boy Scouts in the early 60s. First knot, after square knot, I learned in 1961.

[@hardrockminer-50]

But, I didn't learn it this way😂

[@jessefarias1507]

Don’t forget the bowline is also one of the most efficient knots as for the percentage of working load limit of your line , bowlines are rated at 90% of the WLL

[@ThisPlace4Now]

Love That Knot!

[@error.418]

Love how all the old knot books and now all the videos reading those knot books say to turn the loop "like you turn the key in the ignition of your car." My brother in Christ, people push buttons to turn on their cars now. We need a new mnemonic.

[@txtoolcrib]

We certainly do! I’m open to suggestions.

[@brianburnside5949]

That was the most complicated way of tying a bowline I have ever seen.

[@txtoolcrib]

It’s called the snap bowline, and it’s been known for centuries.

[@RonOutdoors]

Nice I just learned it. Now I put a folded working end through it and I have a hitch. Is that a thing?

[@williammorrissey9661]

Love the bowline. But this one looks odd. I can't put my finger on it. It looks like a bowline's cousin or something...

[@johnrepp1254]

I had the same impression. I think it is because at the end in this presentation we are looking at the backside and if it would simply be turned over it would look more like what we are used to seeing.

[@vwr32jeep]

He “turns the key”, then pushes a bite through that loop, then the rabbit goes through the hole. In other examples, there is no bite going through the turn-key loop, and the rabbit in the hole, around the tree, and back through the hole. I’m not sure in you end up with the same knot, but this looks different than the other bowlines I see.

[@justinatest9456]

This is 100% the bowline. The same as the rabbit and the tree bowline, juat tied in a different, and absolutely better way. This method is quicker, impossible to forget or make a mistake, and allows you to tie the knot in tight quarters that you can't see into like the corner of a packed truck bed.

[@vwr32jeep]

@@justinatest9456 You’re right, it’s the way it was tied that threw me off. After watching this I went and watched other videos. A firefighter did a demo using the same technique and called it a “snap bowline”. That led me to another video called 15 bowline variations and he called it the “snap method”, but it’s just a standard bowline. You end up with the same knot apparently, but there’s no rabbit chasing in and out of holes and going around trees because the tree comes up through the original turn key loop and that’s the only hole the rabbit has to negotiate. I have to agree with you that it’s a lot easier.

[@Schubox62]

This one is known as the "Snap" Bowline kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3Sui4JsasSNmcU

[@MapleBar777]

That is the weirdest way I've ever seen it tied. Almost didn't recognize it at first.

[@jclandram]

I was taught that this isn't a knot. It is a lashing. Knots bind and the tighter they get the more difficult they are to untie. Lashings get tighter with tension, but are easy to undo because they do not bind. This may or may not be true. It's just how I was taught.

[@MrAngry3232]

Well you were taught wrong..

[@RimWulf]

Maybe it was the but the photo gave cover photo gave me enough to learn how to tie it while all the others have failed.

[@bradfry5403]

I would say that the Reef knot is the most famous of all the the knots 🪢

[@BjerkeRobin]

Maybe... it has limited uses though, and can easily be tied wrong which causes it to slip. It also need the ropes to be of similar dimensions and materials. The sheet bend is a far superior way of connecting two lengths together. It cannot be tied incorrectly (as it will just fall apart unless correct), can be mosified as a slipknot and can marry ropes of vastly different dimensions without slipping or binding. Interestingly, all a bowline is is a sheet bend on the same rope forming a loop ;)

[@Namastayawake]

What I used to go up the mast of a sailboat

[@Dangerstophe]

This is a snap bowline

[@owemylife]

Never seen it tied quite like that. Once you figure it out, you can tie a Bowlin around the falling end of the rope for a running Bowlin. Slip Knott with the same non-binding characteristics.

[@zackeriedawson4336]

Also called the rescue knot

[@robv.7324]

Wow, never seen it tied that way. Rabbit goes through the hole around the tree and back through the hole...

[@manp1039]

it is a helpfull know to learn.

[@wrileyeisenman4377]

I am an Eagle Scout and you go out the hole around the top of the b and back in the hole

[@parttimelazy4593]

Nice. Give me about 4 minutes to forget this.

[@gamingandcraftswithlogan8714]

Nobody ties the bowline the same way on youtube. That is very strange.

[@JohnBGood1]

Do climbers use this knot with the carabiner that holds their body, as well as they use the figure 8?

[@txtoolcrib]

Climbers generally use a retraced figure 8.

[@YG-kk4ey]

Can this work with a flat-sided band? Was afraid won't be able to open it.

[@ricardocastillo5485]

Wait what about the rabbit and the tree and the hole? Then Quint was going on about the little brown eel comes out of the cave, I'm so confused.

[@Thedeadbeetsband]

Am I the only one that learned, bunny goes up the hole, bunny goes around the tree, bunny goes back down the tree

[@zachtreeguy4345]

That's backwards from a standard bowline, and I would think it wouldn't hold as much weight.

[@txtoolcrib]

Left handed, right handed, upside down……it makes no difference. It is exactly the same knot.

[@jaytalbot1146]

Cool, now do it with one hand, in the dark, during a gale

[@coreyrowland5561]

Thanks

[@RogueOntheRoad]

It's good but that short end is supposed to be on the outside of the loop.

[@txtoolcrib]

No it isn’t.

[@savedbygrace5436]

It's basically a slipknot with the other end running through it? Simple enough haha

[@rafaelperez-ep7wi]

Gracias mil.

[@dgunn4408]

Brilliant!

[@muffinconsumer4431]

If you’re going to put your life on the rope, choose a different knot or tie a safety knot (overhand or double overhand) on the tail.

[@txtoolcrib]

Who said anything about tying this as a life line?

[@muffinconsumer4431]

@@txtoolcrib You said ambiguously about just tying around something. If you’re going to teach knots you need to give use cases for each one. You wouldn’t teach someone a square knot with the intent of them using it as a rock climbing bend, would you?

[@alexbowser9801]

It's what I really need

[@speralta8243]

Eh, the rabbit still helps me tie this in a second.

[@rpproductions31013]

Always tie a safety on the tag end.

[@two5seven14]

Why

[@matthew413]

Folllow the sharp end around and down beside the running line, you have a Yosemite bowline… its how climbers tied off for a long time, but the figure 8 proved stronger and easier to tie, so it became standard

[@daveblack2602]

This knot is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. This is for two reasons: first it can shake loose and untie if moved. Second, the rope end is inside the loop and can bump against the object, also causing it to untie. Only EVER use a bowline if it's not a problem for it to self untie. Several American climbers have been killed by this knot.

[@nocturnalspecialties642]

Thats easier than the way I learned it

[@OscarHernandez-vy7nm]

Hmm...that's an arguable argument, isn't the truckers hitch the most famous?

[@dyvel]

Turn it like you turn the key to your car only works if you have a standing end from the left, correct or not?

[@txtoolcrib]

That is accurate. It is a right handed tying method.

[@hankdapper8239]

That is the hard way to tie a bow line. You need to be able to do it under tension.

[@reeksreeks3017]

Looking at the final product the rabbit still left a trail out the hole around the tree and back into the hole.

[@allenbinger3067]

Show the running bowline

[@chuckhunt2605]

Thats called an equalizer Bowline i always come up through the bottom so the tail finishes on the outside.

[@eyescreamcake]

Just remember that it will untie itself under repeated loading so tie a backup knot in life support applications.

[@williamxlucifer9011]

That's only if the stiffness and the diameter of the rope are to great for it to be truly "loaded" by your weight.

[@eyescreamcake]

@@williamxlucifer9011 It happens when the knot is loaded and then unloaded repeatedly

[@williamxlucifer9011]

@eyescreamcake I promise that's not true if the knot gets to actually cinch down on itself (rope access rock climbing and industry rigging experience of 7ish years speaking on that). The larger the diameter and greater the stiffness, the more weight required to make the rope actually bight. 😉 from all applications, sailing, arbor, even theater rigging. You can load it and unload it thousands of times before a truly 'cinched down' know will come undone (after so many thousands it would no longer be tight)

[@williamxlucifer9011]

Also safety is never a bad idea so still totally valid.

[@eyescreamcake]

​@@williamxlucifer9011 "The main disadvantage of a bowline is that it is not inherently secure. It means that it can untie at relatively low forces when ring-loaded, therefore stopper knot is mandatory." "The [left-hand bowline] has a tendency to spontaneously loosen under cyclic loading … Similarly to bowline, it is not inherently secure and therefore not recommended to use in life-critical applications." - Simon, Revision of Commonly Used Loop Knots Efficiencies "The #1010 Simple Bowline This Bowline is insecure and vulnerable to ‘ring loading’. It is the least secure form of all the Bowlines. … Do not use for life critical applications!"" "#1034 ½ Bowline This form of the Simple Bowline is resistant to ring loading but is still not suitable for mission critical applications. Ashley referred to this form as a ‘Left Hand Bowline.’ Also referred to as a ‘Cowboy Bowline’." - Gommers, An Analysis of the Structure of ‘Bowlines’ "The major disadvantage of the Simple Bowline is that lacks the security of the Figure 8, given that it has a tendency to work loose unless kept under constant tension. This, of course, is common in a climbing scenario, where the knot experiences alternating periods of tension and slackness, otherwise known as cyclical loading." - Siacci, The hows and whys of tying in with a Bowline 🤷‍♀

[@Bobcatwill]

Bro this is not a bowline knot. What king of Spanish bowline knot parody shenanigans is this

[@txtoolcrib]

I wonder how long it will take for you to remove this idiotic comment.

[@Coffeepuma]

Bowl-in ….? Dude its a bow -LINE

[@txtoolcrib]

It’s commonly referred to as both.

[@aftech7268]

Your suppose to come under and inside the loop on the last part - thats why your bowline doesn’t have a tongue

[@txtoolcrib]

It does, and it is a bowline

[@cat-pd1di]

brilliant tutorial wish I would have learned bowline like this many decades ago Death To The Rabbit!