Mastering the Bowline

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Someone once told me that they have trouble remembering how to tie a bowline. I made this video to help you understand this classic knot. I talk about the parts of a bowline and how to tie it in different ways. I also have a couple training models to give you a better view. Thanks for watching.

[@BrianHill]

I really appreciate you going way further into a knot than usual. In particular, it's nice to see alternatives, ways that things can go wrong, and mechanical analogies.

[@JimmyBetts]

Boas Bowline, Cossack Knot, or 'Eskimo' Bowline. Since a slipped version of this is called a Kalmyk Loop, I often call the unslipped bowline variant like you made in your video a Kalmyk Bowline.

[@michaelosmon]

I particularly enjoyed the clever way you covered your license plate. Thank you for not using blur or blue tape. Appreciate ya

[@rockymtns99]

I'm wishing I had that plate on my truck so I could go surf fishing at 3R's. :-)

[@nickcurtis7676]

I didn't necessarily need any advice on this knot, but I've always loved your instructional style. This video went above and beyond showing multiple different perspectives. This is the most common knot I teach beginners, and you've shown me so many new ways to understand and teach knot theory.

[@rkh_05]

Around the standing end is an Eskimo Bowline. Per 'Budworth complete guide to knot tying' there is a sled in a museum in London that was brought back by an explorer (Sir john Ross) that contained numerous such knots in its rawhide lashings as evidence that it is a genuine Inuit knot. That is why I will always refer to that variation as an eskimo bowline. As bonus trivia there is a lot of evidence that Native American technology was more based in tension loading than compressive loading. The book 1491 has a lot of interesting information about this. Also some peoples documented their history via knots and rope work. Imagine a Macrame Journal. I found this extremely fascinating as an engineer. Imagine the poor europeans who came and had to cross chasms on rope brigdes instead of the nice stone archways over rivers. Or rather trying to convince their horses to cross.

[@tomer7613]

wow so much needed! it seems like a simple tie but after a while you forget it. logic is the best way to remember. would love more of this kind. thank you so much.

[@davebullard]

Beautiful. Thank you. I'm excited to see where you take this series. That crossed stick demo was pretty slick. Left hand view is a freaking great idea too.

[@MistressSabian]

Having the working end on the outside of the bowline is called a "winter bowline" because it leaves it to move in the wind on the outside so that when ships in winter were sprayed the working end would be less likely to freeze to the rest of the knot. (Or so I was told 40 years ago in a story about north Atlantic whaling ships.) Because of that I think of the real bowline as "the summer bowline", but that is gilding the lilly.

[@hdsheena]

This is the exact content i dream of

[@chronicon5616]

Trying the bowline under tension was sheer magic!

[@dankolar6066]

Nicely done. Tho only one in ten is left handed, we do appreciate the consideration. Thank you for sharing. Wish you well.

[@carolwilson4603]

Brent!! Thank you for the left handed views!; Woop Woop!!!!

[@monotremata44]

I think you have the best knots channel! I teach knots and have a knots blog at the Cal Sailing Club in Berkeley CA. Just a quick word: at 1:29 it looks to me like you're tying another bowline, not a sheet bend. Maybe have a look? Cheers, David

[@rho2888]

yay! bowlines! sheetbends! you have a very nice teaching style and clever brain. I was doing some tests pulling incredibly hard and every type of bowline seemed great even from every strand (I think once I got the short strand to slip but then it just kinda worked every time after that so...) kinda why I'm obsessed with bowline

[@montereynotjapan]

Please, could you make a video about the best midline loops to use under heavy tension? I’m wondering if you could use your “tiebreaker” to really crank on some knots to see which one is easiest to untie. Several I’m interested in are the butterfly, the farmer’s loop, the directional figure 8, and the bowline in (on?) a bite. I feel like 90%+ of people online claim the butterfly will be the easiest to untie, but I’m skeptical and you have some cool testing equipment. I’m also interested in how the zeppelin loop unties after a heavy load compared to a bowline. Thanks! I look forward to your content.

[@billbucktube]

I like the descriptive, “like turning the ignition…”

[@metheewatchakittikorn4796]

This is so cool. Thank you so much.

[@moonhand8311]

Test data shows no significant difference between in or out bowlines

[@LexaasLanthrope]

Hey! You are awesome and I admire you so much! I need some help from the master of knots, please?! I believe there is a trickery knot that looks real, yet when tied correctly and pulled tight, it spills and falls apart. When tied with a sneaky different move that looks very similar, it all binds up and stays tied. Do you know it or could you design one, please?

[@diegoangulo370]

Imagine working in construction with this guy

[@rong1924]

"Pressure is concentrated on the inside" Sounds important and needs a better explanation.

[@eddrm4685]

Very helpful...thankyou!

[@2blackdanes]

If I’m left handed but tie my bowlines the way you showed in the first half of the video, am I right?

[@monotremata44]

On second view, it looks like a sheet bend, just tied in an unusual way. Apologies! David in Berkeley

[@sirj3487]

The name of the second 'wrong' variation is an 'Eskimo bowline'.

[@molinfa]

Excelent knot's study issue!

[@johncoleman2990]

The alternative bowline is called an Eskimo Bowline.

[@BigBoyJudge]

I love learning these but I hate not being able to remember them.😅

[@tridsonline]

👍🏻 Don't give up. Just practice a few times to build up experience, and it will soon be second nature.

[@rho2888]

yah I been forgetting for ten years haha BUT recently I was like oka y imma stare at bowline and learn why knots work . cause it's so simple nothing simpler then I started tugging the beep out of every singel knot on the internet (you start to see how it's simple principles and why they work) and I arrived at like three knots and feel like I know a lot more so totally worth it keep at it friend! (sorry my keyboard acting funny for typos)

[@lakevna]

The additional knot around 5:30 most closely resembles the "mesh knot" (#402, #3791, #3796). Typically tied with a netting needle by forming a becket hitch through a bight of the previous row, the working end would go around a mesh guage before tying to the neighbouring loop of the previous row to form a net. - im this application all ends are in use and loaded roughly evenly. Compare the "granny mesh knot" (#3786) which ashley says tends to lead slightly better and the "carrick bend" (#3783) which is the most involved but also stable knot for this purpose.

[@douglasglaser9634]

If you go around the loop instead of the standing part THAT is the wrong way to tie the bowline. I call it the "Jim" bowline after my knot challenged friend... if you're worried about cowboy vs book version always use Yosemite finish.

[@Venom-nk8nd]

I'm left-handed but I already know how to tie the bowline

[@BananaBoy-bm4xz]

can there be a video of a flying bowline soon

[@jaewok5G]

nice

[@shanebrinlee1241]

Eskimo bowline

[@garycrawford4700]

I guess when you do things like a lefty , your license plate turns dislectic.😂

[@Iconoclassic]

The "incorrect bowline" is a Cossack bowline, which is very similar to the Eskimo bowline and they are often confused.

[@lakevna]

As others have said, the "incorrect" form of bowline shown at 0:41 was the cowboy bowline, being a normal bowline with the pass around the standing end reversed to leave the end on the outside. The "another knot" (shown at 3:30) is indeed the cossack loop, which is a cowboy-eskimo bowline. In an eskimo bowline. the working end passes the other way through the initial turn and around the strand leaving to form the other side of the loop, rather than the standing part and finishes on the inside.

[@leehunter1967]

👍🏻🇨🇦

[@sirj3487]

'Tag out' is NOT the 'wrong' way to tie a bowline. It is simply a different variation, AKA a "cowboy bowline' or a 'left-handed' bowline.

[@sirj3487]

The left-handed bowline is superior in some ways, one of which is that it resists ring-loading better than the original bowline.

[@sirj3487]

A left-handed sheet bend, however is far inferior to a sheet bend, and this is, IMHO, a far more important difference than the difference between a bowline and a cowboy bowline.

[@StoneE4]

Sure it is... If you intend to tie a cowboy bowline the only way you can do that correctly is to tie a cowboy bowline. If you intend to tie a bowline the only way you can do that correctly is to tie a bowline. He intended to tie a bowline and, for instructional purposes, demonstrated an incorrect way to do that by tying a cowboy bowline.

[@seannyo48]

Incorrect is a “cowboy bowline”?

[@Iconoclassic]

Cossack bowline.

[@waynehonea4592]

Reverse bowline

[@imaphxaznative]

Show the running bowline its more useful

[@Venom-nk8nd]

1,.,.🇵🇬

[@h2oski1200]

I am also not left handed….

[@deltamico]

Most people are. Why even waste your and our time with that comment?

[@h2oski1200]

@@deltamico it’s a quote/reference to The Princess Bride. You know, for people with a sense of humor.

[@jeffwolowiec470]

The cowboy bowline is not a wrong way to tie a bowline

[@aharonhansen395]

Cowboys bowline is the way I learned the bowline in the beginning. Being a left handed rancher, the cowboys bowline is just more natural for me.

[@StoneE4]

It is when you intend to tie a bowline. Just as tying a bowline would be the wrong way to tie a cowboy bowline.

[@lakevna]

Some sources even claim the cowboy bowline better withstands "ring tension" - forces outwards at the sides of the loop. This hasn't generally been my experience though and I most prefer to use forked loops if such an application is expected.

[@TheGatheringICP]

Anti-bowline. 😁

[@theiaraine]

Cowboy bowline is mildly irritated

[@lajosrofusz5826]

NO. There are the English and Dutch bowlines. The Dutch ( end outside) is a little stronger, better.

[@Benpurple4]

You killed your viewer retention with the second half, so I'll mute it and let it play in the background.

[@user-gl2gp6lp3h]

Wayy too much information on the bowline...... Perfect..

[@sirj3487]

'Tag out' is NOT the 'wrong' way to tie a bowline. It is simply a different variation, AKA a "cowboy bowline' or a 'left-handed' bowline.

[@jhacklack]

Meaning it's not a bowline, it's a different knot. If I tied a double fisherman's that would be the wrong way to tie a triple fisherman's. It's not a value judgement.

[@sirj3487]

@jhacklack It is a bowline. There are many different knots that fall into the class of a bowline: the standard bowline, the cowboy bowline, the Eskimo bowline, the Yosemite bowline, the Scot's licked bowline, the water bowline, etc., etc. When someone ties a cowboy bowline, he didn't tie a bowline 'wrongly'.

[@tridsonline]

​@@sirj3487🤣 I'm sure that will be very comforting to the guy who tries to tie a square knot, but ends up with a granny knot .. "just a variation". There are multiple ways to tie any given knot - but if you end up with a different knot, then it's a different knot.

[@jhacklack]

@@sirj3487 You're being autistic, he's trying to tie the standard bowline, anything else that is different is wrong.

[@sirj3487]

@tridsonline The performance of the bowline and the left-handed bowline are very similar, and in some ways, the left-handed version is superior. The square knot and the granny knot are miles apart. Again, 'bowline' is now considered a class of knot with many members.