Usage
As the name suggests, the primary use for this knot is to suspend bottles, jugs, and other items with similar shapes. The space at the center of the knot is dropped over the top of a bottle or similar object. Firmly pulling on all four ends emerging from the knot tightens it against the neck of the bottle. Looping the running ends through the bight and tying them together will make a sling that grips and can be used to lift the bottle. This provides a convenient method of lowering a beverage bottle from a boat into the water to chill.
As mentioned above, the knot is believed to have been used medically in ancient Greece for applying traction in the reduction of fractures and dislocations. However it is not known to have any current medical application.
The knot is also said to have been used as an improvised emergency bridle when rope was the only material at hand. Its use is described with the central parts of the knot acting as a bit, one of the knot's outer bights passing over the top of the animal's muzzle, and the other passing under the jaw to form the noseband. The closed loop end of the knot would be placed over the animal's head and behind the ears, as a crownpiece, and the two free ends coming off under the chin used as reins. It was intended only for temporary use. However at least one author has disputed this as "nonsense" and suggests its only proper equestrian use is in a doubled form, in this context known as a hackamore knot, to secure the fiador to the bosal in some hackamore designs.
Read more about this topic: Bottle Sling
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