The axle hitch is used to tie a hitch in a hard-to-reach place, or for extra security by having a double hold on an object. Once the initial bight is passed around the object, the rest of the knot can be completed out away from the cramped location. The knot is finished with a bowline knot or other reliable knot that connects the working end to the standing part.
It provides distributed strength and is useful when a shock load needs to be spread along an anchor point, since it provides four lines distributed across two points, in which case a double bowline or water bowline should be used as the security knot.
Famous quotes containing the words axle and/or hitch:
“The Star that bids the Shepherd fold,
Now the top of Heav’n doth hold,
And the gilded Car of Day,
His glowing Axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantick stream,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, wind, fire, serve us day by day and cost us nothing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)