Tying
The knot is three bights linked through one another. To tie, begin by forming a bight behind the pole. Next, pass a bight formed from the standing part (the end that will receive tension) over the pole and through the first bight. Then, pass a bight formed from the working end over the pole and through the second bight. Pull the standing part tight to ensure that it holds.
Until the knot is tightened and properly dressed the highwayman's hitch has little holding power. The treacherous problem with this knot is that the bight that nips the slip-tuck (last-formed bight, which is pulled for release) presses it against the rope and the hitched object, and does so with great force, as it is the bight in the (fully loaded) standing part; especially with relatively larger diameter objects vis-a-vis rope diameter, the rope pulls away from the object such that it is possible --all too easily, in some circumstances-- for the nipping bight to collapse the toggle bight and pull it the "frame" against which it should be pressed. Therefore, alternatives to this dangerous hitch were devised such that this problem was avoided (or much mitigated); see below..
Read more about this topic: Highwayman's Hitch
Famous quotes containing the word tying:
“To the young mind, every thing is individual, stands by itself. By and by, it finds how to join two things, and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so, tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running underground, whereby contrary and remote things cohere, and flower out from one stem.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I think it is better to show love by meeting needs than to keep telling my son that I love him. Right now he is learning to tie his shoes. He is old enough, so even though it’s hard for him, sometimes I insist. But once in a while when I see he’s tired I still do it for him, and I have noticed that while I am tying his shoe, he says, “I love you, Mommy.” When he says, “I love you,” I know that he knows that he is loved.”
—Anonymous Parent (20th century)
“The average parent may, for example, plant an artist or fertilize a ballet dancer and end up with a certified public accountant. We cannot train children along chicken wire to make them grow in the right direction. Tying them to stakes is frowned upon, even in Massachusetts.”
—Ellen Goodman (b. 1941)