The Bowline Knot

OUR STUFF

Home Page
Forums
Search

PUBLISHED ITEMS

The Library
Submission Guide

GET TO KNOW US

About Us
The Team
Site User Manual
The Lounge
Contact
Site Map

The Bowline Knot

Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.

Page 2 of 4 Previous Next [Index]

Tying the Bowline Knot

The Bowline is one of the few knots for which there exists a short "story" to aid the memory when tying it. The "story" involves a rabbit (see Fig. 1). The story goes like this:

The rabbit comes out of the hole, round the tree, and back down the hole again.

Seriously. This little gem of an aid memoir is passed down from generation to generation, textbook to textbook. The problem is, it means nothing. Firstly, it could apply to many knots. Secondly, it does not help overcome the serious mistakes that can be made when attempting to tie the Bowline correctly.

The Bowline Rabbit

Fig. 1: The Bowline Rabbit, yesterday.
NB: This shot required a very fast shutter speed on the Outdoor Idiots.com Clip Art Camera^TM.
The Bowline Rabbit left such an impression on me in my youth that I find it hard to describe how to tie a Bowline without referring to it. I suspect I am not the only one to have issues with rabbits as a result. Still, here is an attempt to provide a rabbit-free account of tying the Bowline:

First, a loop is made in the rope, as in Fig. 2. If you are tying the rope to a climbing harness, for example, then you can think of the rope at the top of the picture as the "live" part of the rope, and the rope leaving the bottom of the picture is the end which will be looped around your waist or through the harness by any other means.

Tying the Bowline Knot (1)

Fig. 2: Make a loop

Next, after the end of the rope has been passed through (or around) whatever it needs to be passed through (or around), it is fed down through the loop, as in Fig. 3:

Tying the Bowline Knot (2)

Fig. 3: Feed the end through the loop

Next, the end comes up over the "live" rope, as in Fig. 4:

Tying the Bowline Knot (3)

Fig. 4: End comes up and over the live rope

And finally the end comes back up through the loop from underneath, as in Fig. 5:

Tying the Bowline Knot (4)

Fig. 5: And back up through the loop from underneath

When tightened up, it looks as in Fig. 6:

Tying the Bowline Knot (5)

Fig. 6: Finished
So, what's the problem with that, then?

The first problem I have with the Bowline knot is the way in which it is usually tied, which is the way shown in these pictures. Every last detail must be just right - it is easy to tie it incorrectly. Two notable examples:

Notice in Fig. 2 that the "live" part of the rope is on top of the loop. If it isn't, you don't get a Bowline - you get something that falls apart. At least it falls apart so readily that you will immediately realise that you haven't tied a knot. More worrying is this:
Notice in Fig. 3 that the end is fed through the loop from the top before it goes around the live rope. If you feed it from the bottom before it goes around the live rope, you get something even worse than a knot which falls apart - you get something which seems to hold, but isn't a Bowline. I don't know what it is. Please write in if you know its name. Whatever it is, it actually manages to fall apart even more easily than the Bowline (see next page for descriptions on how easily the Bowline falls apart), and that can't be good.

And with all due respect to the Bowline Rabbit, his little story doesn't help you get the above things right.

It is quite possible to get confident with tying the Bowline correctly for one application, but to still make mistakes when tying it under unfamiliar circumstances. For example, I have to think very hard when using the Bowline to tie a loop around a post, because things are upside-down compared to tying it around my waist. I asked another climber to tie the Bowline around a post rather than onto his harness, and the first two attempts failed, so I guess I am not the only one. It is a rather unforgiving knot, perhaps due to its lack of symmetry.

Perhaps the very existence of stories to aid the memory when tying the Bowline is a result of it being rather easy to mis-tie. In addition to the Bowline Rabbit's adventures, there is also the following rhyme:

Lay the bight to make a hole,
Then under the back and around the pole.
Over the top and through the eye,
Cinch it tight and let it lie.

The above rhyme makes far more effort to be helpful than the Bowline Rabbit. But it still isn't helpful.

Anyway, the really important things to be aware of with the Bowline are how it can distort, slip and fall apart. These will now be covered.

Page 2 of 4 Previous Next [Top of Page]

Page 1: Introduction

Page 2: Tying the Bowline Knot

Page 3: Failures of the Bowline Knot

Page 4: Appendix: Animal Testing

This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit Here.