Join two ropes with a sheet bend
Thirty minutes, two ropes and a table. Learn a stopper knot and the knot sailors used to join two rope ends, then use them to make a longer line.
- Time
- 30 min
- Cost
- $0
- Ages
- 7 and up
- Where
- Anywhere
Since 1911: The knots are the same as in 1911. Use them for play and camp chores only: do not trust a knot you tied at the kitchen table with a person's weight, or for climbing or towing.
What you need
- Two soft ropes about 3 feet long, in two colors if you have them
- A chair back or table leg to tie around
Rope safety: read this first
- Nothing around necks, ever, not even as a joke.
- Practice knots only. Nothing in this plan holds a person, climbs or lifts anything heavy.
- Don't pull a rope hard toward someone's face. Pull with the rope pointing at the floor.
Steps
- Name the parts. Find the standing part, the bight (a turned-back loop) and the end.
- Tie the figure-eight. Make a bight, take the end behind the standing part and down through the bight.
- Make a bight in the first rope. Bend the end of the first rope back on itself to make a bight.
- Pass the second rope through. Pass the second rope up through the bight, around the whole bight and under itself.
- Pull and check. Pull both long ends slowly to snug the sheet bend.
- Make it useful. Join two ropes, tie a figure-eight at each end and lay a towel across.
If it stalls
- If the sheet bend slips apart, you probably missed tucking the end under its own standing part.
- Using two colors makes it easy to see which rope goes where.
Sheet bends tied · eyes closed?
Signed off: can do this.Signed by Date