From Bushby s manuscript :
http://librarygallery.marinersmuseum.org/exhibits/show/bushby
http://librarygallery.marinersmuseum.org/items/show/49
Ah, Bushby’s lovely pen!
IMO, that “Killick/-eg/…” hitch, combination of
a timber hitch + half-hitch, usually oriented so as to be
seen alternatively as a cow hitch with a “dogged” tail,
is presented in a misleading way and (so) misunderstood:
IMO, the knot components should be as snugly set
as possible, to be secure around an object dropped
into water (where, we might presume, the natural-fibre
cordage will swell and further jam-tighten the binding).
It doesn’t make sense to me that such an open structure
–where one rightly sees it as one knot and then another–
would be used in that task, and could work reliably.
Now, for hauling or dropping timber, yes, separation IS
made and wanted --the leading, half-hitch bites/grips
and pulls/directs the longish object, and the timber hitch
secures the end. (Arborists might substitute a running bowline
for the timber hitch.)
–dl*
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Please sir, i think there are times and places for Timber hitch, as well as many lessons in it’s simplicity as a basic hitch.
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The minimal usage of line/contact with host/load in possibly dirty/dangerous/production/tight/time $ensitive etc conditions, with short/stiff/‘nasty’ lines (or some nasty mixed cocktail of all of the above) then perhaps dragged thru worse before dealing with taking whatever hitching off; make this minimal , ‘loose braid eye splice’ very valuable; w/many lessons perhaps more easily viewable in it’s bare simplicity. Mr. Ashley almost starts his whole chapter_21 on working class hitches in their proper perpendicular pull to spars with the humble Timber. Perhaps there were more uses in stiffer, larger natural fibre ropes of his time too though i guess.
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Always and all ways, i try to keep/modify/rate the engineered lacing for pure inline-ness in several ways, to best nip, and this stabilizing/softening of deformation/secondary load support leg effect of upgrading a simple Turn to a full Round Turn around sPart; while the RT around sPart has as much ‘force flow’ /usable line tension available to give the effect. So would only take simple Turn around host spar before RT around sPart, not be hero and give RT around spar 1st or loses effect/doesn’t have the power of the usable line tension in RT to grip sPart(dLehman lesson). Just as the effect would be lost using half hitches around sPart, or if the RT(force flow) went inside turn around spar, to make a like a dbl.HH (force stop).
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i think of both the Timber and Cow as extensions of a Backhand Hitch; which in turn if mounted on a caribeener host is a Muenter Hitch. A Bight reeved thru Backhand Hitch becomes simple noose/ marline. But all spawning form base Backhand Hitch are mechanically confined to only what they inherit/ what forces etc. (and line length) left over after parent Backhand Hitch is made. So all examinations of upgrading simple turn to a full/Round Turn, giving ‘pedigree’ , half hitch finishes, etc. Where logical, but then some losses define differences, as backhand class mostly if pull both ends, pulls on diff. Sides of host, but as progresses to Cow, pull both ends/girth hitch and the pulls are on same side of host spar/rope etc. A simple Turn + HH seems parent to Backhand, especially when HH reaches for more proper /higher tension nip points; but in practice i think of HH low nip around sPart as separate and more related to preceding HH (like Marl positioning) , and HH’s with better nips (what Ashley calls fig.8 hitch #1666, or highest nip HH, or even slipped where the slip is the fig.8 cross over or just any spacer to better nip) as more related to Backhand Hitch.
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Ashley points out these are right angle pull hitches, we need to add HH for Killik for pulls along the column of a spar or other rope etc. another simple/down and dirty working lacing(with own lessons) to modify the primary hitch’s angle of pull properly and give another grip point, this family pattern extends also to pulls along /not across the column of a spar or even the column of another rope/ as in friction hitches. In all cases i measure, rate, adjust working hitches to a force flow pure inline with rope device model as maximum strength, nip, holding. For pulls along column that takes a HH/s or Marl/s modifier at lead/nose of pull, then another strategy after of leveraged pulled hitch (at lower loading) or turns/coils etc.
It’s my belief that the proper attribution for this
variously named/spelled knot is to a compact knot
whose raison d’etre is to stay tied while hitched
to anchoring stones --that the backhanded turn,
so to speak, serves qua collar and nips parts (S.Part
and turned-back tail) adequately esp. in natural-fibre
(and swelling in water?) cordage to keep things together.
Exploded drawings might be --per my belief-- how this
surmised compact structure came to be often shown
as well-separated components. (And, in an odd way,
going in reverse direction I think that it might be that
originally well-spaced nipping loops of the water bowline
came to be shown close together such that it would
be proper to call it a “clove-hitch bowline” !!) ???
For pulls along column that takes a HH/s or Marl/s modifier at lead/nose of pull, then another strategy after of leveraged pulled hitch (at lower loading) or turns/coils etc.Rather than a separate component to tackle the more parallel loading, a simple round turn can give good grip on such rough-surfaced things as trees, and a couple turns will start to resemble some kind of gripping hitch, when loaded --the sort of result of "wrap 3, pull 2" though "pull 1" leaves the unpulled wraps to grip. ;)
–dl*
i’m playing with showing this better as another version of always reaching for inline.
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i quote Ashley from the beginning of chapter_22:pulls along spar “is about the most that can be asked of a hitch” .
Commonly precede with HH around spar, rather than S.Part; or yes RT/coils; theory extending into friction hitches pulling likewise down the column of a host line, rather than host spar; then onto fishing knots with even more coil/turns, but still trying to get some kind of inline strategy by coil or HH around host spar/rope/hook/monofil etc.
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Timber in actual heavy, dirty usage. You might have all you can do to poke a rake thru under a log 1x for Timber, then slip HH like sock over nose that is off the ground due to taper/or at least easier to leverage up end for HH than center for Timber. Sometimes HH around a strong branch stob.
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Most ragged end/piece of downgraded line would be on Timber end/part; taking most abuse. Sometimes HH has sheet bend or caribeener connection to line for Timber. Dragging less critical than overhead or climbing work.
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The farther from the 1st HH is from the center of gravity of spar, the straighter it drags generally(other friction dragging points can throw this off).
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To me Timber great lesson in a ‘loose’ splice, several nips; pattern repeats in other lacings.
Ashley notes can go down to 3 Turns, 2 if use fig.8/overpass previous to 1st Turn.
i’m thinking should always go for best nip, other turns just tension reducers and spacers to real Nip point/opposite/inline with pull.
2 Turns seems especially light in dragging, also.
But, mostly, Ashley was working with/envisioning natural 3 strand with higher frictions to hold and could bed down then Nip points on the Turns into the lay of the line also. We don’t have these 2 factors in today’s lines generally.
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A few pictures later; still in the start of chapter_21 right/correct angle of pulls(22 being incorrect angle and the modifiers needed(?)); we see the ‘RT on the S.Part adds materially to the strength of the knot.’ lesson.
If your just trying to get thru all the knots to say you did it; that’s all you end up with.
i think the side comments are the real lessons, the knots shown just the present form they take.
He’s starting a specific chapter, with specific examples of principles of all to follow(and then some), not really showing so much how to tie a different HH… The presentation and order is more well thought out than that.
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How mad do you think Mrs. Abok got when he had all those pictures stacked across her dining table, trying to sort and categorize how many 1000’s down to the best 7000pix of what he didn’t lose somehow? :o