"Crossed" double pile hitch

Practical Knots
1

Greetings all, been a while. Hope you are all happy and well.

Was refreshing my memory on a few knots recently, thumbing through ABOK.
Was also looking for any knots that are easy to tie and untie.

The humble pile hitch caught my eye but it’s pretty loose so looked around for variations that might be better.
Could only really find doubled and tripled versions online but they’re still a bit loose.
I ended up crossing the double and found that it draws up and binds quite nicely, even in 3 strand polypropylene.
The extra crossing parts seem to give it what it was missing.

Has anyone seen or used this variation? Somebody will have tied this somewhere in the past, no doubting that.
Anyway, hope it may be of interest or even of some use.
Pics attached - forgotten how to embed them in post.

EDIT:- Uploaded better pics. I goofed when sizing them - was looking at working size, not file size.

2

Thanks for posting. I’ll have a look when I get a chance.

3

It seems my problem in posting is that there is a size/text limit. So I will post in segments.

4

Now had a chance to play with this.

I’ve never really noticed the pile hitch, even though I’m very fond of hitches. Perhaps it’s because I don’t suffer from piles (I never have piles of books or clothes lying around).

5

You’re right that the standard pile hitch is very loose … but that’s in small stuff that we are using to entertain ourselves

6

Ashley says himself (p.306 ABOK#1815), “Recommended for medium and heavy lines”.

7

Probably even the “medium” he had in mind was much bigger than the cordage most of us would be tying with. Once you get to hawsers and the like the sheer weight and amount of material to give friction would make it tend to hang together.

8

So I suppose in a way what you’ve done is give the pile hitch practicality in small stuff, when you want that benefit of two leads from a vertical post with the free end at the top.

9

(The End)

10

OK, I think I’ve figured out the problem.

I think it’s my use of the em-dash, i.e. Alt+0151. I tend to use that a lot, and I had one in the middle of my text, so even when I tried to cut the size down I happened to capture it.

If this three-paragraph post posts, that will clinch it.

11

Back to the Crosseddoublepilehitch …

I’ve found that if it’s snugged up very well, and with the loop that you pass over the end sitting squarely across the whole mass, then it makes quite a good “in-line” knot, meaning it sticks pretty well when the leads are pulled in line with the tube, a la icicle hitch.

I don’t have any icicles in my house to do a back to back test with (I have a wood-burning stove), so that will have to wait for someone else to check.