Ok folks, I may have just developed a new “Handcuff Knot”. Before I take and post pics ( for constructive criticism ) can anyone tell me if these types of knots have any other relevance? I don’t know if it would behoove me to post it under a different venue. Regards!
Gene Johnson
Hi Gene, let’s see it.
It may be new, it may be old, it may be useful.
It may even have a better use than “handcuffs”.
Let’s investigate it.
If it needs moving, I can do it and will.
SS
Will do…let’s not spare the horses. First pic is front, second is back. Again, thank you sir!
Gene
Sorry that the pics may be inverted. You’ll get the drift.
Gene Johnson
Hi Gene.
A lot of minds whirling with this concept! And quite a number of threads pertaining to it.
The larks head/girth hitch arrangement has been tied I believe and taken one step further (and possibly more secure) with the use of a prusik hitch arrangement. See > http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4821.msg31447#msg31447 . The orientation may not be the same, but it is a similar use, a binder.
For actual handcuff use, I would imagine that the tails will have to be held tightly or locked off using additional knotting.
Thanks.
SS
Yes indeed. I figured that if the knot has been used, why bother with showing a lock up mechanism. I am guessing a square knot or such. You say that a knot has been put forth already? As you can see, it started out as a cow’s hitch.
Gene Johnson
Take a look at the picture in reply # 19 by xarax, using the lovely pink rope. http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4821.msg31447#msg31447
SS
Ok. Nothing ventured…nothing gained. Back to the drawing board.
Gene Johnson
Let us not confuse two different things here - two different knots, out of the many that look “similar”, to the first sight. (1)
The knot used as a hitch, around a solid pole, would be this knot, where the pole penetrates the two eyes in parallel to the long ends. It would be a Cow hitch, as a nipping “tube”, based hitch, similar to the Bull Clove hitch, or to the Prussic hitch.
The knot used as a mid-air, handcuff-style binder, would be this knot, where each one of the two distant objects to be bound would be wrapped by each one of the two eyes. See a TIB such knot at (2), where I have inserted the two objects / poles, to make the function of the knot self-evident.
For such a knot, we need, among other things, some “deflexion” of the returning eye legs from the two bights, as I tried to explain in (3). So, the knot shown here is not suitable to such a role.
XARAX, I only have a few references on handcuff knots. Could you please send me a link, as to what you believe, is the ideal knot of this type. Keeping in mind simplicity, strength and lockup/unlock mechanism. Thanks in advance!
Gene Johnson
I do not know - I am searching, just as you do ! I think that the benchmark is the one-wrap, two-coils crossed-tails Gleipnir. The Clove-hitch based Gleipnir is also very good, and I have recently shown a very tight and easy to tie and inspect handcuff-style Gleipnir utilizing a double overhand knot (1) - although the later is not TIB, as we would had wished such a binder to be.
We should not forget that a large part of the success of the initial, two-wrap Gleipnir was due to the mechanical advantage, which lessens to the one quarter the portion of the total load each Tail End bears. Without the second wrap, things are much more difficult !
The last TIB such knot that I have tied is based on two opposing crossing knots (2). It is more difficult to dress properly than the others, but I believe it is worth of further examination, because the “deflexion angles” of the returning eye legs, as they enter into the nipping structure, are very satisfactory.
There are so many ways one can tie a nipping / constricting TIB knot in the middle of a line… Who knows how many of them are able to grip the returning eye legs with the force and the orientation required for such a binder. However, we should be careful not to over-entangle the Tai Ends together, because then we would have a secure knot, but a secure two-line bend, not a secure adjustable binder !
Only looked at them briefly, but I particularly like the second one. Thanks for the feedback.
Gene Johnson
There is yet another way to describe the same thing. Imagine a line and two adjustable loops at its two ends, like the Pretzel-“Eskimo” loop shown at (1). ( There are also other knots that can achieve the same task, firmly grip the returning eye leg, as the ones based on the Clove or the Girth hitch (2), but I have seen that the Pretzel-based one is the most balanced : the orientation of the nipping / constricting nub remains perpendicular to the axis of loading.)
Now, we have two knots on the same line. Imagine those knots tied very close to each other. One now wonders : why we should have TWO knots ? Is nt it possible to have only ONE, through which one can drive the two retuning eye legs, in the way of the Gleipnir ? Can we combine somehow, and finally “merge” those two knots in one ?
That is what I am trying to do for some time now, but with no success. I have not found a TIB, symmetric knot, which will grip the two returning eye legs in a secure way, so we could pull them to re-adjust the length of the binder even under some tension - while, at the same time, it will not entangle them into a too convoluted and too tightly gripped path, and does not allow any voluntary readjustment.
I have one knot that does the difficult thing, manage to remain perpendicular to the axis of loading even when it is pulled by one returning eye leg - and I can not find a knot to do what, supposedly, would address a lesser challenge, remain perpendicular to the axis of loading when it is pulled by two, symmetrically placed, returning eye legs !
Perhaps we must think outside of the box on this one. It sounds like the nub must be designed first ( to achieve the desired characteristics ) then incorporate the loops afterwards. Just spit-balling here!
Gene Johnson
Oh, I did, but I have not found anything better than this twin-crossing-knot based one… You know, there is no assurance that outside the box there would be anything more than inside it ! 
When you are forced to tie more convoluted knots, you run the danger to lose, due to inner friction, an important portion of the tensile forces you need to “lock” the returning eye legs of the loops. The inventor of the Gleipnir knew this, and he did nt even used a double nipping loop - to enhance the gripping power of his knot, he suggested two or three single nipping loops arranged in a row, the one after the other. However, I believe that, at that time, he had not realized the efficiency of the locking mechanism offered by two opposing tensioned bights, as we do today - which can more than compensate the loss, due to friction, of the gripping power of a nipping / constricting structure more complex than the single nipping loop.
Interesting. Please send me a link of what you feel to be the best knot for this purpose. Also, has anyone ever experimented with the notion of having the two ends being located on what would be the outside of one of the loops, instead of both ends coming out of the nub itself? It may sound convoluted and non-traditional at first, but stranger things you know. Regards!
Gene Johnson
I have “answered” to this, at Reply#10. Do not expect any detailed litterature on anything in practical knots - although they are tied everyday for thousands of years by millions of people, they have not been considered a subject of science or technology worth of exploring… So, people ( “knot tyers” included ) just parrot what it happened to them to learn by heart when they were boys - like the way the tie their shoelaces. Ordinary materials are very friendly to the elementary tricks we use to enhance friction - so almost all of the knots “do the job”, in almost any way they are tied - why to study them further ?
My first shock with this was when I realized that professional fishermen throughout the world used different knots to tie their lines and their hooks - while, of course, they are call catching the same animals swimming into the same element on the same planet. Then I realized that, travelling around the countries of “European Union”, I had to carry different paraphernalia for the different sockets in each country… although the characteristics of the electric current and the electric appliances are the same.
How do “knot tyers” manage to talk to each other ? With great difficulty… if they are not just talk past each other- and for other, irrelevant matters ( pre-stressed concrete, for example :)) ! There is this compilation of a number of knots by Ashley, with a most elementary taxonomical, pre-scientific, completely not-analytical and not-theoretical way, which, for unknown reasons, became the bible in the Anglo-Saxon world, and which is rehearsed by the believers the last 70 years over and over again… as it happens with all bibles.
Why are there thousands of books on chess openings, for example, with hundreds of theoretical explanations of the strong and weak positions, and millions of diagrams, while, on knots, there is only one half ? ( I consider ABoK half of a book, on knots, because it offers no explanation about why a knot works, or why it is better or worse than another, anywhere…).
The most curious thing is the almost complete absence of comparative tests of any knots - which would had imposed an objective order into this subjective chaos / desert. People have measured any thing that could had possibly be measured on Earth - except knots ! So, any “knot tyer” can go on rehearsing ( to himself, mainly) what he already has learnt, parroting the same myths and mistakes, tying the same good or bad knots… Some of them even give pompous and grandiose names on variations of mediocre knots they have read in Ashley - like “Sailor s hitch”, for example…
Noope, you will not find the “links” you wish, I am afraid… For links on comparative and explaining articles, it is better you start studying cooking, tattooing, or Babylonian history.
One has no need to read the rest of the sentence, if it is about knots ! No.
I do not understand this. The two ends are the ends of the returning eye legs. They come ( = return ) from the two eyes / bights, and enter into the nub tied on the “middle” of the line, where they are “locked” and secured.
If you mean that one can secure a tail by making it not penetrate through the nub, but going around it, in some way, the only example I know is the “helical knots” - where the tail travels on a helical path around a central nub, so it benefits from the great amount of friction this arrangement offers. See the attached pictures, and (1).
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3020.msg21688#msg21688
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3020.msg21806#msg21806
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3020.msg22085#msg22085
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3020.msg22086#msg22086
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4343.msg27191#msg27191
I’d propose this Adjustable Grip Hitch variation as a restraining “handcuff” knot. It has some qualities I think would be critical were I ever facing a real perpetrator, since I can’t assume the perpetrator will be cooperative. Namely:
The hitch holds well against outward pressure from within the loop, and standing-end loading. It has a nice lever action under load. In my self-trial, I bound both my wrists together and required assistance to escape.
It also unties easily after considerable loading. It’s not TIB, and takes a little practice tying.
A good adjustable gripping hitch will be more secure, if it will be tied around the main line with more than one or two wraps, of course - but that does not mean it would not be able to grip it at all, when it will be tied in its “minimal”, simplest form. Could you, please, show the same knot with as few wraps as possible ? I believe that it will look like a variation of the various adjustable hitches based on a shape “8” / constricting / gripping “neck” : See two of them, at :
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4454
( We have used the term “handcuff” to denote knots working like two adjustable grip hitches, the one opposed to the other, not one. Anyway, I guess that if you succeed in tying one good adjustable gripping hitch, then you can duplicate it, and tie two, too ! :). However, the interesting thing is to fuse / combine the two locking “necks” / nubs into one only, in the middle of the line which connects the two opposed eyes, not to just tie the one next to the other…)