I was climbing up my dive operator’s boat ladder while on a recent vacation when I noticed a knot that I tried to recreate. I don’t think I was very successful. I wish I had taken a picture of it or better yet asked the captain to explain the knot to me but alas, I didn’t think it would be very technical. And hey, maybe its (k)not that bad but the ones I tried don’t seem right.
I’ll do my best to describe it.
The dive boat had a ladder that extended into the water a few feet which was made of aluminum. On all the rungs and even some of the verticals he had used a braided rope to create a knot that really just looks like a long whipping. This was nice because it was nicer to grab and stand on than the bare aluminum would have been, also it probably added a bit of necessary weight to help the ladder bounce around less in the choppy water.
I got home and opened up my book of knots and finally decided that the perfect whipping was probably the one he had used and subsequently tied a couple of them on the two handrails of my boat. I was immediately disappointed.
For one reason, probably the biggest, the knot I tied comes loose if I pull with the wrong hand. In other words, I had to tie them so that the knots tighten when grasped from the top and pulled like on a regular ladder. Thinking back to the ones I saw on vacation, those were very tight. They did not move at all.
So, maybe the line I used is a bit too thick, I have some thinner braid that I will use on my next attempt. Also, it may be that he tied each of his knots in such a way that they were sandwiched on the ends by crossbars or vertical bars and that helped lock the whipping together. Since my handrails actually curve before being welded down instead of meeting a right angled joint, I don’t think that I can tie mine with the same technique.
Secondly, this whipping that I tried to use was very difficult to tighten with the locking part being behind all the wraps. I think that a bit thinner rope will help that but I think also just the fact that I’m tying such a long knot it may be inevitably difficult to tighten.
I will post some pictures of my attempts shortly, but in the mean time if anyone can share any ideas, I’d love to hear them.
Pictures would have been the ticket here, a tremendous help for sure.
I’ll take a wild stab. It may have been a French whipping if there was a spiraling row of half hitches going around the rungs from one side to the other.
There are many, many ways to cover a cylindrical object and I do hope you explore some of them as well.
There’s coachwhipping, grafting, Turks head knots, cross pointing, crown sennits, half hitching net style and this just scratches the surface.
So make a drawing/verbal description of what you remember, post it right here and I am sure someone will recognize it and you can go from there.
Vince has some great tutorials for you here that should guide you thru from start to finish w/o any slipping going on once you’re finished. Hopefully after seeing the pics you’ll remember which type you saw, or you’ll be able to just pick one you like. You can always mix 'em up, too!
Here’s a photo of French whip coxcombing on my boat’s boarding platform hand rails.
Helps the less agile swimmers and also divers with tanks get back onto the boat.
As you can see it’s been on there quite some time… probably 4 or more years. Though it looks like heck, it shows no signs of slipping or coming undone any time soon.
Before applying the French whip a layer of friction tape was applied to the rails for grip. After completing the French whipping, the whipping was coated with polyurethane spar varnish. The cord absorbed the varnish so more was applied until it soaked in thoroughly.
Skyout’s link reference is darn good. One way to help tighten as you go is to use a short piece of dowel 1/2 inch or so to take a wrap and use for grip. Also heed his advice to fair up the wraps snug-up next to each other after each turn… then tighten again. Take your time… you only want to do this once every few years.
From what I remember about the original ones, they were completely smooth and it seemed that I noticed a bulge on the back side and running the entire length of each knot which felt like the end(s) of the rope which was locked under the wraps. That is why I think it was just some sort of whipping.
After looking at the links of different techniques that I could use, I think I will use one of the ones from Vince’s site even though they are not the knot that I saw on vacation.
Thanks for the additional suggestion of using grip tape SaltyCracker. I will probably use that on my swim ladder handrails because I think that is super critical that people not slip with tanks on their backs while entering the boat.
Thanks guys. I will post some pictures of my efforts when I get them looking good.
Well, it took me a while and I’m not done yet, but I finally made an attempt to do some coxcombing of my own. While I was doing the research for this project, I also jumped feet first into my website that has been sitting around for a couple of years unused. I created a page for my boat which is most likely where projects like knot tying will show up.
It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to do it but I finally got a reasonable start. I found some good information on the net about what I wanted to do, but I wish someone put some good videos on YouTube about coxcombing. I was puzzled about how to start tying so I just used a simple whipping with some whipping twine that I had. It seemed to work fine but I would love to know how other people do it.
I was not sure how much cord I would need so I cut a piece of 2" PVC that was the same diameter and length as my hand rail and I tied that all the way so that I could reduce the amount of waste excess cord I had to work with. The bulk amount of cord that Martin shipped me would not fit beneath the handrails I was working on so I had to find an amount that I could fit into a sock and not waste too much. I never measured the amount that I used.
I’m still not done with the project, but at least there is a start. I hope to be completed next week.
No distractions, please.
Thanks for the helpful links they really got me onto the right path.
What you show in your link looks to me like reversing French Hitching, first tied to the left, then to the right (or vice versa) and not coxcombing. Coxcombing ends up in one line on top or underneath the rail on which it is made. It is the same with single-strand ring-bolt hitching, which is simply another version of coxcombing.