Is this the correct method of tying the icicle hitch? http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/Iciclehitch.pdf
Or this one? http://mytreelessons.com/photogallery/Icicle.jpg
You could say that both are correct - there is no single knot which seems to be accepted as the definitive icicle hitch instead there are several knots which fulfil thie same purpose (some better than others). Arguably the original icicle hitch can be found at http://www.marinews.com/Icicle-Hitch-620.php - this would be my preference.
Barry
It seems you need access to the end of the spar or whatever you are tying around with the above knot. Since that is not always the case, a different not would have to be used.
Check the following site for another “icicle hitch”. Different name but same idea.
http://www.geocities.com/roo_two/sailorhitches.html
Also, check ABOK #1680 et seq. for a large number of knots tied around some object.
Larry
i pictured as an adjustable friction hitch(for climbing up or descending in a retrievable formation of DdRT), i think this is similair to the sailor hitch; grabbing both legs. Another, type of icicle, worx by pulling on 1 leg, and even will pull/or hold up a tapered spar.
I wouldn’t surrender on this: there most certainly IS a definitive “Icicle Hitch”,
as presented by John Smith (or was it Colin, of JM’s knot?) in Knotting Matters.
(And I believe the the OP has it right.) That is has been misrepresented here and
there, and adopted by arborists (in UK, at least) with load on both ends, shoudn’t
change history.
Of that cited site’s
The real strength of the icicle hitch is that it will securely grip a surface with the riding turns and can support a weight suspended upside down from a spar.
neither should “riding turns” change their stripes (and who’s to say what’s
upside-down–and why should that matter at all to the knot?!).