Tautline Hitch

Practical Knots
1

I just picked up Boy Scouts of America “Deck of Knots” by Des Pawson (based on the Handbook of Knots). It’s an excellent resource and contains more than 30 knots with great photos and tying instructions; however, it does not include the tautline hitch, which surprised me. I understand that Mr. Pawson needed to be choosey about his knots or we’d end up with a deck of cards the size of a loaf of bread, but I was taught that the tautline hitch was a basic and useful scouting knot particularly for tyng guy lines or any line where tension needed to be adjusted.

So, my questions are: Is it known by a different name and is actually in there and I’m just not recognizing it? Or is it not included because it’s just an arrangement of already known knots (like a double half hitch combined with a single hitch)?

Can anyone help me out? Thanks!

Knotty Girl
Seattle, Washington, USA

2

Try looking for the Rolling Hitch or Midshipman’s Hitch - the name Tautline Hitch is used by Scouts but is not a name found in many knot books.

3

I have a BSA ‘Fourty Knots’ card which depicts the ‘Taut-Line Hitch’ and can confirm that it is more commonly known as a Midshipman’s Hitch - which is in effect a Magnus or Magners Hitch (with similarities to the Rolling Hitch) tied around its own standing part to form a loop ( which will slip but does hold well if pulled up - like when first passed through an eyelet in a tent or tarp etc.
My guess is that it is called a Taut Line hitch by the BSA because it can be tied in a taut line - as Ashley says it is a good knot to use if you are passed a line to be hauled from the water as it is easy to tie and does not jam. I have read (and written) somewhere that the name Taut Line Hitch originates in the farming industry.
I should also mention that this card also depicts a Midshipman’s Hitch which is drawn so badly as to be useless and a Rolling Hitch drawn as a Round Turn and Two Half Hitches.
I take knot names as they come these days - using the maxim that none of them are wrong - just different!

Gordon

4

Thanks for the tips. I looked up both the Midshipman’s Hitch and the Rolling Hitch.

The Rolling Hitch is in the Deck of Knots but, in my novice opinion, looks like a Clove Hitch with a few extra turns and seems to serve a different purpose, which is why I didn’t recognize it as a Taut Line Hitch. Whereas, to me, the Taut Line Hitch looks like a Half Hitch with an extra turn (would that be a Whole Hitch?!) followed by another Half Hitch. According to the website, Animated Knots by Grog, the “Taut Line Hitch is exactly the same as Ashley’s alternative version of the Rolling Hitch” which happens to be a Half Hitch with an extra turn followed by a second Half Hitch. The website had a very clear picture, which I was able to follow and tied the knot successfully with no slip.

The Midshipman’s Hitch, to me, look’s very much like a Taut Line Hitch but the first Half Hitch is mirrored and the second Half Hitch goes under the standing part and around clockwise instead of going over and around counter clockwise (I’m probably not making any sense), but that’s my point. It just looks backward and confusing to me, and I have to teach this to 10-year-old Webelos!

So, I think I’m going to go with Grog’s and Ashley’s alternate version of the Rolling Hitch, which is one Half Hitch with an extra turn followed by a second Half Hitch.

Thanks so much, guys, for helping me work through that. I was just dealing with too many versions, some of which, I think, were incorrect and, like Gordon’s picture, pourly drawn. And I never really learned the Taut Line to begin with (my Sister Scout alwasy tied that one) and am only now just REALLY learning it.

Thanks!

Knotty Girl
Seattle, Washington, USA

5

Well to me, they are all Clove based. And a Tautline is just kinda a Clove with Round Turns (making a 2 over 2 configuration), rather than single Turns before being ‘crossed’. Knot names vary, some would say a Tautline maid to a spar rather than line is a midshipman.

Tautlines (and the rest of that class) are best backed up (with over hand or fig.8 stopper etc.); and are required to be backed up for life support/ rescue becasue they can roll out/ walk off the job. Most guys in tree climbing starte/ started out on a tautline (or sometimes then called a taughtline) of 2 over 2, but then as they go on might ‘advance’ to other of the friction hitch class, or drop a Turn off the top to make a more 1 over 2 as you de-scribe.

Friction Hitches for tree climbers etc.. Can be used as a safety catch on ascending a line or lines. Can also be used to descend a line that terminates at life belt, goes over a support and then comes back down to belt and has a friction hitch then applied. But, should NOT be used to descend any other line configurations, including a single line descent.

6

KnottyGirl (be careful how you pronouce that! :o ),

let’s assume that knot names will get us nowhere but confusion fast;
so thank’s for pointing to a commonly reviewable site, by Grog
http://www.animatedknots.com/rollinghitchscouting/index.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Although, frankly , Grog is far from unconfusing in his presentation!

The knot shown by him in white w/black-stripes rope, lower right side,
and referred to as being incorrect (inferior), IS WHAT THE BSA NAME
the “Taut Line Hitch”–as per my The Boy Scout Handbook,
10th ed., 1990, p.138. As to the efficacy of this version vs. the one where
the 2nd turn is jammed up into the initial turn, YMMV–I seem to recall one
IGKTer’s casual testing in which he found some mixed results, but overall
better for what Grog rails against.

For a surer securing, you can compromise: make the initial hitching as per Grog
–i.e., a jammed 2nd turn–; but then follow this not with a closing HHitch, but
at a little remove, tying the other version, presented by the BSA.

These friction hitches can be tricky: they might be slipping until you set them
tigher intially, then their grip begets ever tighter grip on increased loading
–until they might reach some untenable point (though it is known also that
they can hold until rupture in some cases).

The BSA form should prove more easily adjusted, and adequate to holding
when in natural-fibre cordage; in slipperier (nylon, polyester, polypropylene/-ethylene)
cordage, some additional structure might be needed–e.g. a full/round turn on the
object (not really practical around a large one, like a tree; fine around a tent stake),
or the guard structure I presented above (the combination; maybe just a leading
turn/HHitch, say). Adjusting tension w/compound hitches will be additional hassle,
but okay. An advantage to the compound version is that under greater tying tension
(i.e., the tyer faces greater pull on the working end which will make tying difficult)
making a quick “guard” structure (the HHitch) is easy and relieves the force on
the working end for tying the full & closing knot.

And around that pole, I hope that you can see that the closing HHitch is by no means
all so sure of staying put–putting an Overhand stopper in the end to prevent it from
loosening makes good sense (ditto for the Clove h. & 2HHs as well). You can find
on-line references to something called the “Tarbuck Knot” (or T. Hitch), which amounts
to a Rolling H. w/extra turn in the gripping coil and a more secure (and harder to tie)
closure; its better form might be that in which the knot more resembles a Cow Hitch
(Larkshead/Girth Hitch) than a Clove hitch, re the orientation of the finishing part);
the Tarbuck thus is an alternative to finishing with a stopper knot. (And I just now see
that Ashley has somewhat anticipated Tarbuck’s “invention” in his own exploration to
see what might be more resistant to torsion & loosening.)

–dl*

7

TautLine Animation