Is there a general term for the object that you’re tying a hitch around? I would find it really useful for writing up knot descriptions.
In the most general terms, I tend to call it the hitching object.
In more specific terms, it could be a ring, post, spar, bollard, hook, etc.
And I’d go w/merely “object”, I think, if the context makes
the meaning clear.
As for specific terms, I see some of these as sub-class-defining
adjectives : “ring hitch”, “spar hitch”, “pile hitch” being my simple
trio of indicators of the approximate size of the object to the
hitching material.
Though, hmmm, “bight hitch” I see as one of the nature of the
object --and want to include what might be called a “closed
bight” (= “eye” : both legs loaded) with an “open bight” (one
leg merely tail, the other loaded).
There are hitches that work only in one or another of the
relative-size circumstances :: e.g., one really cannot tie
a timber hitch around a ring --not room for all of
the material needed to dog the tail–, nor succeed with
an ossel hitch around a pile (even spar) --the material
won’t nip adequately.
–dl*
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