What better book to start off the new Books category with than the 1944 classic work on knots and knotwork by Clifford Ashley, which has become the indispensable work of reference for all knotters, so much so that we frequently refer to Ashley’s numbered knots as ‘ABoK#xxxx’
The Ashley Book Of Knots
I was recently lucky enough to find a copy of the first UK edition of ABoK on eBay! This edition was published in 1947.
There is good information online already about the origins of ABoK, so I won’t be duplicating it here, but I will link to it. Wikipedia: The Ashley Book of Knots - Wikipedia
(From what I understand from reading copyright expiry laws, in the EU/UK ABoK became public domain in 2018 - 70 years after the death of the author in 1947 - whereas in the USA it is still copyrighted until 2039)
I’m sure many other IGKT members will have thoughts to add on this key publication.
i have the 1966 edition and the 2010 to 2020 edition.
normally i don’t use the IA but for a quick search on the it is pretty good actually.
quote : “ Below is a concise chronology of the major print‑run / reprint dates for The Ashley Book of Knots (often abbreviated ABoK). Because the book has been issued by several publishers over many decades, the list groups together the most frequently cited editions rather than every single small‑batch printing.
Year(s)
Publisher / Edition
Notable Details
1944
Doubleday (New York) – first edition, 620 pp, hardcover
Original U.S. release after 11 years of research.
1947
First U.K. edition (Doubleday/UK) – 620 pp, cloth‑bound
First British printing, often catalogued as “first UK edition, first printing”.
1963 – 1979
Doubleday reprints (several print runs)
The book stayed in continuous print in the United States throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
1972
Reprint (U.S.) noted on collector listings
A distinct 1972 printing that many sellers reference.
1979
Addendum – a single new knot (Hunter’s bend #1425A) was added
Not a whole new edition, but a notable amendment.
1988
Faber & Faber (London) – reprint with updated layout
First major U.K. re‑issue after the original 1947 run.
1991
Corrections incorporated (International Guild of Knot Tyers errata)
The 1991 printings include the guild’s corrections; many later reprints adopt these changes.
2000s – 2010s
Various paperback / trade‑paperback editions (e.g., Dover, 2004)
These keep the 1991 corrections but otherwise mirror the original text.
2020 – 2024
Latest reissue (publisher unspecified, often listed as “new reissue”) – fully illustrated notes on all minor amendments and corrections collected by Geoffrey Budworth
The most recent commercial printing, marketed as containing the first ever fully illustrated details of every amendment.
How to interpret the list
First edition (1944) is the baseline; any later date refers to a reprint rather than a new authorial revision (aside from the 1979 single‑knot addition and the 1991 correction set).
1963‑1979 indicates a continuous series of U.S. print runs; collectors often differentiate them by the year of the specific copy they own.
1991 corrections are the most significant textual update, incorporated into virtually all post‑1991 editions.
The 2020s reissue is the only modern edition that explicitly advertises illustrated amendment notes; it is useful if you want the most up‑to‑date visual reference.
If you need more granular data—such as exact ISBNs for each printing, paper quality, or cover variations—just let me know and I can dive deeper with additional searches. “
Latest reissue (publisher unspecified, often listed as “new reissue”) – fully illustrated notes on all minor amendments and corrections collected by Geoffrey Budworth
How does that even work, “publisher unspecified”? Is the Internet Archive version the corrected one? One guesses based on “fully illustrated” that more pictures have been added?
like i said normally i don’t use IA but for a quick search on a fairly known topic it is pretty good here are the sources and the quote :
“Yes – there is a recent re‑issue that falls squarely in the 2020‑2024 window. The Admirals Edition of The Ashley Book of Knots was printed in June 2023 (ISBN 978‑396‑332‑0002) and runs about 650 pages, presenting the classic 3 900‑plus knots with updated layout and printing quality reddit.com.
You can find it for sale (new, print‑on‑demand) on sites such as AbeBooks or through the publisher’s listings. If you’d like a direct link to a retailer or more details (price, shipping, format), just let me know!”
[quote=“Charles, post:4, topic:9845”]
the classic 3 900‑plus knots
Please, let us dispel this long-lived nonsense of publisher
promotion :: I have done the hard work of actually counting
ABoK’s “knots” and the total of unique structures is about
half the usually proclaimed nigh 4,000 --1930 or so.
Just some scrutiny of the Index will show you have many
knots have many presentations and hence additional #s of
that 3,984 illustrations (which itself gets a minor bump
with some few numbers recurring with an “1/2” appended,
and one # just blank --lost the item).
The book should be reformated so that Ashley’s (and the
users’!) desire for text AND image to be on the SAME page
is best realized --in some cases, it cannot be done.
Someone seems bent on having text of facing pages
be the same length; users prefer better proximity.
As for corrections, I’ll guess that I have many more
that c/should be incorporated. In some cases, one
might want to treat ABoK as a sort of living document,
though that takes the authorship beyond Clifford.
(I’m thinking here of changes to what might be claimed
for some knot. I’m guessing that I have changes that
are rather clear corrections). Of course, the predominance
of synthetic cordage can give a different result for
knots that worked well in old stuff
Checking Wikipedia’s current entry, I see that it carries
PART (but not all) of my work --to wit:
Wiki or someone maybe didn’t like my better count!?
