Imagine a Reef Knot, but with two tucks on top and on bottom. I’ll try to get some pictures.
I think you get the idea, right-over left, under under, left over right under under.
This knot seems to me to be very strong, yet all but impossible to make bind. to untie you simply fold it in half and open it up.
Is this the knot you are looking for?
If so, it is called the Surgeons knot.
Willeke
The knot might be known in some places as the Surgeon’s
Knot, although that name applies also to the knot with one
fewer twist-tuck of the ends (though it seems to me that
having this imbalance makes for a less secure knot).
This knot seems to me to be very strong, yet all but impossible to make bind. to untie you simply fold it in half and open it up.
Loading this in some rougly quarter-inch marine cord showed
that the knot can be hard to untie, and the extra wrap in the
SParts is tranferred away to the ends. The Reverse Surgeon’s
which has the extra tuck only with the ends seems pretty
good for being secure and yet able to be untied.
One should set it pretty tightly by pulling on the ends.
Willeke
That’s it!
but it isn’t the surgeon’s knot that has only one tuck on top, and it’s backward.
To untie you fold it in half (so the two standing parts and two short ends are all in a bundle) and open it (taking the two wrapped parts and pulling them away from each other) this makes the knot fairly easy to untie.
Something you may have done is not tighten the top part enough. Pull the two short ends until the top is almost as tight as the bottom, keeping the knot nice and pretty looking.
Most of what I’ve tied it in is about 1/8 inch Parachute Cord. This stuff is excilent for knotting.
Also tried it in some 3/8 inch rope (244lb working load, excilent for knotting) and it worked fine.
Finally I tried it in 1/16 inch 100% mixed fiber string, and again it worked well.
Havn’t tried it in stiff synthetics though, because I don’t buy rope that’s so tough to tie knots in.
Thanks for the input!
Willeke That's it! but it isn't the surgeon's knot that has only one tuck on top, and it's backward.I suspect that some surgeon's will differ, as noted previously; yet, it's not what usually appears with that label--but one should be wary of the vast copycat world of knots, sometimes quite detached from practical reality!
To untie you fold it in half (so the two standing parts and two short ends are all in a bundle) and open it (taking the two wrapped parts and pulling them away from each other) this makes the knot fairly easy to untie.Something you may have done is not tighten the top part enough. Pull the two short ends until the top is almost as tight as the bottom, keeping the knot nice and pretty looking.
Also tried it in some 3/8 inch rope (244lb working load, excellent for knotting) and it worked fine.With what force applied? (laid or braided rope?)
Havn't tried it in stiff synthetics though, because I don't buy rope that's so tough to tie knots in.Recommendations for knots need to take into account the materials of the intended application. E.g., why should one want to use this Balanced Surgeon's knot vs. say Rosendahl's (Zeppelin) Bend?
...and it's backwardThis is both wrong and telling: Willeke's image doesn't distinguish ends from SParts, and could be the knot exactly but for orientation; the structure's exact orientation matters in the case of laid rope--for the SParts/Ends are of opposite handedness. In quarter-inch laid PP, mod. firm lay, I found that it was hard to set it when the SParts were taking a right-handed twist (this would be loading Willeke's image's lower ends); the knot set better the other way. (But I still don't like its behavior with a load.) Another issue is getting balance in the twisting of the opposed parts: it can be the case that one end (blue, say) will essentially wrap its opposite rather than share the twisting.
But back to the point of appication! In parachute cord, it’s easy to tie, and
takes a nice elongated/trim profile–little lateral bulk to the line of tension.
Capsizing it is easy, yet it’s fairly secure otherwise. So, one might conceive
of some uses that would prefer it.
... This knot seems to me to be very strong ...I've long thought that the curves in a SquaREef bend looked nice and that it should thus be strong; its test data make this a hard belief to sustain, alas. If one ties knots with these sorts of curves in braided rope, often one can see the strands/yarns going in one direction all arced up in egregious looseness, the opposite-running yarns noticeably tight--hard to conceive of the loose material being other than lost as far as load-bearing is concerned. So, I surmise that torsion plays a role in strength, here. (Were the material laid, all of it would be torqued tighter/looser rather equally, it seems--not half'n'half.)
I did not try to make a perfect image of the knot, nor to give the only or correct name. Just a picture and a name to have something to see when talking.
But I have made some changes, to make the orientation of the knot easier.
If you want more changes, just ask and I see what I can do 
Willeke
Imagine a Reef Knot, but with two tucks on top and on bottom.Wouldn't this be a "Double Overhand Knot" ([i]ABOK #516[/i]) on top of a "Double Overhand Knot"? A "Double-Double Overhand-Overhand Knot-Knot"? "DDOOKK"? "(DOK)2"? ([i]For the math-challenged, that last was "Double Overhand, Squared", not "Double Square, Overhand", but this is getting silly and PABPRES will soon scold me[/i])
What do you do with it?
???
(PS: A “Surgeon’s” is an OH over a Double OH. The Double OH, holds itself in place (tension) pretty well while you tie a “single” OH over it for keeps.)
A source for one of the names of this knot is a group who regularly use it.
This knot is used in traditional Japanese clothing. A use with a woman’s kimono is shown here: http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~yatty/kituke/kituke2/kituke.htm . It is also used in men’s traditional clothing.
The knot’s name translates as “Wisteria Knot”. This knot belongs, with other knots, to a class called “Sash Band” knots. In fact, it belongs to a subclass called “Round Sash Band” knots. That is, it is used with braids with a round cross-section.
The Japanese Boy Scout’s Knotting Handbook (link posted earlier) says that it is strong and decorative.
Before I mislead anyone that I can read or speak Japanese, I used an online translator for the above. Which says something about the validity of the above! ;D
Cheers,
Brian.
Ps. The knot name in Japanese is the red underlined characters immediately above the graphics - BG.
Pps. The working ends of the braid are lead around the side of the woman and a bight is tucked between the braid and the kimono which gives the knot its final form -BG.
Many years ago I came across a 19th century seamanship manual and it described a reef knot as left over right and right over left with a double loop.
This knot has similar characteristics to a figure 8 in that it does not over tighten and can be ?rolled? undone
Alan Smith