Hi, was wondering if someone can suggest a knot i can use to cover a steering wheel. I’ve seems some boats with some pretty knots covering their wheel and would like to do the same.
Suggestions?
take care
sa,m
Hi there,
There are quite a few possibilities to cover a wheel. The 2 directly popping into my mind are so called coachwhipping, which is tedious to do but nice to look at and the other one is french whipping which is a nothing more than a lot of half hitches made one after the other. You’ll get a spiral type of structure around the wheel which gives a good grip.
Hope this helps…
take care
André
Sam,
Turks Head knots are a cylindrical shaped knot, and can be used as a covering. On ships wheels and hand rails they are mostly used to cover the ends of Coach Whipping and French Whipping. Often Whippings can have an unsightly start and finish, so a Turks Head is used. This is a link to some tutorials I have posted at the Knot Head World Wide website on Turks Heads. You can print this template, tape it to the wheel, and tie a Turks Head directly on the wheel. Then slide the paper out, and tighten your knot.
http://www.khww.net/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=22
I would suggest that you find a photo of a wheel you like, and post the link. We can tell you what kind of knotting is used, how to tie it, and offer tips to finish it. I would also be interested to know more about your wheel. How big? What is it made of? What kind of line do you want to use?
Pat
that’s for the replies. I think i’m going to go with the coach whipping and have a turkish head on the king pin.
To clarify, the french whipping is the one with the spiral wrap and the coach whipping is the one that looks like a braid type thing with 2 lines beside each other?
the wheel, i beleive is 36". will have to measure to make sure. If i end up doing the coach whipping, how much line do you think i’m going to need to cover the wheel? should i do abit at a time or do the whole thing with 1 long peice of line?
Any books you’d recommend?
take care
sam
Hi Sam
If you decide to do coachwhipping (ends up looking like you put on basket-weave over-under around the whole thing) you’ll need plenty of line. Your wheel is 36" and, if you only put in two leads and an easy double spiral around the rim (your coachwhipping will spiral around the rim in two directions) you’ll need at least 250 feet of line, assuming that the rim is about 1 inch thick and that you use eight sections of doubled line for the coachwhipping, the line being about 3/16 inches or a little less. If the rim is thinner, less line, if the line is thinner, rim 1 inch, then longer line and more sections (up to twelve), if the line is thinner and the rim also thinner, maybe the same length. Most of us experiment with a short section of the wheel and gauge the length of line you need based on the practicality of how much line it takes to cover, say, an inch of the wheel and then multiply the length of line used by the number of inches around the wheel. A 36 inch wheel is just over 113 inches according to my calculator, and that is measuring straight around the outside of the rim. You cannot do coachwhipping with one piece of line unless you make a Turk’s Head around the entire rim (Hasrold Scott, where are you now?) and finish the bights next to each other at the top of the wheel - good luck with that thought! Personally I think a simple French Whipping (series of half-hitches) would do the trick, but it is your wheel so let’s see the results when you are done! 
SR
Turks head the whole wheel? would that just be a bunch of small turks head made to look like 1 or is it a great big turk head?
take care
sam
You can do one Turks Head around the whole wheel, but that is a lot of work. I have seen it done where the line was woven to look like a Turks Head, with a definite start and finish, but I have never seen an entire wheel covered with a single Turks Head. Typically, where a Turks Head is used, it covers the wheel between spokes, and so you use as many Turks Heads as spokes. This is also difficult because each knot has to be identically sized to make the wheel look ballanced. Getting two Turks Heads to match size isn’t easy. When I tie a matched set, I will tie three knots, and pick the two that look closest to the same size.
I know I don’t have to remind anyone who has spent time before the mast, but the king pin that Sam refers to on the typical wooden wheel indicates to the pin that is pointed straight up when the rudder is amidships (centered). Usually, this is the only pin identified with a knot to avoid confusion about when the rudder is centered.
Hi Sam,
Yes, to answer your question, that would be one Turk’s Head almost around the whole wheel, effectively 8). Actually it is not possible to make a TH completely around a circular object like a wheel (it is called a torus or donut) because there are no places for the bights to be at the extremities of the TH. Having said that, it IS possible (although tedious) to make a TH around the wheel such that it meets itself and therefore has a place to turn the line back along the path it started, but crossing the original lay, and thereby forming a bight at each end (where it meets but does not continue) and the necessary crossings or leads, therefore covering 355 degrees of the 360 degree circle. Coachwhipping, OTOH, is a series of basket weave crossings using multiple separate lines and, if you look at part of a TH, you will see similar basket-weave crossings. The difference is that CW is done with those separate shorter lines and TH’s are normally done with one very loooong line. So I guess you have to decide if you want to have coachwhipping around the entire wheel, which is what you asked about. :-\ It would also look good (depending on what the wheel looks like and the boat on which it is going to be fitted) to just have the hand-grip areas covered in coachwhipping at ten o’clock and two o’clock, with a Turk’s Head covering both of the ends of the coachwhipping lines. Then you could apply a Turk’s Head to the King spoke, just like you suggested. You should also look at a couple of other things while you are thinking about your eventual selection of which knot to use:
Is the boat/vessel worth doing this kind of decoration (it will take an enormous amount of time) ???
Is the owner willing to part with the money for your time (unless it is your boat and you don’t mind the time) ???
How will you protect the line once it is in place? ???
Things to think about! I am so thrilled that you are going to attempt this enormous feat! Do let us see what happens when you have decided and have finished the project - it sounds as if it will be terriffic! ;D
SR
Hello again,
If you really want to cover the whole wheel at once with a Turk’s head type of braid you might consider ABOK #2241
It still is a lot of work but I think it is way easier to make than coachwhipping.
Hope this is of some help…
take care and success with your project
André
I remembered we had a question like this before, and then someone gave a link to a website, so I searched a bit and found it again.
Here is the link: Coxcomb Wheels Frayed Knots
It is not an instruction site, but it shows what we are talking about here.
Willeke
thank you everyone for your advice. will be starting my wheel soon and once done, i’ll post some pics of it.
the boats mine so don’t mind spending the time doing it. though i seriously doubt i’d do it for someone as it looks extremely time consuming but as others have said, better than watching TV 
take care
sam
Hi,
Somehow I am on the IGKT site under my own name?
Let’s talk knots:
In each project time is important as is the cost of material. There is a Shaker (not knowint Shaker’s looke them upor not judjge) adage: Each day work as if you expected to live forever and as if you expected to die tomorrow. Two sides to that coin, aren’t there? Today folks seem to decide that if death is at hand why do anything … or if life is infinite why hurry? As you tie knots these are the roots of how you will work. When someone looks at my knots will they wonder “how did he do this” or will the wonder “how did he do this so fast” Your choice my friend. Will they wonder how did he do this so cheap or will they wonder how you did it at all. I’ve got knots I tied 50 yeas ago that I have to work hard to reproduce. I don’t know how I did them but I am still smart enogh to fighre out.
How long it takes… ? You want to save time make instand coffee in the microwave. You want to make something special.. there is no time.Time is beyond your project. You are on a whale ship. You work hard, way hard. In your time you tie knots. The thing you are making. What is time? What are days?
I have some of these knots. I can tell there were no days, no time, no future and no past.
What do you want to make? An object or a time capsule?
I can cover a wheel in a day with grapevine and such, 'Th’s for juctions. It will be so sweet. I can cover it in a week or two (or more) with coach whippings, with th’s to join… and no man can copy it. Your choice. (respect to Patrick, who can do all that I can do). But of course it could be all one huge Turk’s Head Knot. No junctionds, one strand, doubled or trippled and unique in all the world. But of course it is just a boat.
Sorry, can’t find where to edit… also can’t find me bed… so sorry. However I read my post and want to pitch in more. My wife walks with a stick that I added knots to… for her elation. 3500 of them. It took far more than 40 hours (maybe 90?). To look at it nobody can tell how it was done… but all who see it are entranced, mystified, want to own or at least hold it. Your wheel…? I’d buy a spare and cover it with one strand in a TH, which would “T” down at the spokes and be at least 3 ply. But of course I’ve never done such a project… so far be it from me to say what you should do. My walking staff is “coachwhipped” and my other “stuff to cover” is often grapvine or double grapevine. But I still have intense projects in my back burner, working when the day presents some time.
My point is that a wheel cover can be a single strand Turk’s Head Knot that has a skirt down each spoke and a knob at the king post and still only be from a single strand and still be as many plies as you desire.
You could live many years and work often at this project. Patrick can help you to this finished project. But then think long and hard about how to spend your time. I choose to work up “knot stuff” that takes me months and even years… do work a single strand THK for a wheel with six or eight spokes (I know it can be done) or make a grape vine and Turk’s Head variation in a week. I want to see the ultimate thurks head: have at try at it if you are of a mind like mine. If I had a boat with a wheel I’d have purchased a spare wheel and worked on it for all these years.
I’ve still got unfinished beckets from 1990. Just the right knot at the right time. The beckets are not unfinished because I am lazy or too stupid to tie a knot.. but because I want them to be my best effort. Plenty of beckets tied and attached in 16 years… but always this pair.. lurking. Knobs on the bolts decided, bails decided (not made but the patern known). Your wheel… have fun and do what you can in one off season. Think about a spare wheel to do beyond human endevor. At last I think I am happy with this post. Knots are a hobby. Time spent is intended to be spent. There is no prize for finishing first. Your project need only be pleasing to you. Pretty simple?