Tie Knots - Bowline Loops

Hi, my name is Chris Conrad. I am an Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 165 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Today, we are learning about useful knots. I have a brand new knot to teach you it's called the bowline, and then I am going to teach you a variation on the bowline call bowline on a bight.

Now, the key to a bowline is starting off with the first loop created correctly and the way I like to teach this is to grab the standing part of the rope, index finger up, thumb down and twist away. The key to this loop is that the standing part comes in behind the loop and then crosses over and then comes down to the working end.

Now, if you have ever heard someone teach the method for tying a bowline, you know the story about the rabbit coming up through the hole, around the tree and back down the hole and if you pull the rabbit and the tree at the same time you have just formed a perfect bowline. Now, the bowline is a fantastic anchor knot. These knots are very sturdy, it's very difficult for them to come apart accidentally and they are relatively easy to untie. Now, the second knot I would like to show you is called bowline on a bight. The form of the knot is very similar, but in this case we don t require the end of the rope in order to tie it. So, once again we are starting with a bight which is essentially a loop at the end of the rope. I am going to create a very similar loop to the one I did before, only it s going to be doubled.

The bight then comes up through the loop and instead of going around the back of the tree like we did before bight will come down underneath both working end, both working loops and snugs tight above our original loop. This creates a very sturdy bowline with two loops which can be uses for all of sorts of applications.

So, we have learned a lot of fantastic knots today, practice them, master them and teach other people how to tie them.