The Walking Stick Memoriam #04: An 11 Part X 2 Bight Turk’s Head Knot Done In An Open Weave

An 11 Part X 2 Bight Turk's Head knot on a walking stick.

After my involuntary break in blogging, I am finding it hard to get back up to speed …. bear with me and I’ll try to get the parade back in step.

As we move further up the stick, you will notice that the knots are in better shape. This is a matter of wear and tear, rather than order of application. The knots on the bottom of the stick are used for things like pushing brush aside.

My Lady Rose likes the look of knots done with an open weave. Before I met her, if left to my own devices, things tended to accrue knots until they looked like they had suffered the fabled sea change – you could not see the original surface for the knots. She has converted me to some degree, although I still tend to use more knots than weave unless it is something I am making for her.

This knot is done after the fashion of the “2 Bight Turk’s Head of any length” from Grant’s book; the only change being that it is spread out over a longer distance than a tightly made knot would cover. You do have to use a seizing of some sort to hold it open while you cover the ends with some other knot. The knot on the left/lower end I explained in my last post on the stick (# 3). The black knot on the other end will be covered in my next post. The distance between the two knots that dress the ends was about 14″.

Close view of an 11 Part X 2 Bight Turk's Head on a walking stick.

If you look at the finish on the wood, the highlights which show are the original finish. When this picture was taken it had about 13 or 14 years of use accrued. For something that was used often, and sometimes roughly, that is remarkable endurance. The finish is of hand-rubbed Tung oil  – I learned to do this many years ago when I was hanging around with people who owned classic wooden sailboats. It is still one of my favorite finishes for things made of wood – partially for utility. but largely because I like the look of wood and brass/bronze on those old boats.

Thank you for visiting my site, and also an extra thanks for those of you who have stuck through my absence. Come back again; the parade is still in the marshaling yard, but is forming up nicely. The march will start off slow and build up, but it is coming.

Yours:

William

Medicine Bottle # 36; A Mix Of Knots I Made As A Practice Piece — It Turned Out Well

Medicine Bottle #36; Turk's Heads & Gaucho knots dress this bottle

Medicine Bottle #36; Turk's Heads & Gaucho knots dress this bottle

Some of the knots I tie, I already know, and know how they will turn out. Others I tie as practice for knots I am trying to learn, or to see how some change will effect them. The experimental knot on this one is the Gaucho knot which wraps around the bottom. I had never tried making the turn from side of bottle to bottom with a Gaucho knot. As long as I was experimenting, I decided to also make each pass in a different color. I normally keep one of the colors down to a Lightning Bolt, so this was new at the time. I decided that these knots were worth passing on to my friend — who passes them on.

The knots used on this bottle are, from the top:

The top ring is a Turk’s Head of 3 Leads X 13 Bights, done in white paracord.

The black knot is a Turk’s Head knot done over a mouse, my usual unknown other Turk’s Head mouse. This knot is of 5 Leads X 9 Bights, doubled. It also has the straight edge which is done as Grant does his “Colima Lazy Man’s Knot”. This makes for a nice change, and is also very useful if you need a straight edge on a knot.

The white knot which comes next is a Gaucho knot of two passes, done in paracord. The count on this one is the now-familiar 9 Leads X 7 Bights, with an over 2, under 2, weave. For some reason, I end up tying a lot of knots with the same count; probably because I tie them in hand and that is how big three fingers works out to be.

The last knot on this bottle starts off tight under the white Gaucho knot, then laps over the corner and covers all but a small circle of the bottom. Not the most practical knot in the world for a firm footing, but it was a nice practice piece. The count works out to 17 Leads X 16 Bights — I think that is right, but it is hard to count without disassembling the knot. That would defeat the give – them – away – to – someone – who – wants – them aspect of my knot tying. So keeping karma in mind, that is close enough on the count.

Thank you for coming by my site. If you have some way that I can improve either my knots or my site, please sing out. Come back again; the parade of knots is starting a new year, like the rest of us:

William