I used to install “seasonal docks” in the mid and outer sections of Cape Cod, Mass. Our truck was a boat and I got knocked in the ocean when it was snowing. It was brutal. I think I put some muscle mass on my scrawny frame just to keep from getting hypothermia. Everything was cold, heavy, wet. And I really came to like it. One of the things I liked is that my boss was a boat guy—a sailor—and that meant knots. Ratchet straps—get out of here. So, we replaced large swim floats and stanchions and walk platforms and when we tied them down to the wishbone trailer, we used knots, mainly bowlines, trucker’s hitches and half-hitches. Working knots. (To see how to tie them, click on my video).
I use them to this day. So, apparently, does Scott Wadsworth of The Essential Craftsman, who delivers astute technical accuracy tinged with his typical second-layer life-wisdom that’s a joy to watch.
Some cool bullet points here:
- “Nothing about what I’m going to show you is complicated. But everything about what I’m going to show you has to be practiced.”
- “Set yourself up some way to practice…so that when you get on the job…when it’s show time…it’s going to be as automatic as riding a bike. You won’t have to think about it. You won’t fumble. Your knots are going to hold. And you’re going to look like a hero.”
I love that he knows that extra string is called the “bitter end.”
- Fiddle String or Engineer’s Knot – I’d use a trucker’s hitch here, but my habits die so hard they’re immortal.
- “Half of the beauty of the knot is how easily it ties. Half of the beauty of the knot is how easily it releases.”
- “How tight should a string be? As tight as you can make it without moving your batter board [or whatever you’re tying to].”
Magic – He cuts a string with his bare hands. Wait, what? And he marks string with a pencil. I tie other pieces of string on it with an overhand knot.
- “It’s a blackboard suspend in mid-air.”
He re-winds string in a figure 8. Genius.
