I have always been fascinated by knots. It was what every sailor knew when I was young. I was taught by the professional sailors of the era. My first attempt was the black and white belt.I was 13 years old. I no longer remember the name of the string I used but it was still sold in chandleries expressly for macrame.
These professionals told be of a shop specializing in macrame near the docks in Brooklyn. I took a while, but I hitchhiked and found the shop; however the man who owned it was old and had failing health, so all I could do was to gaze in the window.
I still tie knots, I suppose much like someone who knits. During the America’s Cup Jubilee there was a Frenchman (not the one in the video) tying knots on the dock; we had a duel of sorts, testing the other’s knowledge of knots.
This is a basic turk’s head tied on a bight. It is similar to Clifford Ashley’s (The Ashley Book of Knots) “Chinese Button Knot”. Ashley had a deft way of tying that one by laying up a carrick bend over the standing part of a bight in the line held in his hand and tucking the ends up through it.
He starts with a double carrick bend! My grand father taught me how to splice when I was 10? When I was eleven, I remember going down to the Kings Park finger piers every day when Nefertiti was there in 1962. I used to make these huge flat coils out of their dock lines when they left the docks each day. No one asked me to, I just did it. Well someone must have appreciated it and one day they gave me a brand new set of aluminum and stainless hollow vids in a canvas pouch. I’m not sure who thought of the gesture but I was quite surprised. They must have gotten them from JT’s. Anyone know where King Tut is now?