Now’s your chance. Seize the day!
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These puns are starting to become a nooseance.
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This is knot art
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Nonsense, they are the splice of life!
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Making these jokes is a cinch.
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Hell, they are my fid-uciary duty! 
Also found this for free.
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Is it really public domain? If so, very cool. Recommended to everyone with an interest in knots and rigging, with the caveat that the book was written before the era of braided, synthetic climbing ropes. Climbers and people who used such ropes for safety should consult modern books on climbing, rope rescue, etc. Same goes for people using high tech single and double braid on yachts. Need to reference modern sources because these lines have different behavior than natural twisted ropes.
But speaking of learning knots, what is with the sheep shank? Does anyone actually use it? It seems like one of the most taught, least used knots ever.
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I’ve used it many times. It’s for tautening rope that’s already tied on both ends.
There is a similar knot and I can’t remember the name. You make three loops and pull the center loop through the other two. That’s always been easier to tie but didn’t hold as much tension.
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Supposedly available as a free download here, but I haven’t tried it.
I never knew why the Scouts give it such prominence. I’ve used it in a trucker’s hitch, but I never really trusted it, and I usually start with a slipped figure 8 instead.
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It’s just one of those things that I’m glad I knew about when I needed it.
It’s no bowline but it’s helped me on a few occasions.
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And yet it is much more secure to use a loop tied in the bight, such as an alpine butterfly knot, to shorten a rope, so much so that all loop knots are also functionally bends. A sheep shank is not secure and easily slips.
Yeah, wouldn’t depend on it for anybody’s safety but I like that it’s adjustable in length.
IIRC my old merit badge handbook cited using it for clotheslines and the like. I’ve only used it for decorative stuff like paper lanterns. In one instance I didn’t want to climb back up a tree to tighten up the slack but I didn’t want the lanterns in people’s faces.
On another note I can’t find any reference to the other rope shortening knot I was talking about earlier and it’s driving me crazy.
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Yes, that’s exactly it. I guess it was just an alternate way to tie it. (Below is the red and more common “first make an ‘s’ with the rope” method. I swear it had a different name though. They even look different once tied.
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It’s properly a_SHEET_shank - it shortens up your deck spaghetti, and requires that tension on the line to stay put. But most everyone defaults to sheepshank…
Found this in the Ashley Book of Knots. He calls it the “parlor method” so it’s definitely a variant.
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If Ashley called it a Sheepshank, that seems likely to be as “proper” as it gets. “Sheetshank” seems to be one of those “sounds like it oughta be” made up etymologies because “sheets” (sails) are found on ships. _Sheep_shank dates back to at least 1627 according to Ashley:
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I’ve never seen anything else but sheepshank, and as @SenorSchaffer and @Skeptic point out, it goes back a long way.
Like the [shudder] “marlin spike” that has almost completely taken over from “marlinespike”. (The name comes from marline, the light cord used for whipping, seizing, etc.)
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