Turks Head Walking Stick Part 3: Knot Construction Third and Final Pass Paul Young-Davies Matthew Young-Davies 1 st Stittsville scouts D R A F T
KNOT TERMINOLOGY It is important to understand some of the terminology that will be used in these slides. Rope direction: As indicated by the dotted line with the arrow head Bight: This is the bend in the knot. Lead: This is the turn in the knot.
FINISHING THE KNOT ON THE WALKING STICK The Top End of the knot is identified as the where the ropes do not need to be finished. The Bottom end is where the rope needs to be finished. Place the Turks Head Knot on your walking stick with the top end closest to the top of your walking stick. Top End Top of walking stick Bottom End Bottom End Where the rope needs to be finished. Top End Top of walking stick where the bights of the rope turns around
Now that you have put the knot on the walking stick, the knot now needs to be finished. As with all the best looking knots, the key element is to hide the rope joins in order to make it look like the knot was made from a single piece of in the rope. You will recall that you used two ropes for your knot. This means that you have at least 4 ends of rope to finish. During the process of finishing you will be cutting the rope to size, sealing the ends and then tucking the rope under the weave to hide the joins. The following slides will illustrate how to finish your knot and make you look like a professional. Bottom End Two rope ends need to be finished Bottom End Two rope ends need to be finished
STEP 1: FINISH THE CENTRE ROPE Step 1: Identify the lower rope at the bottom end of the knot Step 2: Fold the lower rope over the knot following the direction of the weave as indicated by the arrow. Step 3: Look for the weave where Step 4: the rope Cut the rope at the point where passes under it. passes over the centre of the weave as shown. Centre weave. Cut the rope to length and seal the end
Pull the upper end of the rope out of the weave. This creates a path for the lower end of the rope to be placed in the weave; Step 5: Identify the Upper end Step 6: Pull the upper end out of the weave. Step 7: Identify the channel that is created when the upper end is pulled out of the weave. The FID shows the channel
Step 8: Insert the FID between the rope of the first and second pass. Wiggle the FID side wards (as shown by the arrows) to widen the channel. Step 9: Weave the lower rope through the channel Step 10: Tuck the lower rope end under the weave as shown
Take the remaining rope and lay it over the weave, cut to length, seal the end and then tuck under the weave to finish. Step 11: Take the other end of the rope and fold it over the weave. Step 13: Seal the end of the rope and tuck under the weave to finish. Step 12: Cut rope to length based on the centre of the weave The FID shows where the two rope ends are tucked under the weave.
Finish the ends of the rope from the first and second pass Step 13: Examine the two rope end from the 1 st and 2 nd pass (blue rope). Identify the location where there is an overlap of rope used in the 3 rd pass (yellow rope) as shown. Overlap #1 #1 #2 Step 14: Use the FID to expose the overlap. Cut the rope used in the 1 st and 2 nd pass (blue rope). This will now make 4 end points as shown. #3 #4
Step 15: Pull each of the 4 rope end points out of the knot. This then exposes the channels in the knot that can be used for tucking rope into the weaves. This is same procedure used earlier in step #7. #1 #2 #1 #3 #3 #4 Channel #2 #4
Step 16: Examine the knot and the 4 end points. Use the FID to widen the channels where the 4 end points can be tucked into the Turks head weave. Identify where the weave point that you wish to hide the ends of the rope. Fold the rope over the weave to size the rope and then cut to length. Select a rope end Fold the rope over the weave to determine the length of the rope and cut to size. Weave where the rope end will be hidden. Use the FID to widen the channel under the weave.
Step 17: Seal the end of the rope and then tuck it under the weave to hide the end.. This step finishes the first of the four rope end points from pass #1 and pass #2.
Step 18: You now need to repeat steps #16 and #17 to finish off the remaining three rope ends. These are the steps that you need to follow: 1. Examine the bottom end of the Turks Head Knot and identify the weaves that you want to hide the remaining three rope ends. 2. Size the rope so that it fits under the weave. 3. Use the FID to widen the channel that the rope will follow 4. Seal the end of the rope. 5. Tuck the rope end under the weave. (1) Identify the weave (2) Size the rope so it will fit under the weave
(3) Use the FID to widen the channel where the rope will pass under the weave. (4) Cut the rope to size and seal the end (5) Hide the end of the rope under the weave
Ensure that each pair of rope ends meet up under the same weave. This will give the impression that the knot is then made from one continuous piece of rope. Fold the rope over the weave where the other rope end was hidden. Size and then cut to length. Rope end Rope end Tuck the rope end under the weave to give the impression of a single piece of rope. (see where FID is pointing)
Size and tuck all the rope ends under the Turks Head Weave. Closely inspect the bottom end of the Turks Head knot when you have finished all the rope ends and tucked them in. You do not want to see any loose ends or have any misalignment of the rope which shows where there is a join.
FINISHED PRODUCT The top and bottom ends of the Turks Head Knot should look identical. Top end of Turks Head knot. At this end the rope was not cut and sized. Bottom end of Turks Head knot. At this end the rope was cut and tucked under the weaves.
FINISHED PRODUCT Your Turks Head Knot should be slightly larger than your hand. When you wrap your hand around the knot you should see a little bit of the top and bottom ends of the Turks Head Knot.