Episode: 2160
Title: HPR2160: An Audio Illustration Tying the Bowline Knot
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2160/hpr2160.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 15:04:56

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This is HPR episode 2,160 entitled, An Audio Illustration Type of OI Not.
It is hosted by David Whitman and is about six minutes long.
The summary is, David Whitman attempts an audio illustration on how to type a bow I not.
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Hello, this is Hacker Public Radio.
My name is David Whitman.
Today I will give an audio illustration of how to tie the bow line not.
The bow line not has some advantages in that it is simple to tie and you will know how
to tie it when I get done, hopefully.
If you do not, please leave a comment.
In it is simple to untie.
After it is tied and a load is put upon it, it does not tighten up so that it is impossible
to untie like some other knots and it does not slip so it holds fast.
So essentially the knot is very useful and sailors use this on square rig sailing ships.
I have a reference in my show notes to Wikipedia but it is very easy for you to just type in
Wikipedia, bow line not, B-O-W-L-I-N-E knot and you can get the information.
One of the things about knots, there is a lot of animated illustrations online.
People will tie them in front of you to teach you how to do it and it can get confusing.
At least it does for me and I am sure I am not so different than a lot of people out there.
So go grab yourself a piece of rope, stop the recording, grab yourself a piece of rope, come
back and let's tie the bow line not.
So I have a piece of rope in front of me and it is hanging down from above and I can
reach the end of it.
And so to tie the bow line not I am going to go through this in descriptive form first
and then I will tell you the story that goes along with it.
Grasp the rope at just below eye level between your thumb and forefinger of your left hand.
Then reach below that a three or four inches and grasp the rope between the thumb and
forefinger of your right hand and pass that rope.
Just kind of turn a little bit, pass that rope piece right up underneath the thumb and
forefinger of your left hand.
So the order if you are looking at your thumb, you will see your thumb first, the rope
with the end, next, there will be a loop and then the rope going up to the top and then
your index finger.
So grasp the end of the rope, pass it up through that loop, bear over to the right side of
the rope that is going up, go around that rope and then back down through that hole.
And then if you will just grab all that together, I just grabbed the thumb and forefinger in
my fist, everything below the loop and then just pull on the upper rope and since rope
up, it will get tight, you have the bowline knot, very nice.
No matter how many times I saw this done and looked at it in a book and tried it, the
thing that became most useful for me was to have a little story told about the rope.
And we are going to call the rope, we are going to name it a tree.
Say it is a tree in the forest and when you grab the rope with your right hand and turn
the loop, we are going to call that a rabbit hole.
So we have a tree in the forest with the rabbit hole, but the rabbit hole is in front of
the tree.
It is not behind the tree, it is always in front of the tree.
The rabbit, which is the end of the rope, runs up out of the hole, takes a left turn
around the tree and jumps back down in the hole.
Now you have successfully tied the bowline knot.
The rabbit hole is in front of the tree, the rabbit runs up out of his hole, round the
tree and back down into his hole.
Simple way to tie the bowline knot, if you will remember that the hole, the rabbit hole
is always in front of the tree, you will be fine, you will tie the knot correctly.
Now the bowline knot, because it will not slip, it is very useful.
If it is tied incorrectly, it can slip.
Now no matter how much of a load you put on it, you are going to be able to tie that thing
easily.
Now I will teach you one more little variant or one little trick I have learned with
the bowline knot.
That big loop that you have made, if you will make that loop just a slight bit larger.
Instead of it being a big loop, make it a really smaller loop, make it only a slight
bit larger than the rope you are using.
Then go up and grab the top of the tree and run through that loop.
Now you have a lasso, and it works just like a cowboy's lasso, and I don't know if this
is the way they make them, but this is the way that I make them.
It works for me, you can go out and practice roping fence posts or whatever.
So that will do it for today.
The bowline knot, I hope you will practice it, learn how to tie it, leave a comment.
Please consider doing a hacker public radio show of your own.
I intend on doing some more knots.
If you have some knots to share, go ahead and jump in there.
But I have at least three more knots I want to share that I found useful in my life.
And I will be sharing those with you.
They will be probably short episodes also, but I think you can, especially if you don't
know much about knot tying, you will find this very useful and practical for your life.
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