10 Things You Didn't Know About Knots

How much do you really know about knots? No, not the kind that entangle women's hair, but those that are essential for us to climb. Our friends at climbing.com have provided us with facts we never knew about knots. Begin below or read full article here.

"10 Things You Didn't Know About Knots"

BY: Jeff Achey

Knots: they attach us to ropes, connect slings to trees, substitute for dropped gear, secure tents, create belay anchors. Like the Force, knots surround us, protect us, and bind our galaxy together. Even a sport climber whose shoes close with Velcro knows a few knots. But here are a few things you might not know.

1 The word “knot” is related to knob, knoll, and knuckle, but not to knowledge. It is knoten in German, knot in Dutch, knut in Swedish, nudo in Spanish, and noeudin French.

2 The Inca’s only “written” language was a system of knots tied into necklace-like “documents” called quipus, or “talking knots.” Some scholars think quipus recorded only numbers, but others believe that they also told stories and encoded historical events. A select class of Incas apparently interpreted the knots, and the code has never been definitively deciphered. Knots were also used for record keeping in ancient China, and the Chinese Book of Changes, almost 2,500 years old, associates knots with contract and agreement.

3 The “bitter end” of a rope refers to its working end, intended to be tied off to a bitt, a cleat-like fastening point found on docks. If a longshoreman bobbled a thrown line or missed his tie-in move as a ship came in to dock, he might be left “hanging on to the bitter end” as the untethered ship drifted perilously past its mark.

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