Square Knot – Knot of the week
The square knot is the one that most Scouts will think of first when someone asks if they know how to tie any knots. As such, it seemed like a good place to start in our review of knots.
What is the “Knot of the week”?
Learning how to tie knots is one of the first things new Scouts learn. It starts when they being in Cub Scouts and continues on throughout their entire time in Scouting. Knots receive a lot of attention, and rightly so. Knowing how to tie different knots can be very beneficial. This skill directly aligns with the Scout Motto of “Be Prepared”.
The challenge is that, while most knots are not difficult to learn, they can be difficult to remember. Scouts typically learn how to tie a knot in a meeting or at a campout, but then they quickly forget how to tie the knot a few months later. It’s one of those things that takes regular practice in order to keep it fresh in the mind.
On a number of occasions, our Scouts have mentioned that they probably need to practice knots more often. In fairness, we’ve practiced knots at many of our meetings. However, we usually do it in spurts. We’ll do it for a meeting, and then we won’t do it again for months. That’s about the time when the Scouts realize that they’ve forgotten most of them and need more practice.
The idea behind the “Knot Of The Week” theme is for us to highlight a different knot each week that our Scouts can practice. Each week we’ll highlight a different one, and we will, of course, repeat them over time. We encourage the Scouts to take a few minutes each week to practice the knot. Some may take more time than others, but the idea is that they should do it until their comfortable knowing how to tie each knot. Rather than learning knots in spurts, this will be a more continuous approach that will (hopefully) make it easier for the Scouts (and the adult leaders) to remember then when they’re needed.
As with most things we do, this is just another experiment. If the idea works, we’ll continue it each week. If not or if a better idea is discovered, we’ll adjust.
Starting with the Square Knot
This is one of the easier knots to learn. As mentioned above, it’s probably the first knot each of our Scouts learned how to tie, whether it was a few months ago or years ago when they started in Cub Scouts.
Even though it’s fairly simple, like all of the knots it’s easy to forget if not practiced regularly. So, this seemed like a good place to start with the “Knot of the week” experiment.
What is it used for?
The square knot is used to join rope ends together. Whether it’s two different ropes or the two ends of the same rope, the steps and the purpose are the same.
How to tie a square knot
A square knot is essentially two overhand knots turned in opposite ways. People have different ways of remembering how to tie a square knot. One of the common mnemonics for this knot is “Right over left, left over right”.
Basically, you start by tying an overhand knot by putting the rope end on the right over the one on the left.
Then, when you tie the next overhand knot, the rope on the left goes on top of the one on the right. Since the rope ends switched sides after the first overhand knot, what this essentially means is that the same rope end goes “on top” each time.
The end result has both ropes looped around one another.
There are an endless list of websites that describe how to tie knots, complete with pictures and videos. Rather than creating yet another full description and demonstration, it’s sufficient to just reference one that already exists. No need to re-invent the wheel!
Below is one resource, but the Scouts are encouraged to look up others if they are having problems. They can also, of course, reference their handbook which has more information about knots.