Stuns'ls Bend

Although called a bend this is in actual fact a hitch, and as such can be used wherever you want to secure a rope to a spar.

The Sheet Bend

 Like most bends its used to join two ropes together, this the single sheet bend is used with two ropes of equal thickness. Other uses are to secure a rope to a cable or hawser. If you look at it closely you will see its almost a reef knot

The Sheepshank

This is a knot that most Scouts are taught to tie but it is very rely used, only because its designed to shorten a rope without cutting it, something you don't come across very often.

This is a more secure version of this type of bend, and is better suited for fastening two ropes of different thickness together. The thing to remember when using ropes of different thickness, is that you always start with the loop in the thicker rope.

Ok We now have some knots to try, obviously there are lots more to do but that's enough for now, we don't want to get bored do we. So to make things a bit more interesting lets look at what we can do with some of the knots. On the next page there are some of the things we build, and do to make pioneering that bit more interesting. Hopefully they will give you a bit of inspiration or possibly you make things similar, if so you may find it interesting seeing how other Scouts build and use them.

Activities involving ropes can be dangerous. Therefore If you decide to  replicate any of the activities, shown and described on these pages, they must be done under the supervision of a responsible instructor.   When using knots  the choice of materials; the age, size, and condition of ropes; and the accuracy with which you tie them is crucial. Also using the correct knot for the job, is just as important as maintaining all your pioneering equipment in first class condition. For this reason no responsibility can be  accepted for incidents arising from the use of this material.