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The Field Guide to Knots: How to Identify, Tie, and Untie Over 80 Essential Knots for Outdoor Pursuits
A fasten-ating guide to knots for every adventure, from the author of Wilderness Survival Skills and The Camping Bible.The perfect knot can make any job quicker, easier, and safer—whether you need to build a shelter, tether a horse, rappel down a cliff, or moor a boat. In The Field Guide to Knots, veteran outdoorsman Bob Holtzman helps and tie the right knot for any taskIdentify and untie existing knotsChoose and maintain your rope, and moreWith more than 80 time-tested knots and more than 600 color photos, this field guide is indispensable for backpackers, climbers, sailors, anglers, hunters, equestrians—and anyone else who’s ever needed to change a sail, reposition a climbing rope, or splice a tent pole!Praise for The Field Guide to Knots“A handy guide describing practical knots for outdoor enthusiasts.” —Library Journal“The text and illustrations are clear and precise.” —Manhattan Book Review
- GenresNonfictionReference
806 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2015
336 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 20, 2015
Excellent book on knots, knots, & more knots!
January 26, 2020
There are many books on knots. I believe this one punches well above its weight. It's the best knot book I've come across by far.
* Love the selection of knots, and there's a good number to study, too (80+)
* The book has a fantastic primer on knots (seriously, I learned a bunch) and I found the subsequent organization of the book to be really well thought-out. Browsing the selection of knots is really enjoyable, not tedious. It's hard to overstate how nice it is to have each set of knot-typing instructions to start at the _top_ of the page, instead of one following after the other, jammed as tightly together as possible. Makes it so much easier to quickly reference knot information. Which is why I really think this book lives up to it's claim as a 'field guide'. If you want to take this book out with you, it really is a handy / practical reference.
* Speaking of being a practical reference, the book's physical format is perfect; the book falls open and _stays_ open, so you don't have to manage a book that wants to close while you practice a knot...
* The book clearly identifies key qualities of each knot: 1) how hard it is to tie 2) how hard it is to _untie_ 3) what its intended purpose is (holds weight, great for bundling up things, _not_ safe for holding weight, etc.) 4) safety issues (e.g. don't pull in this direction, otherwise knot fails) 5) how it responds to weathering (e.g. whether or not being soaked compromises knot) and more ..
Loved having this book on hand while getting a ham radio antenna in place (30 ft up in a tree). The knots I ended up using have been hard workers and yet, still easy to work with. This book helped me find the perfect ones : )
In short, the book serves as an excellent, practical, well thought-out, and fairly thorough reference. Knots are hard-workers and good friends. If you're interested in learning more about them, this is a great guide that will help you get started while also giving you plenty of reference material to work with as you become more experienced.
* Love the selection of knots, and there's a good number to study, too (80+)
* The book has a fantastic primer on knots (seriously, I learned a bunch) and I found the subsequent organization of the book to be really well thought-out. Browsing the selection of knots is really enjoyable, not tedious. It's hard to overstate how nice it is to have each set of knot-typing instructions to start at the _top_ of the page, instead of one following after the other, jammed as tightly together as possible. Makes it so much easier to quickly reference knot information. Which is why I really think this book lives up to it's claim as a 'field guide'. If you want to take this book out with you, it really is a handy / practical reference.
* Speaking of being a practical reference, the book's physical format is perfect; the book falls open and _stays_ open, so you don't have to manage a book that wants to close while you practice a knot...
* The book clearly identifies key qualities of each knot: 1) how hard it is to tie 2) how hard it is to _untie_ 3) what its intended purpose is (holds weight, great for bundling up things, _not_ safe for holding weight, etc.) 4) safety issues (e.g. don't pull in this direction, otherwise knot fails) 5) how it responds to weathering (e.g. whether or not being soaked compromises knot) and more ..
Loved having this book on hand while getting a ham radio antenna in place (30 ft up in a tree). The knots I ended up using have been hard workers and yet, still easy to work with. This book helped me find the perfect ones : )
In short, the book serves as an excellent, practical, well thought-out, and fairly thorough reference. Knots are hard-workers and good friends. If you're interested in learning more about them, this is a great guide that will help you get started while also giving you plenty of reference material to work with as you become more experienced.
June 11, 2017
Thorough book on knots which as a sailor I find very useful. I recommend buying the physical book as the binding, at least on my copy, is so structured so as to allow the book to lie flat while walking through the steps of tying each knot. I use this every day as part of my sailing practice. Its as important as checking the weather before going out.
November 2, 2020
Recently trying to learn how to do a variety of knots, this book was a great way to start. It provides good basic tips on knots and ropes and it presents a good bunch of knots with description, utility and step by steps illustrations that shows quite well how to manage the knots. Well done, will keep going into it to continue to train and learn!
July 24, 2020
This is my "go to" book when I'm teaching the Knots Honor to my Pathfinders.
June 22, 2022
Re-read of a very useful book!
April 15, 2017
Classic guide to knots! I tried many of them with varying degrees of success.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews