How to Tie an Overhand Knot

Series Summary

Those of us living amidst the mountains of sky scrapers, fields of concrete, and the rivers of highways can truly appreciate the adventure of camping in the pristine great outdoors. Even though a day or two in the wild may be enough to make us drive to the nearest Holiday Inn, there is a relaxing quality to living simply in the woods and enjoying nature. While it is simpler there are tasks to be done that are unfamiliar to us that make camping not quite as simple as staying at home. Consequently many times the camping experience is more stressful than relaxing. However, preparations can be made and skills improved before “roughing it”. One such skill that is important to master in order to camp successfully is knot tying. A broad base of knot tying knowledge will allow you to secure tent poles, carry bottles, and secure tarps and tents to stakes and trees.

In this free video series learn how to tie knots from knot tying expert and outdoor enthusiast Robert Segundo. Dan will demonstrate how to tie the overhand knot, double overhand knot, the half hitch, as well as how to tie the fisherman's knot; how to tie the surgeons loop knot; how to tie the double overhand loop knot and many others you probably have never heard of before but just might need in a pinch.

Video Transcript

"Now, this knot here is called the simple overhand knot, sometimes referred to as the thumb knot. And, it's just your basic knot. But, as knots get more advanced, your basic knots, such as your simple overhand knot, will show up time and time again. So, what we're going to do is we're going to take our length of rope that we have here. We're just going to take it and this is going to be my standing end. And, this is going to be my working end. We're just going to pull it a little bit here and we're just going to take it and wrap it over. You see, it has just made a loop here. And, we'll just tuck it under like so. See how it's got this nice twist going on to it. We'll just pull it and viola, you're simple overhand knot. It's basically a stopper knot. The basic use is like if you need to carry something like this wrench here, you've got it. And, it's hooked on. It won't going anywhere. So, we'll do this one more time to make sure that you've got a good idea of what's going on. Take our length of rope here and wrap it over. Make our little loop and twist it under. Just pull the two ends together and there's our simple stopper knot."