Summary: Use a sheep shank knot to shorten a long piece of rope. Learn how to tie sheep shank knots for shortening rope in this free knot tying video from an Eagle Scout.
John Stewart is an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America and has instructed boy scouts on climbing, outdoor skills, pioneering, wilderness survival and kayaking for the past nine...read more
"Hi, this is John Stewart and this is how to tie a sheep shank. A sheep shank is used to shorten a very long piece of rope. This comes in handy when you have anchor point that's really close to something and you don't want to have a lot of tag end hanging off. So you can take and tie this knot and a large section of rope to shorten that. And that'll make it real easy for use. OK, it's a little bit more complicated but what you want to do is you want to take and form a S in the rope. By taking them like that so you're going to have three in the center. Pinch it in your right hand. Come up and grab those three pieces of rope. You're going to then take your tag end go around. All the way around and you want to come through the loop you made. OK, tighten that down. OK and you want to go to the other side grab all three pieces of rope. Take your tag end, go around, make the loop again and you want to take tag end. Through the eye and tighten that down. Then you got all that rope that is bound up in there and is not going to come undone and you shortened your piece of rope and that's how to tie a sheep shank."
eHow Article: Tying Sheep Shank Knots
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Comments
theoneandonlyrv said
on 10/28/2008 That is NOT a sheepshank. You tied overhands around the loops of the 'S', when you were supposed to make half hitches over the 'S'.
The knot you tied will come undone if put under a load.