How to Tie a Square Knot Properly

Video Transcript

"Knots have a long and varied history throughout the ages. And today I'm going to show you one of the oldest knots. One of the ones that the mariners come up with, it's called a square knot or a reef knot. So, if you look down here, you can see I've got two working ends of rope. And what this knot's going to do is when we tie this together, it's going to actually bind both of these together in a nice knot that's easy to untie. Because you can just put a regular knot, overhand knot in both of these but it's just not going to be easy to untie when a lot of pressure's applied to it. So what we're going to do is we're just going to take one working end and lay it over, we're going to take the other one and it's going to go over and under. Now remember which ropes you did this with because you're going to do the same thing again, in the same order. You're just going to lay this one over, this one's going to go over and under. And then there it is. There's your proper reef knot. Now whenever you pull and put a lot of tension on this, it's going to tighten up and it's going to bind. But when it's done you'll still be able to grab it and you just pull it loose. So you'll still be able to use both of your lines when you're working. And the sailors thought that this was a great idea because if they had a shorter rope that they needed for other things, they could always you know, reclaim it again after they put a knot in it. So let's do it again. Going to take it , just going to go over, this one's going to go over and under, and then in the same way, over, over and under, and there it is, your proper square knot. This'll take a lot of tension and it's good for, you know, holding packing items down or whatever it might be that you need. So, my name is Harold Winchester and this is how to do a proper square knot."