On today’s Knot of the Week I’ll be covering the Heaving Line Knot, which is a great alternative to the Monkey’s Fist for weighting the end of a line to throw. I mention “alternative” because, while not adding as much weight to the end of a line as a Monkey’s fist, it’s much faster to tie than its counterpart.
While the Heaving Line Knot is primarily tied on the end of a rope to weight it and add momentum during its flight, it also works well as a Stopper Knot to prevent a line from passing through a hole. It can even be used as a pull.
If you’ve ever tried to throw a rope on its own, you’ll know it can’t get very far without a weighted end. Once a heaving line is thrown, it could then be attached to a larger or heavier line and pulled back into position. A good example of this would be hanging a bear bag to keep your food off the ground and obviously away from bears.
Heaving Line Knot » Stopper Knots
(Strength: 4/Secure: 4/Stability: 3/Difficulty: 2) See below for what these ratings mean.
Ratings
Strength/Security/Stability/Difficulty
Each knot will be assigned a rating from 1-5 (1 representing the lowest score) based on the following four properties:
Strength – All knots will weaken the strength of a rope, however, there are knots that are stronger than others. The scale here will reflect how strong the rope remains with the specified knot.
Security – The security scale refers to how well the knot will stay tied, and resist coming loose under a normal load.
Stability – Stability refers to how easily the knot will come untied under an abnormal load (i.e. the knot being pulled in a direction it was not intended to) A lower score here represents instability.
Difficulty – The lower the number, the easier a knot is to tie.