Tying one on.

Byline: MIKE STAHLBERG The Register-Guard

WHY KNOT, you ask?

For an outdoors-minded person, the answer is as basic as providing food, shelter, and security.

Knot knowledge is needed to affix a hook to a fishing line (a good source of food) or turn a simple tarp into shelter from the storm.

The right knot will secure your boat to the dock - or help you retrieve it from the grasp of white water pinning it against rocks.

Indeed, hardly a day goes by when we don't use knots, whether it's tying our shoes, wrapping a gift, untangling an extension cord, or dealing with the unexpected loose ends in our lives.

There are literally hundreds of different knots, some with esoteric purposes and some known by several different names.

But most people only need to know a few of them to get by in the outdoors, according to Dan Geiger, director of the University of Oregon Outdoor Program.

"I've always thought that if you have down a good six or seven knots, you can do 98 percent of what you need to do in the outdoors," Geiger said. "It's always nice to know a specialty knot, and a lot of people are into that. But for most of us, knowing a solid half a dozen or eight knots gets you by."

Those key "knots to know" were covered in a free knot-tying clinic that the Outdoor Program offered earlier this month.

Instructor Steve Carper began with a couple of knots that almost everyone already has command of: the overhand, perhaps the simplest knot of all (it's the one that extension cords and garden hoses somehow tie themselves into); and the half-hitch, which is nothing more than an overhand knot tied around another object (such as another length of rope).

When tied intentionally in the outdoors, the overhand knot is used mostly as a "stopper" knot - to keep the ends of a rope from unraveling or to create a fat spot in a rope.

The overhand, however, is not very effective because it isn't very strong, Carper said. Even worse, it becomes very difficult to untie (see extension cords above) after a lot of tension has been applied to it.

"I don't use it very much because it's a `forever knot,' ' Carper said.

And one of the key features of a good knot is that it can be easily untied.

"With a lot of knots you can add a draw loop into it - allowing a 'quick-release' by pulling on the tail end of the line," Carper said. (Look down at your shoelaces for the most common example of a knot with a "quick-release" draw loop.)

In its half-hitch version, however, the overhand knot is suitable for tying a rope to a stone, tree or car bumper.

A more-reliable anchor connection, however, is provided by the bowline knot, sometimes referred to as "the king of knots." It has a tensile strength of 70 percent, meaning the knot should not fail even when put under 70 percent of the carrying-capacity of the rope. (A bowline knot tied with 1,000-pound test rope will hold up to 700 pounds.)

The bowline, because of its simplicity and security, is probably the most-commonly used knot for tying a loop. It's often used as an anchor knot in rock climbing. It will also hold your boat to the dock, as well as your sheets in the wind.

(The bowline knot was so-named, according to the "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Knots" because, on a square-sailed ship, it was the knot used to secured the line from the bow to the weather leech of forward sail, thus holding the sail closer to the wind).

Its nautical history notwithstanding, the bowline knot today is pronounced "bow-lyn," not " bow line."

Another basic knot featured in the Outdoor Program clinic is the aptly-named Figure Eight knot. The basic Figure Eight makes a larger and more-effective "stopper" knot that is easy to untie and won't damage your rope like an overhand knot will.

But the real beauty of learning the Figure Eight knot is that it opens the door to a whole family of Figure Eight knots. Tie it with a doubled-over length of rope, for example, and you can create a fixed loop in the middle of your rope. A loop that is easily removed when you've finished using it to help cinch down a load, for example.

Backtracking along the route of the rope in the Figure Eight knot with the opposite end of the rope creates the "Figure Eight Follow Through," which Carper says is "the most frequently used knot in rescue work" because its tensile strength is among the highest - 80 percent.

To attach a bucket to a non-slip loop on the end of a rope, for example, just tie a Figure Eight line knot near the end of the rope, loop the end of the rope around the bucket handle and follow the rope back out through the line knot.

The idea of retracing the route the line follows in a knot to tie a different knot surfaces again in the Water Knot, which Carper describes as the best knot for joining together flat-surfaced materials such as webbing or straps. (Tied with round rope, the same knot is usually called the "overhand follow-through." But the side-by-side version of that simplest of knots, the overhand, is stronger (and easier to untie) than a single overhand.

For joining two ropes together, especially ropes of different thickness, the Outdoor Program recommends the Double Fisherman's Knot.

That knot is also used to join two ends of the same rope together to make a continuous loop, which you'll need to tie the Prusik Knot, easily the most elegant of the basic knots.

The Prusik is used for creating a moveable attachment point in the middle section of a rope.

Named after its Austrian inventor, the Prusik Knot grips like a Rottweiler when placed under any weight or strain. But the knotted loop will slide easily along the main line when pressure is removed.

Climbers can ascend vertical ropes using a pair of Prusik-Knotted loops - sliding first one loop and then the other higher and higher as they shift their weight to the opposite, or "brake," loop.

The Prusik knot is also commonly used in river rescues, as its braking feature allows rescuers to hold the line they've gained while ropes and carabiners are readjusted for another pull. The Prusik loop works most effectively when it is made with rope or cord that is one-third the diameter of the line to which it will be attached.

Knot know-how is invaluable in many outdoor recreational pursuits. But it can also prove helpful when the unexpected happens in urban areas.

Consider, for example, the windstorm that rattled western Oregon earlier this month. While some homeowners called for cranes and heavy machinery, Geiger called upon his knowledge of knots to help him right a tree that the storm left leaning at a 45-degree angle in his yard.

Geiger rigged up a "Z-Drag plus C-Drag," a common setup in river rescue situations, to serve as a poor man's block-and-tackle. With a 9-to-1 ratio, the rigging, in effect, gave Geiger the strength of nine men pulling on the rope attached to his tree.

The ingredients in a "Z-Drag plus C-Drag?" Ropes, carabiners, Figure Eight Knots, Prusik Knots and Double Fishermen's Knots.

Want more knot knowledge yourself?

Anyone with Internet access has plenty of it at their fingertips. Roper's Knot Page (www.realknots.com) includes a "knot index" that includes information on hundreds of knots and links to other knotty sites.

If you have difficulty following the diagrams used to illustrate how a knot is tied, be sure to check out the Web site maintained by the Boy Scouts 42nd Brighton group in England (www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktmenu.html). It provides animated drawings for 15 different knots - including the Bowline, Figure Eight and Fishermen's knots.

Even better animation is available in a commercial software product available for Windows-compatible computers from Know Where Software (members.aol.com/IDFrank/knots.html).

Five knot-tying animations - complete with front and back views and stop-action controls - are available in a downloadable free demo. If you like what you see, the entire set of 37 knots can be downloaded for $19.95. A second set of animated instructions for tying 34 fishing knots is also available.

If you don't have Internet access, many books are available on the subject of knots and knot-tying.

They range from the "The Ashley Book of Knots," the Bible of the subject (with 3,800 different knots and 7,000 illustrations) to "The Klutz Book of Knots: How to Tie the World's 25 Most-Useful Knots," (comes with nylon cord, color-coded to the illustrations, that the reader pushes through holes on each heavy-stock page, thus allowing practice-tying of all 24 knots in paint-by-number fashion.) And, of course, there are knotting books of special interest to anglers, boaters, climbers and many other sports to boot.

Whatever book you choose, Carper recommends selecting one that uses a different color for each line involved - a feature that makes it easier to follow the diagrams.

CAPTION(S):

THE BOWLINE USE IT Form a loop of any size in a rope or line. TYING TIPS To prevent slippage, tie or tape the tail end of the rope to its adjacent leg. MORE HELP For an animated guide to tying the bowline knot, see: www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktbowl.html. THE FIGURE EIGHT USE IT Create an easily untied "stopper" at the end of a rope, form a loop in the middle of a rope, or as the starting point for a whole "family" of specialty knots. TYING TIPS A favorite because it is easily undone, even after being under heavy strain. MORE HELP For an animated guide to the basic Figure Eight knot, see: www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktfig8.html. For an animated guide to tying a Double Figure 8, see: www.troop9.org/knots/figure8.htm. THE FISHERMAN'S KNOT USE IT Tie two ropes or lines of equal thickness together. TYING TIPS Make your knot stronger by doubling the overhand knot at the end of each rope, thus producing a "double fisherman's knot." MORE HELP For an animated guide to tying the fisherman's knot, see: www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktfish.html. THE WATER KNOT USE IT Join two pieces of webbing or straps together, or to bind together both ends of a strap to form a loop. TYING TIPS Tie an overhand knot, then backtrack through the route of that knot with the other end or piece of strap. THE PRUSIK KNOT USE IT to ascend a rope. The Prusik creates a loop that will grip another rope under pressure, but slide along the main rope when pressure is released. TYING TIPS The loop of rope used to tie the Prusik Knot should be one-third the diameter of the main line to which it is attached.