Whilst editing the final part of Build Your Own Pocket Sled, I realised that I had fallen in to the very trap that I had hoped to avoid, namely assuming a level of knowledge about knot tying. I am not alone in this, whilst they go into great detail about kite construction by far the majority of the kiting books I own fail to cover the fundamentals of knot tying.
Having been a cub, boy and venture scout knot tying is now somewhat second nature, and it is all to easy to overlook the fact that others may not know what I am talking about when I say:
“Cut a length of bridle line equivalent to the width of the sail plus 30cm (12″), and head seal the ends. Attach the ends of the line to the bridle points using Fisherman’s eye knots.
Holding the bridle attachment points together find the centre of the bridle and tie off a 100mm (4″) loop using a Alpine Butterfly knot. Now tie a Stevedore’s knot in the end of the loop.
The Stevedore’s knot acts as a stopper when using a lark’s head or prusik knot to attach the flying line.”
But I fully intend to correct my oversight, and the next ‘Know`Your ..” will be on knots, once I have worked out the best way of depicting the knots and the process of tying them. My problem at the moment is to find the right combination of line thickness and colour and background colour to best show my hands tying the knots.