The triple fisherman's knot is a bend

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

, used to join two ends of rope together. It is an extension of the

double fisherman's knot The double fisherman's knot or grapevine knot is a bend. This knot and the triple fisherman's knot are the variations used most often in climbing, arboriculture, and search and rescue. The knot is formed by tying a double overhand knot, in its ...

and is recommended for tying slippery, stiff

ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW) is a subset of the thermoplastic polyethylene. Also known as high-modulus polyethylene, (HMPE), it has extremely long chains, with a molecular mass usually between 3.5 and 7.5 million amu. ...

(UHMWPE) and

aramid Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in marine cordage, ma ...

cored ropes. Tying the triple fisherman's knot is nearly identical to the double fisherman's, except for a third wrap before passing the end through each half of the knot. Testing has shown that a

failure mode Failure causes are defects in design, process, quality, or part application, which are the underlying cause of a failure or which initiate a process which leads to failure. Where failure depends on the user of the product or process, then human er ...

exists at very high loads with the double fisherman's knot in ropes using Spectra and

Technora Technora is an aramid that is useful for a variety of applications that require high strength or Chemical resistance, chemical resistance. It is a brand name of the company Teijin Aramid. Technora was used on January 25, 2004 to suspend the NASA ...

cores. The sheath of the rope separates at the knot, and the high-lubricity core slips through the double fisherman's knot. Although the increase in ultimate strength is small, the triple fisherman's knot does not exhibit this behavior. This has led to the recommendation to use the triple fisherman's knot to avoid this particular failure mechanism. The triple fisherman's knot should not be confused with the "triple-T fisherman's knot", which is more akin to a

one-sided overhand bend The offset overhand bend (OOB, The Ashley Book of Knots, ABoK No. 1410) is a conceptually simple and easy to tie 'end-to-end joining knot' (ie bend). It is formed by holding two rope ends next to each other and tying an overhand knot in them as ...

and has significantly different properties than the triple fisherman's knot.

References

{{Knots Fishing knots Climbing knots Knots of modern origin

See also

References