Bowline and 15 Bowline Variants 

Easily one of the most comprehensive, yet super concise videos about a whole lot of bowline variants! Awesome video - really great work on the presentation and explanations! My favorite is also the scott's lock bowline, aside from the bowline on a bight, which we use here in Germany for tying in to our harness while climbing. The scott's lock bowline is so easy to learn and to do and just gives so much extra security to the knot. I appreciate the demonstration about the yosemite finish as well - looks like a magic trick when you first see it, until you realize that the loops are just working their way around each other in order to change the knots internal structure. Thanks so much! It's a great reference as well!

I have been teaching people to tie knots and use rope (mostly in the maritime field) since 1975. In that time, I have seen only two other knot tying sites which are as useful and simple to follow as yours. Those are Grog on Knots, and JD from Tying it all Together. I put you in the same league as JD and I HOPE that you are a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, because based on this bowline video you deserve to be. (If you apply, just don't hold your breath waiting for them to get back to you, as I suspect they're a bit of a clannish bunch. i applied for membership about 8 or 9 years back, and sent them what I thought MIGHT be a new knot or a new way of tying an old one, and in three subsequent email attempts to ask them if they either got my post or had considered me, I've heard nothing. But my main point is that you have a real gift for teaching what many people consider to be a difficult subject. Keep it up!

Yay! So many videos claim the French and Portuguese are the same, or confuse them. Thanks for this fun vid. I added Kalmyk to my repertoire.

I love the bowline. It's one of the very few knots I can actually remember and it's so versatile that I don't have to remember much else

0:00 Introduction 0:26 Standard Tie Method 1:56 Quick Tie Method 4:44 Snap Bowline 6:04 General Uses, Advantages and Disadvantages 8:28 Running Bowline 10:44 Cowboy/Dutch Bowline 11:50 Yosemite Bowline 13:21 Dangers of the Yosemite Bowline 15:36 Scott's Locked Bowline 17:12 Double Bowline 18:37 Water Bowline 20:49 Birmingham Bowline 23:05 Eskimo Bowline 24:55 Cossack Knot 26:55 Kalmyk Loop 28:58 Kalmyk Loop Quick Tie Method 30:01 Portuguese Bowline (Traditional) 31:50 Portuguese Bowline (Splayed) 33:10 French Bowline 35:07 Bowline On A Bight 36:35 Triple Bowline 38:11 Spanish Bowline 40:23 My Favorite Bowline Variations

Wow! The one hand method was a challenge but fairly easy. And I did one time eyes closed and was successful. Fantastic instructions!

Ben, I’ve rewatched almost all the knot videos you’ve produced and they’re awesome. Just a couple of days ago I thought, “Why (k)not tie a Scott’s Locked into the Portuguese and French Bowlines?” I tie those knots and then just do the “over, under, over” through the nipping loop to lock it all in. And the loops still easily slide/adjust. It’s awesome - and some of our favorites combined!

Awesome video!! Thanks for putting this together!

Didn't even know there were this many variations, thanks.

Thanks for the great review sharing this knowledge very useful 👍

I had never heard the rabbit analogy before. Just started getting into tree work, so that was a real help for me. Thanks for that.

Great knots. Thanks for showing this 👍

Awesome 👍👍👍. Thank you for sharing.

Great VideoLesson! Thanks a lot for your efforts. My favorite is also the Scott‘s Locked version. 👍🏼👌🏼🖖🏼

Very well done video, thanks for sharing your expertise!

great video! Thanks!

Great knot content and well presented! You have a new subscriber.

Would you consider the splayed variant of the Portuguese bowline to be less secure than the traditional method? With the splayed version, if the right loop were to be adjusted to be as large as possible, the left loop would disappear and the knot would fall apart. It doesn't look like that would happen with the traditional method.

I just started learning knots a couple days ago. I’ve watched a number of your videos to learn. I had a thought… what if you combine the Eskimo knot with the Scott’s locked bowline?

I like the snap/marlingspike/slipknot method of tying bowline because then I don't have to think how it's done. That turn and pull is natural enough to come from the spine, then just pulling the end through. It also makes tidier looking bowline knots for me and they feel better. Purely subjective on that. What I've been wondering for a while is why it's pronounced like bowling, when the first thought would be a string of bow, say a bow line. Haven't figured that one out.

In sailing classes we learned to never have the end of the rope inside the loop, to prevent rubbing pushing the end out of the knot... idk, seems right when attaching the bowline to an object, right?

One version you missed is the bowline on a bight rethreaded. With the method you showed, it is difficult to tie in on a harness (technically you can make the collar loop huge and step through it) and impossible to tie into a fixed loop. You can tie it into your harnes by making a normal bowline around your rope loops with a large tail, then follow back through the harness, through the nipping loop and back out towards the load strand. Very secure, very easy to untie after large falls. In the incredible unlikely possiblility that cyclic loading undoes the tail, you are left with a basic bowline with a huge tail, so it is kind of redundant in thay way. Its very easy to inspect, basically there should be two strands everywhere except for the collar. Upon untie-ing it completely removes any knots from the rope, meaning you can safely pull it through an anchor. In my opinion it beats the figure 8 in climbing applications, and is my go-to for tying in, fixing a rope or hauling loads.

Can you safely add a Scott's Locked type "tuck" to the Water Boline in some fashion to get the tail out of the loop?

Top!

The Cossack knot is the unslipped version of the Kalmyk Loop (ref: "Marine Knots" by Lev Skryagin, a Russian knot book, a bit like the Russian counterpart of Ashley's Book of Knots; also found that way in Geoffrey Budworth's and Nic Compton's Books) and it is also called Eskimo Bowline; this is the one you called Eskimo Bowline. The other one (you called Cossack knot) is a variant that I couldn't find in any of my knot books (and I have quite a few). Where did you get that distinction from?

I've read that the Water Bowline, (shown around 18:40), is still used in modern ropes by some lobstermen, to secure lobster pots to their buoys. That second "nip" helps prevent tail creep, from the repeated tugs-and-releases that naturally occur as the waves and winds affect the buoy. The second nip does most of the work, plus it grabs the tail snugly at each tug! The result is that the tail feels little-if-any pull from the bowline knot proper, and so the water bowline is very unlikely to come undone in these situations, even left underwater for days, and in slippery modern rope. A side benefit is that the bowline itself doesn't grow ever-tighter, since it ALSO doesn't feel the repeated tugs. BTW - There is an alternate way to create a Water Bowline: simply tie a loose OVERHAND knot ahead of time, (in the part of the rope that's going to form the main loop), and then just tie a normal bowline above it. Later, that overhand knot can be reversed into a half-hitch, and re-positioned anywhere along the loop, to encircle the tail. Try it! :-)

The Cossack bowline is obtained by pulling a loop from the Kalmyk knot or vice versa. The trick is that Kalmytsky gets untied instantly. It is not possible to perform the same trick with an Eskimo bowline, creating a return loop in it.

If I understand correctly, there is a danger with the Splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline: If you let one of the loops unload and slip through, so that the other loop opens up, then the whole knot unravels catastrophically. The first, non-splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline doesn't appear to have this failure mode.

Do you prefer the parawrap type type over diamond brade

I'm fairly good with knots but every time I try the bowling on a bite it becomes a slipknot and not a fixed Loop can't figure out what I'm doing wrong

Whats the advantage of bowline vs surgeons or perfection loop?

with my bowline the working end always hangs on the outside of the loop inside of inside is this a problem?

I.always knew the Scott's as a locked bowline

End Bound Single Bowline (EBSB)

i like Scott Safier's version 15:36

Me: I'm not sure I'm up for 40 minutes on just the bowline. Me 40 minutes later: Ok, one more watch.

Never use the Bowline on a Bight if the 2 ends are going to be loaded in different directions. See the Alpine Butterfly, can be tied on a bight, and takes loads however.

Do you know the Texas Bowline?

I prefer the triple bowline as a rescue knot with a different size third loop. Two equal-sized for the legs and a larger one for the torso. I have used this knot in a rescue of four people from 50-degree water. Excellent on one-handed. Thank you for Scott's Locked Bowline; I've been teaching it for years and this is the first video on it I've seen.

I think the so-called "Cowboy/Dutch" bowline, (10:50), might actually have been used by cowboys, to create a quick "honda" loop, in a running bowline, but I doubt that the Dutch navy actually used this knot, back in the day. MY theory is that British sailors called it the "Dutch Bowline" as a way to express their disdain for the Dutch navy's nautical skills. I suspect it was kind of a "Dutch Joke," intended to emphasize to sailors that the knot shouldn't be tied like this. IMHO, of course. 🙂

You are mistaken Kalmyk knot - this is not a variant of the Eskimo bowline, but a Cossack knot!

Казачий узел завязан неправильно.

half the action is out iof frame. 😞

01:50 this is NOT a "lefthand-bowline". Lefthand-bowlne means that the bitter end is outside the loop, and not as you said "I tie it with my lefthand". 😂😂😂 Btw: The "lefthand-bowline" is also well known as "Dutch-bowline" "Cowboy-bowline"

The way you're saying it throws me off. I've always heard it said "bow line."

28:58 You showed an unnatural way to form a knot! This knot is tied without using fingers. Whole palm. This knot has long been used by sailors in the Soviet Union and now, thank God, in the post-Soviet space. You can easily find on Russian-language RU-vid the correct way to form a knot. And further. The knot has one weakness. If you do not take it into account, the knot will be dangerous!!! Unfortunately, you didn’t talk about this. Perhaps you don't know this.

Inferior demonstration