GoGoGadget
Deplorable Member
I used to be able to make a bowline with one hand. Gotta see if I can still do that.
As a hunter and hiker in the back woods, my favorite knot is the prusick.
How many here were in the Boy Scouts & had to tie a loop around themselves with one hand while the other hand was raised & held against the wall? (To simulate hanging from a cliff of course and being able to tie a safe loop around yourself when a rescuer passed a rope down to you.)
It being a superlative question, I'd go with the figure 8. It can be rethreaded, made with two ropes, doubled over, made on a bight or at the working end. It can be made to make a lasso. Many other knots do some specific aspect of ropework better than the figure 8 but if you only know one knot, the figure 8 can almost do it all.
You have a bunch of climbing/rescue specific knots in your list. Where did you come up with the choices you offer?
You know there is always one a**hole who when given twenty different choices in a poll still has to pick something different. I guess I'm going to be him today! If you can only know one knot I'd vote for a figure eight. It's easy to learn and with It you can:
-Tie a simple figure eight for a stopper/ end of rope
- Tie a figure eight on a bite for a loop
- Tie a figure eight on a bend to join to rope ends
- Tie a figure eight follow through to tie a rope securely around something.
Anyway my 2c.
make that two because I agree with you.
Figure eight will do everything a bowline will only better. Figure eight will not bind up under load, will not slip and if I recall has one of the strongest ratios of all knots. Somewhere around 80% of the rope strength.
Don't forget the most important knot of them all.
The Balloon knot.