knot used to secure a rope to an object.
| Clove hitch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Hitch |
| Origin | Ancient |
| Related | Slippery hitch, Two half-hitches, Buntline hitch, Cow hitch, Constrictor knot, Ground-line hitch, Lashings, Snuggle hitch |
| Releasing | Jamming |
| Typical use | Securing lines running along a series of posts, belaying, starting lashings, weak binding |
| Caveat | Can spill if the standing part is pulled forcibly in the wrong direction |
| ABoK | #11, #53, #69, #70, #204, #400, #421, #437, #1176, #1177, #1178, #1179, #1180, #1245, #1773, #1774, #1775, #1776, #1778, #1779, #1814, #2079, #2541, #2542, #2543, #2544, #2546, #2547, #2548 |
| Instructions | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwdZTHu5rTI |
The clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most important knots and is commonly referred to as a Double Hitch. A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot.[clarification needed] It can be used as a binding knot, but is not particularly secure in that role. A clove hitch made around the rope's own standing part is known as either two half-hitches or buntline hitch, depending on whether the turns of the clove hitch progress away from or towards the hitched object.
Although the name clove hitch is given by Falconer in his Dictionary of 1769, the knot is much older, having been tied in ratlines at least as early as the first quarter of the sixteenth century. This is shown in early sculpture and paintings. A round turn is taken with the ratline and then a hitch is added below. The forward end is always the first to be made fast.
The difference between two half hitches and the clove hitch is that the former, after a single turn around a spar, is made fast around its own standing part, while the latter is tied directly around the spar.
— The Ashley Book of Knots