- Location
- Your Mom's House
Hey fellow tree enthusiasts!
I have been a member of the The Tree House (masterblasterhome.com) arborist’s forum since this past October or thereabouts and, while I absolutely love the various people on that forum (a lot of the big players are on there as well), and although I most definitely have learned a lot on there, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of post volume.
But I digress…
On the other forum I just mentioned, my username is @Bioassay. On this forum, it will be @Knotorious. I have been on a multi-month long hitch cord inventing campaign with another member of The Tree House named @Brocky (I believe his username is the same on this forum/he invented the STICHT HITCH and OVAL VT. You can view it thread here:
https://masterblasterhome.com/threads/i-think-hope-i-developed-a-new-hitch-design.26897/
Since I first began the thread above, I’ve both invented and learned about a large number of hitches and I think I’ve finally arrived upon one which is worth spreading the word of to other forums such as yours. Last night, thanks to not-so-divine inspiration, inebriating liquids of the triple distilled ethanol variety, snacks loaded with saturated fats and gram quantities of sodium, and the promise of performing the horizontal Hokey Pokey with my girlfriend in the most indescribable of ways, I felt compelled to go over to my “genesis table (it’s a rental, ha!),” where all of my best hitch creations are birthed.
I took that Teufelberger EpiCord 32” hitch cord into my callused hands and, because the constellation Gemini was in the house of Orion, and since Mars was in retrograde motion through the solar system, with the power of a thousand suns, I brought into existence, through my phalanges, both proximal and intermediate, using my metacarpals and carpals, what is possibly the greatest VT hitch variant since the VT itself: I present to you the Clove VT!
Attached are four photos of the hitch at 90 degree incremental rotations. The fifth photo is of the same hitch tied in a slightly different orientation from the only angle where the difference can be seen.
I would like anyone willing to do so, to test this hitch out and let me know how it fares in your personal opinion. Bear in mind that, if the nip with the existing prototype is too strong, a wrap can be removed from with the top or the lower wraps. I would definitely recommend that anyone looking to alter the design would start by removing a wrap from the lower wraps first, especially if the intention is to use this hitch predominantly for ascents.
I just tried it out today myself and I found it to be quite nice and responsive, almost indistinguishable from a VT. I found that it grabbed the rope more readily. It didn’t bind very easily either, but that is simply my personal experience. Do I expect this to suddenly become more popular than the VT itself? Of course not; I’m not deluded. I do hope that this will find popularity among a small population of individuals who value craft hitches.
Let me know what you think! For anyone struggling to discern how to tie this hitch, here is a link to a YouTube video I made showing exactly how to do so…
If you want to see other how-to videos for friction hitches I’ve invented, here’s a link to a playlist of those (you can hit the menu button to reveal a list of all of the videos on the right side of the player)…
Here’s a playlist of every single friction hitch I’ve documented a how-to video for on my channel (41 friction hitches so far)..
Anyways, thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
I believe that every hitch is unique, like a snowflake and that each has its own signature, a profile of predictable behaviors under various situations which might require their use. There is a lot to gain by focusing on physical rope hitches and hitch cords. Even though it appears that mechanicals are gaining popularity for climbing and rigging (I own and use a Rope Runner often and prefer it over hitches, but I also recognize that hitches aren’t going out of style anytime soon.
Ropes and knotting have been around since 8,000 BC, roughly whence the first stone tools emerged among the ancient societies of mankind (and womankind). Think about the entire world of rock climbers, rescuers and alpinists who will be much less likely to adopt heavy and clunky mechanical devices over a low-weight, soft, multipurpose length of Nylon and Technora.
Please try this hitch out and get back to me in the comments with experience reports if you are so inclined! I’d be delighted to get feedback from real world applications and real world users!
Signed,
Bioassay (The Tree House)/Knotorious(TreeBuzz)/Kno-torious (YouTube)! =-D
I have been a member of the The Tree House (masterblasterhome.com) arborist’s forum since this past October or thereabouts and, while I absolutely love the various people on that forum (a lot of the big players are on there as well), and although I most definitely have learned a lot on there, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of post volume.
But I digress…
On the other forum I just mentioned, my username is @Bioassay. On this forum, it will be @Knotorious. I have been on a multi-month long hitch cord inventing campaign with another member of The Tree House named @Brocky (I believe his username is the same on this forum/he invented the STICHT HITCH and OVAL VT. You can view it thread here:
https://masterblasterhome.com/threads/i-think-hope-i-developed-a-new-hitch-design.26897/
Since I first began the thread above, I’ve both invented and learned about a large number of hitches and I think I’ve finally arrived upon one which is worth spreading the word of to other forums such as yours. Last night, thanks to not-so-divine inspiration, inebriating liquids of the triple distilled ethanol variety, snacks loaded with saturated fats and gram quantities of sodium, and the promise of performing the horizontal Hokey Pokey with my girlfriend in the most indescribable of ways, I felt compelled to go over to my “genesis table (it’s a rental, ha!),” where all of my best hitch creations are birthed.
I took that Teufelberger EpiCord 32” hitch cord into my callused hands and, because the constellation Gemini was in the house of Orion, and since Mars was in retrograde motion through the solar system, with the power of a thousand suns, I brought into existence, through my phalanges, both proximal and intermediate, using my metacarpals and carpals, what is possibly the greatest VT hitch variant since the VT itself: I present to you the Clove VT!
Attached are four photos of the hitch at 90 degree incremental rotations. The fifth photo is of the same hitch tied in a slightly different orientation from the only angle where the difference can be seen.
I would like anyone willing to do so, to test this hitch out and let me know how it fares in your personal opinion. Bear in mind that, if the nip with the existing prototype is too strong, a wrap can be removed from with the top or the lower wraps. I would definitely recommend that anyone looking to alter the design would start by removing a wrap from the lower wraps first, especially if the intention is to use this hitch predominantly for ascents.
I just tried it out today myself and I found it to be quite nice and responsive, almost indistinguishable from a VT. I found that it grabbed the rope more readily. It didn’t bind very easily either, but that is simply my personal experience. Do I expect this to suddenly become more popular than the VT itself? Of course not; I’m not deluded. I do hope that this will find popularity among a small population of individuals who value craft hitches.
Let me know what you think! For anyone struggling to discern how to tie this hitch, here is a link to a YouTube video I made showing exactly how to do so…
If you want to see other how-to videos for friction hitches I’ve invented, here’s a link to a playlist of those (you can hit the menu button to reveal a list of all of the videos on the right side of the player)…
Here’s a playlist of every single friction hitch I’ve documented a how-to video for on my channel (41 friction hitches so far)..
Anyways, thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
I believe that every hitch is unique, like a snowflake and that each has its own signature, a profile of predictable behaviors under various situations which might require their use. There is a lot to gain by focusing on physical rope hitches and hitch cords. Even though it appears that mechanicals are gaining popularity for climbing and rigging (I own and use a Rope Runner often and prefer it over hitches, but I also recognize that hitches aren’t going out of style anytime soon.
Ropes and knotting have been around since 8,000 BC, roughly whence the first stone tools emerged among the ancient societies of mankind (and womankind). Think about the entire world of rock climbers, rescuers and alpinists who will be much less likely to adopt heavy and clunky mechanical devices over a low-weight, soft, multipurpose length of Nylon and Technora.
Please try this hitch out and get back to me in the comments with experience reports if you are so inclined! I’d be delighted to get feedback from real world applications and real world users!
Signed,
Bioassay (The Tree House)/Knotorious(TreeBuzz)/Kno-torious (YouTube)! =-D
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