Tuesday, November 29, 2011

146 Face Globe Knot

This is a globe knot that I tied that has 146 faces. It was tied using the same method as the 74 face globe knot, but I started with a 5 lead by 4 bight turks head to yield the 146 faces.  The core for this knot is also a golf ball.  I used braided number 1 mason's twine to tie this knot, because I had it on-hand it and it was small enough to mostly cover the golf ball when tripled.  I will say this was more difficult than the 74 face knot, and you may be better off tracking down a 144 face grid or using the resources available from knottool.com to tie these knots when they get to this size.  I made a few mistakes, including the cross into the center of the doubled turks head.  I ended up with a five bight opening in the knot which is awkward.  At that point I was in no mood to pull the whole knot apart so I left it.

These knots are fun and challenging, and I am glad I experimented with them.  They certainly teach you about tightening knots as tightening seems to be the most difficult part of globe knots, at least for me.  I also learned a new camera technique, using a timer to take my pictures with relatively low light.  I have a few other things in the works, so this will be the last of the globes for a little while unless I get inspired to do something very large or someone asks about them.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

74 Face Globe Knot with Tutorial


I have been admiring a bunch of wonderful and very large globe knots that people have been posting on Knot Heads World Wide and also the Facebook Mateloteurs site.  Until recently I have not dabbled much in globe knots beyond tying 5 lead by 4 bight turks heads around beads for key chains and book marks.  I currently don't own the Globe Knot Cook book from knottool.com, but I've heard a nothing but good things about it and purchasing it would probably be the best way to learn to tie these knots.

As I was poking around the internet a few weeks ago I found some methodology on the knotworkn website that discusses taking 3 or 4 bight turks head, doubling them and then crossing the lead into the knot to make a globe knot, creating nested bights in a manner similar to what folks are doing with grids.  I started playing around with this concept while watching TV one evening and after several tries was successful in tying a globe knot around a 3/4 inch bead.  Not knowing what I had, I spent some time in AutoCAD drawing up the knot to figure out that if you take a 3 lead by 4 bight turks head and run the lead through the knot in it's entirety that you end up with a 74 face globe knot and the above photo is a result.  I have found it easier if you take the knot and pin it out so the it stays organized.  The cord I used for this is not labelled in diameter, but it seems to be in the range of 2.4 mm.  Using a toilet paper tube to pin the knot out, tripling the knot and tightening it around a golf ball has worked out fairly well.  Knot Heads World Wide has a globe knot calculator that you can use to estimate globe knot core size when you know the cord diameter, number of faces and number of passes.

I decided to attempt to make a tutorial of this globe knot, and it can be found as a slide show video on the YouTube link below.  Enjoy and let me know how you make out. Pin It

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