Umbrella Handle Tying Process Photo

I found this photograph that I took of my umbrella handle project that I thought folks might find interesting.  To get to this point in the process I first taped the extreme ends of the handle with one row of adhesive tape to keep things from slipping.  Then I tied six strands around the handle at the tip of the umbrella and spiraled them around until I got to the other end and made the second constrictor.  Then the end covering was made and the lines were feed through opposite the spiral.  All six strands were worked thorough, which is about where this photo was taken.  The strands were then walled and feed back through to double the knot.  My advice on this tie would be to take ones time and fair the knot as you go.  Also, you want it to be snug, but not necessarily tight.  If you make the knot too tight it gets very difficult to snug down the subsequent passes.  The other trick in this case was to keep the knot "open" on the outside of the cane shape and closed on the "inside" of the cane.  On top of that the end sections had to be closed enough that the tape did not show.

Umbrella Handle

This is a cane shaped umbrella handle that I covered using a method directly from the "The Monkey's Fist and other Knot Coverings" chapter of the Ashley Book of knots.  To do this knot, I took six strands and wrapped them in a helix around the handle, lashing the strands to the handle at the knot ends.  Then using the pattern from Ashley, I created the basic knot to create the end covering.  From there the turks head pattern is created by weaving through the helix with the stands.  This method is also covered in the "Turks Head" section of Ashley.  At the base of the umbrella the strands are walled and brought back through to create a second pass on the knot.  Because of the corner on the cane shape, the crosses are closed on the inside of the curve and open on the outside of the curve.  All twelve strands were cut and tucked to finish the knot.