By ShowMeStepByStepPublished Updated
Based on a video by The Bear Essentials.
The clove hitch is the knot you tie when you need rope on a post right now. Two wraps, thread the end through, done. It adjusts on the fly and it never binds up, which is why it starts and finishes almost every lashing in camp.
It also has a reputation, and the reputation is fair. On its own a clove hitch is not a knot to trust with weight. Wind shake alone can work it loose. DJ from The Bear Essentials shows three ways to tie it and then, more usefully, the small changes that turn it into something you can rely on.
Guy lines, trail markers, ridge lines and bundling. Anywhere the rope needs to be adjustable and nothing depends on it holding fast. Push the two wraps together and you can lengthen or shorten the run without untying anything.
Do not hang a load off a bare clove hitch. When it appears in a ladder or a shelter frame it is doing the start and finish of a lashing, with the lashing itself carrying the weight. Add a half hitch or go to the constrictor when it actually has to hold.
Pair it with the bowline for a fixed loop that will not tighten, and the half hitch for the finishing turn used in step 8.
If the load is going to swing or pull hard, a round turn and two half hitches holds better than a clove hitch. It is one of the seven knots at how to tie a knot.
10 steps · about 7 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
The clove hitch is quick to tie and quick to undo, so it belongs on temporary jobs. Trail markers, guy lines and ridge lines between trees. Run it from one tree to the next and the rope between stays taut, and you can slide the wraps to take up slack without untying.
Building a tripod for a cooking pot or a square lashing for a shelter frame? The clove hitch is the knot at both ends. It grips the pole while you get the wraps on, then locks the lashing off at the end.
Starting with the end of a rope, take one full wrap around the branch or post and bring the end back underneath. Keep the wrap fairly close to where you want the finished knot to sit.
Come around a second time, crossing the rope over itself as you go. You are looking for a clear X on the front face of the post. If there is no obvious X, the second wrap went the wrong side of the first.
Tip
The X is the check. Every method of tying this knot has to end up with one.
Push the end under the diagonal, straight through the centre of the X, then pull both ends. A finished clove hitch has two parallel wraps with the diagonal crossing over them. To loosen it, push the two ends toward each other and the whole thing frees up.
When both ends are already tied off you cannot thread anything. Make two loops instead, using two over and one under. Right hand over onto the back of the left to make the first loop, again for the second, then bring the right hand underneath. Drop the pair over the post and pull.
Tip
Learn the rope-end method first. Add one middle-of-rope method after that, and skip the third.
Same result, fewer moves. Grab the rope with your left hand, cross over and grab it with your right, then bring your arms back to normal. Both loops appear already stacked. Drop them over the post and pull both ends.
This is the upgrade worth remembering. Tie the clove as normal, then add a single half hitch with the tag end. It stops the knot shaking loose in wind and makes it trustworthy under light load, and it still comes undone when you want it to.
Tip
A stopper knot in the tail also helps, but a half hitch is stronger and no slower to tie.
Instead of threading the bare end through the X, push a bight, a folded loop of rope, through it and tighten as normal. It holds like a standard clove. Pull the tag end and the whole knot falls apart in one motion. Leave a longer bight and tie an overhand in it and you have a grab loop for hanging a pack.
For something that genuinely will not move, tie the clove up to the X, then keep the wrap going and pass the end underneath the far wrap before pulling. That is the constrictor, the strongest binding knot you can tie. Be sure before you set it. Most of the time you end up cutting it off rather than untying it.
Tip
Use it on slippery rope or anywhere a normal knot creeps. Do not use it where you will need the rope back in one piece.
Keep going
How to Fix a Zipper That Came Off the Track
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Question 1 of 5
What kind of job is a clove hitch best suited to?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.What kind of job is a clove hitch best suited to?
Answer: Temporary work like guy lines and trail markers
It ties and unties fast, which is exactly what temporary rigging wants.
2.How do you know the second wrap went the right way?
Answer: A clear X shows on the front face of the post
The X is the diagonal you thread through, so no X means the wrap went the wrong side.
3.Both rope ends are already tied off and you still need a clove hitch. Now what?
Answer: Make two stacked loops and drop them over the post
With no free end to thread, you build the loops first and let the post do the threading.
4.What does adding a half hitch to a finished clove hitch buy you?
Answer: It stops the knot shaking loose in wind
The half hitch pins the tag end so vibration cannot walk the wraps apart.
5.You keep the wrap going and pass the end under the far wrap before pulling. What did you tie?
Answer: A constrictor hitch you will probably have to cut off
That extra tuck turns it into the constrictor, the strongest binding knot you can tie.
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