I (Think/Hope) I Developed A New Hitch Design

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  • #151
@Brocky On post #143, the top hitch, is there a proper name for that one?

Some guy actually suggested to me on YouTube that I'm stealing these hitch ideas from somewhere else. Um...really? Like, from whom am I stealing my ideas? Of course I got no answer. His whole argument was that "anyone can say they invented something on the internet." Not very in depth.

I reached 1k subscribers today. Really excited about that. I'm pretty sure I can potentially monetize now or at least very soon. That would be nice. Still might be too soon, though. I could start a Patreon or something like that too. Really pleased to see my channel taking off. Unfortunately, I'm going to have less and less time to focus on that, but I'll make it work out somehow.
 
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That is a Schwabish also, it has a half hitch tied below the wraps for a tender.
Happy belated birthday!!
 
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  • #153
@Brocky Okay, cool. I did recognize the Schwabisch main hitch body, but I wasn't sure if there was a name for any hitch which has the half hitch tied below the wraps for tending purposes. It's a clever concept (along with a few others you have where you use knots to allow for easier tending) and I might make a video for it just so that I can share it with the world. Therefore, for me, it is important to identify every one of my hitches as accurately and honestly as possible. Not just so credit is given whenever doing so is proper form, but so that I do whatever I can to identify the correct nomenclature before I resort to naming it myself. If this half hitch for tending (for example) is something you came up with independently, than I tink it's important that I give you the opportunity to formerly give it a name.

On a mostly related note, I have plans to reach out to the International Guild of Knot Tiers so that I can register my hitches and also check to see if some of my hitches might have already been created by someone else. That way I ensure I get credit and also I do my due diligence in confirming whether all of my hitches are indeed original. Well, they are definitely orginal. The better way to say it would be that I'm ensuring that anyone who discovered any one of my hitches before I did gets credit. I have a strange feeling that the majority of the IGKT community are not focused on hitches and hitch cord oriented knot tying. But I reserve the right to be mistaken.

I just figure that I'm doing a lot of work here and I'd hate to be broadsided by some kind of fraud incident. I'm not even sure what could happen, but I just like knowing that my hitches will be recorded somewhere off of my YouTube website and by an official entity. It could serve as a really useful learning tool for anyone from hobbyists to professionals. Maybe I'm pushing it a bit now haha Anyways, I think it's a pretty sweet idea.

It shall be done, I say!

If anyone is aware of a better place for me to potentially register my hitches, please share! Thanks!

PS - Brocky, you were earliest to wish me a happy birthday by way of your handicrafts in my grubby mits. Thank you! =-D
 
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  • #154
The other day I found inspiration within the Notch Quickie. I'm sure most of you are at least familiar with it.

Anyways, here are some hitches for VT fans/users which include a Notch Quickie (to be called the "NQ" going forward) which has been added in such a way where friction is increased. These hitches were surprisingly controllable and much more forgiving than a regular VT.

I love incorporating hardware, but I admit that it isn't always easy to do. There's only so many ways it can be done and most methods do not work. I was able to braid my hitchcord around the NQ perfectly; especially in the second version.

I need more people to try it out. I can't really tell if it's worth doing this or not, however, it most definitely does work. Longer hitch cords required here. The longer it is, the less acute the bend angles will be overall.
 

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  • #155
I call this hitch the ORCHID. It must be dressed and set well or it won't grab immediately. It begins with a unique first braid following four wraps at the top.
 

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2 downsides to me for the NQ :
The Quicky's edge digs hard in the rope and will shred the fibers.
The rope will eventualy cut through it with some grit/dirt, and there's way less meat than a bollard/cam in an ascender..
 
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  • #157
Yeah, you're probably right about that, @Marc-Antoine. I guess I never really thought about it being used as anything but a spur of the moment thing for increasing friction. This is probably a very unlikely scenario, but you never know. Someone might really need a way to slow down their rappel. But yeah, definitely don't do this on a regular basis. Thanks for helping me to clarify that. The other thing is that the slic pin pin rotates freely in the shackle and I can see that becoming...something problematic, if not just to reduce friction someplace. Maybe not, though,
 
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  • #158
Hey everyone, I think I possibly (hopefully!) created my own stopper knot! I was playing around and I actually discovered it by mistake. I had incorrectly tied an anchor hitch (only because this knot was just to hold my rope onto one side of my table where I shoot videos, so it was non life supporting) because I was in a rush and just wanted it to do some ultralight work. Anyways, I ended up slipping the knot off of the carabiner it was attached to instead of untying it because, again, I was in a rush. I later came across the knot and, after pulling both ends taught, it formed into a beautiful stopper knot. And more importantly, one that would work reliably and be strong (these are my suspicions based upon the knot's structure, but I haven't done any definitive testing as of yet).

Can anyone in the Tree House community identify this stopper knot as being one that currently exists. I'll have to check my Ashley Book of Knots copy (mint quality PDF - pretty sure I've got copies if anyone is interested...in the name of education. Definitely not a pirate!:thumb:) to see if this exists. And if it does, I'll defer to its ABOK# for nomenclature. So yeah, if you decide that you've never seen this before and think it's original, please share that information as well! I'd be so happy to hear it!

Below are two shots of either side of this knot. I don't want to name it yet because then I'll get attached and potentially gravely disappointed if it turns out it's someone else's. Kind of like a lost puppy or kitten. Haha.
 

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #159
Hold up. I think my new knot is just an anchor hitch tied around nothing. Pretty sweet still. Maybe I didn't tie it wrong like I had thought.

UPDATE: I take that back. My knot is different!
I just compared the two knots and mine has a different structure.
 
It looked familiar to me. Then I found why : I got it more than a couple times when I messed up my double fisherman knots. Instead of one end to pass in the midle of the double loop (half double fisherman knot), it goes on the outside before coming back in the center. Actually, it's a half hitch with a round turn of one end around the other one, like the knot used with the suturing thread.
 
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  • #163
@Marc-Antoine I believe it's called a surgeon's loop (although there are many methods for stitching) and I think you're exactly right on the money as far as quality comparisons. Well done. Have to compare to be certain, though. Somehow I think it's slightly different. Could be wishful thinking!
 
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  • #166
Thank you, both @Brocky and @Burnham, for your inputs! I’ve never tied the Figure 9 as a stopper knot, only on a bight, but that sounds plausible. I’ve gone through about half of the stopper knot section of the ABOK so far and nothing matches yet. It’s actually quite a chore. I hope someday there’s an app where you can take two or more pictures to photo map the knot, then submit it and then the app will run it through the ABOK database and produce either an already existing knot or confirm that it is thus far unknown and potentially original. Ha, probably not a lot of money in that venture, so if it ever happens, it will be low priority is my guess. If it turns out to be original, you better believe I’m naming it!

On a different note, check out my latest hitch: the EPITOME hitch! Here is the description for the attached video from my channel below…

“In this episode, we'll examine the hitch that I believe is the epitome of all hitches in the sense that it embodies all three of the most important types of knotting which can be used to create a hitch.

These three knotting types are: 1) the wrap, 2) the braid and 3) the marl. You'll hear a lot about the first two and very little about the third, which I am adding to the list of important types because I believe it deserves to be listed.

To put it differently, this hitch is what would happen if a Valdotain Tresse (VT) and a Distel hitch had sex and had offspring. The EPITOME hitch is the culmination of these two fundamental and quintessential hitches, but distilled down into one amazing hitch.

If you decide to try this hitch out, you should know that you can always add or remove portions of the braid to either make it more compact or so that it will accommodate shorter hitch cords. I would say that a 32" hitch cord (or longer) is ideal for this hitch. You'll notice I'm using a spliced hitch cord, so this means I have more space for knotting than with a sewn eye hitch cord. Finally, wraps can be added or removed as desired to meet friction management needs.

Before anyone hates (although, nobody ever hates at the Tree House from my experiences) on this hitch due to my hype, understand that I am NOT saying that this is the best hitch ever. It’s in my top ten hitches that I’ve ever invented, however, I am not trying to suggest that it is better than either the VT or the Distel or any hitch for that matter.

Let’s be clear: Hitches are HIGHLY preferential tools. And by that, I mean to say that one person might love a hitch and another person may hate it. Although I do my best to create hitches which can be universally used and enjoyed by the majority of those who try them out, a huge number of variables (including but not limited to hitchcord type and condition or rope type and condition and experience level of the user) ensure that not everyone will love all of my hitches the way that I do. People incorrectly assume that if they tried, say, a Michoacan with one hitch cord/rope combo and didn’t like it, that trying it again with even just a different hitch cord or rope or both will result in the same disappointment.

The reality is that you can have a good experience one day in the dry winter with a hitch and, on a different day, with the same exact hitch cord and rope, but during the oppressively humid summer, have a completely different result. Simply failing to balance the legs of your hitch consistently, or connecting the eyes of the hitch cord onto a different side of the rope, can create noticeably different results.”

End Quote!

But I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir. Most of you have a good understanding of all of this and, as I’ve mentioned before, have a sixth - or even seventh haha - sense for hitch behavior.

Link to EPITOME hitch "how to tie" video...

 

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  • #167
I created a way to tie a VT using a split tail that will probably work well. It just seems really stable. Pretty nifty, right? Testing coming soon. Video coming soon! Would anyone climb on this? Haha. I would and I will. So cool. I've been trying to do something cool with a split tail for awhile. Made a few good ones early on, but not recently. It goes without saying that braids can be removed to reduce setback.

EDIT: Here is the video for this hitch. If the idea of this hitch excites you, you definitely wanna watch this tying process because it's pretty great and you get a better idea as to how well it would function.

 

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  • #168
Seriously? Nobody likes or has anything to say about the SYMPHONY hitch? I'm disappointed. I really think it's a pretty special and, a definitely unique, hitch. Oh well. It's not your loss, not mine! =-D

IMPORTANT UPDATE: I just put in a request to Tree House moderation for a username change! If it is accepted, I will go from "Bioassay" to "Knotorious." The reason for the change is that I want my username here to match my username for my YouTube channel so that anyone who sees me on YouTube can easily find me or recognize me at the Tree House and visa versa. My profile picture will remain the same, which will help the members on here who already know me to make the connection more easily.

Thanks, everyone!
 
Well, the two problems I have with it are it's VT-like(sprawling long hitch), and it uses only one leg. I prefer very compact hitches, and single leg hitches that don't use the rope tail don't have much appeal for me. There's two ends to the cord, so I think they should both be used. Share the load, and spread out the friction.
 
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  • #170
@lxskllr I hear what you're saying and I totally appreciate all of it! However, the example I showed is exactly that: an example. You could tie this with just one crossover after the coil if you'd like and then it wouldn't sprawl so much, but retain the advantage of extra friction that a braid provides. This hitch is for someone who loves and regularly uses split tails and that person is clearly not you! I definitely prefer having two legs with my hitches as well, but if I were to use both ends of the split tail just as one would with a regular hitch cord. Well, then my split tail would just be a really long hitch cord (with one sewn eye and one tied eye) and the resulting hitch would be...well, just an average, boring VT. I also prefer hitch cords over split tails because they are theoretically twice as strong since they create a basket configuration around the rope. Even though I much prefer hitch cords, while I was testing this SYMPHONY hitch, it really called to me and it was a truly special experience. The smoothness of the hitch cannot be underestimated and it never jammed during its tests.

Also, tending was not as hard as it might initially appear to be. It was tested exactly as tied in the image AND with just one crossover secured on the opposite end of the rope. I'm not trying to sell this hitch to you; I'm just publicly defending it for anyone remotely interested in trying it in the future. I certainly do not anticipate using this for much of anything in the future, which sends a strong signal to me that probably almost nobody else will either. At least for now. I hope my YouTube channel will someday have much more reach and influence and that more people will want to experiment with my hitches.

In any event, thanks for your participation. I have no idea how many people are reading my thread, but it seems like everything has become very quiet. Interaction and feedback makes what I'm doing on this forum much more fun and interesting, but I am nevertheless please that there are people such as yourself and @Burnham and @Marc-Antoine and @Brocky (to name a few recent participants) who follow along! Thank you to all of you. I realize that this is something I'm probably more passionate about than most other people (except Brocky haha), but I fully appreciate anyone and everyone who validates my belief that hitch development is a worthwhile endeavor and not a veritable waste of time and effort.

Yay! My name change got approved by moderation! Anyone read my new signature yet? haha
 
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Actually, not so great lately :^D The time change jacked up my system, and sleep's become erratic. Go to bed, wake up at 2:30, then roll around in bed for a couple hours til I half fall asleep again, and then it's time to getup. DST is the worst thing ever.
 
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  • #173
@gf beranek I suffer from Fatal Familial Insomnia, so I never sleep. Just kidding! Ha! That's a real thing by that way. People just stop sleeping until they eventually wither away and die. It's a horrible way to go.

Anyways, in all actuality, I sleep well some nights and others not so much. I like to stay stimulated during the day and drink copious amounts of caffeinated beverages on top of the RItalin I'm currently prescribed. I used to take Adderall, but a nationwide shortage made it impossible to continue on it. Anyways, I think I'm oversharing at this point, but who cares. I am who I am. If you don't like it, you can go shovel sh!t against the tide.

I really enjoy working on new hitches, though. I mean, yeah, maybe I'm spending too much time on it, but I'm really passionate about it. It turns my frown upside down.
 
Birds of feather. Been there done that. Fact, I had it bad.

Obsessive compulsive disorder.

Find solutions to common problems or issues, finding better ways to do something through invention. At any cost.

From early on (1970s) I began fabricating a whole line of designs in climbing saddles and belts. and even built the Dees and slider hardware. Every couple of years I had a new custom belt.

I even built 2 custom sets of climbing spurs and pads, plus varying designs of friction devices for rappelling.

I was constantly tweaking some piece of my gear to make it better.

And sometimes even laying awake at nights thinking about it.

The internet wasn't even a word yet. Mail order catalogs were. Imagine the selection of arborists gear in 1975. There was none. It was all lineman's gear catalogs essentially. the arborist section was sure to have Buckingham 3.5 inch spurs. From order to receiving about 30 days.

That's why I built my own gear back then.

As Burnam says, carry on.
 
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