Figure Eight Knot

May 6th, 2008 Buster

Most of my dealings with this knot have been in rock climbing but this knot can be used anytime there is a need for a stopper knot or to splice to ropes together.. There two types of figure eight knots.

Double figure-of-eight knot is used like an overhand loop knot. This type of knot can be used in prusik climbing when used in conjunction with a Swiss seat, a climbing rope, and locking carabineer designed for climbing.

Figure-of-eight splice knot is used to quickly and effectively splice two ropes of equal, or unequal diameter together. This knot consists of a loose figure-of-eight knot made in one rope, and feeding the lesser diameter of the two back through the figure eight starting from the original knot’s running end and retracing the rope through the figure eight until the second ropes running end is parallel with the first’s ropes standing end, essentially creating a figure-of-eight within a figure-of-eight. This can be a permanent or temporary approach to splicing ropes together and the anatomy of this knot allows two ropes to be spliced without slipping, however, it causes strength loss as with most knots.

The following image is from Pro-Knots which produces plastic, easy to use knot cards. I have one of these for fishing knots and carry it with me in my boat bag just in case I need a quick reference.

Entry Filed under: Buster the Fly Fishing Guru, General, Knots