After making simple horn knots for a while, I decided to step it up finally and make horn knots using a turk's head knot technique. I have some old horn knots that my grandpa made, so I just duplicated them. The cord is 3/16" Solid braided nylon. The THK is a 7x8 with a goucho interweave or also known as a 13x15 goucho knot.These things are hard as a rock and do not move/stretch at all. Very good quality, and as long as it isn't cut or burned by flame. it will never wear out.
7 parts 8 bights, or 8 parts 7 bights? I am trying to figure out how to tie this. I'm working mainly from a couple Grant books. The one gaucho knot he has is one pass and says it is really "9 part 8 bight" but I'm not sure it it means it is a 9-8 turks head or a 9-8 with an interweave. These look one pass as they are over-under 1. Not quite sure how to get there though. Or would the Grant 9-8 work well as a horn knot? I'm mostly accustomed to the pineapple interweave--need to find something else that gets me the gaucho interweave. Also have Ashley, but he fries my brains on turks heads and doesn't mention gaucho at all--only herringbone.
ReplyDeleteHey Rebecca, it's a 7 part 8 bight with a gaucho interweave. It is over two, under 2. A pineapple interweave would not work very well because it would close in on itself too much.
ReplyDeleteDo yourself a favor and get Tom Hall's Introduction to Turk's Head Knots. Read the beginning when he describes how he instructs and convey's his method. This is my go-to resource with any type of THK.
The way I tied this specific knot is to tie a 7part 8bight O1U1 THK. Then tie the gaucho interweave. Tom Hall's book explains this perfectly.
Also, have you ever used the Advanced Grid Maker?
http://freakinsweetapps.com/knots/knotgrid/advanced.html
Thank you!!! I will add that book to my wish list. I have to rely on recommendations for books, as I'm in Denmark and can't just wander into a book store and explore. It sounds like that one might finally get me understanding more interweaves. And perhaps my turks heads better also, as I only know how to raise the 5-4 indefinitely.
ReplyDeleteI haven't made sense of the grid system either. Probably because I am actually tying the knots on a mandrel at this point, not using the pin method. I need a resource that explains that better than Ashley, as I keep frying my brain on Ashley and my father is in the wrong country to walk me through it... if he even remembers these days.
But I can raise a 5-4 to an 11 or more without thinking about it and do a pineapple interweave... or to a 9 and do a double pineapple to make a 3 color knot. But I want to learn more interweaves and be able to get more variety in them.
I also need to get making more sense of the multiple strand methods, as the one strand isn't too effective on the big knots when I want to get back to leather.
Thanks for the help again. We have 4 roping style saddles and would be nice to get a little more protection on the horns for getting roping, especially my expensive custom.
Ya Ashley's is tough regarding specific how-to's. You might checkout Amazon for the book. I don't know how they are with shipping internationally, but you can find it on there for a pretty good price.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to tie some of these to go around the actual horn of a saddle, you might increase the bights and probably the parts as well.
Thanks! I mostly stick the books on wish lists for bday/xmas and hope my American family will decide to buy them and ship them over. ;-) I try to limit how much I put on the list in the hopes of getting specific items. If I get too desperate, I try the UK Amazon. I was looking for the horn cover type as opposed to the rope loop type. But I really appreciate the tips. You do some nice work.
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