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Turk's Head Knot

The Turk's Head Knot is a knot much used aboard yachts and warships and is so handsome and ornamental that it is a great favorite. It is used in ornamenting rigging, in forming shoulders or rings on stays or ropes to hold other gear in place, to ornament yoke lines, and for forming slip-collars on knife lanyards. It is also used to form collars around stanchions or spars, and, placed around a rope close beneath a man-rope knot, it gives a beautiful finish.

Turk's Head Knot illustration

When made of small line sailors often use the Turk's Head as a neckerchief fastener. Although so elaborate in effect, it is really an easy knot to make, and while you may have difficulty in getting it right at first a little patience and practice will enable you to become proficient and capable of tying it rapidly and easily in any place or position.

How to tie a Turk's Head Knot

Video: Turk's Head Knot

Learn how to tie a Turk's Head Knot.

Turk's Head Knot tying illustration

  1. You'll need a smooth, round stick, or other object, and some closely twisted or braided small line.
  2. Pass two turns of the line around the rod, from left to right, and pass the upper bight down through the lower and reeve the upper end down through it, as at B.
  3. Then pass the bight up again and run the end over the lower bight and up between it and the upper bight.
  4. Turn the upper bight again through the lower one and pass the end over what is now the upper bight and between it and the lower, C.