The square knot and the granny knot are both sixth-order knots that are similar but have some key differences:
- Security: Square knots are more secure than granny knots, which are also known as sliding knots. Square knots are stronger because they have more twist fluctuations, and they fail by breakage rather than slippage or unraveling.
- Shape: When you pull a square knot tight, the strands enter and exit in two directions, while a granny knot’s strands spread out in four directions.
- Uses: Square knots are often used to extend ropes, such as for dragging a raft up a bank or pulling a bow up to a tree stand. Granny knots are often used to create a loop in a rope.
- Tying: To tie a square knot, you can use the mnemonic “right over left, left over right, makes a knot both tidy and tight”. To tie a granny knot, you repeat the first step twice, right over left, tuck under.
When we first learn the Square Knot and the Granny Knot, we use a single strand. In this case, our left strand of rope is blue, and the right strand is red.
We’re going to put the red rope over the blue rope. In this step, we say that’s “right over left” because the red rope is on the right and the blue rope is on the left.
Next, we “go through” which means we pass the red rope under the blue rope.
Everything to this point produces both the Square Knot and the Granny Knot.
Your next step will either be to pass the red rope over the blue rope again, or to pass the blue rope over the red rope.
What you do will determine if you get a square knot or a granny Knot.
Sometimes people get confused by “right over left, left over right.” What’s confusing is that it’s two steps, and between step 1 and step 2, your “left” and “right” have switched sides. When we say “right over left” we’re talking about step 1, and when we say “left over right” we’re talking about step 2. But the “left” and “right” are relative to each step (at the starting point), which means you actually put the same rope over the other rope to make a square knot.
Square Knot
The square knot is like the granny knot but done twice. It stays in place and does not loosen or tighten. It has one simple rule:
“Right over left, then left over right.”
That means if you have two ends (lets say the bight and the running end), you’ll start with the bight end on the right. Because it’s the bight end, you can easily run it over and around the other end. The running end is much longer and wouldn’t make sense to start with.
So you will go red over blue (right over left), and through as you did above. Then blue over red (left over right, because they have switched sides)
Once you’ve gone left over right, remember to go through, which means pulling the end through the loop all the way.
Granny Knot
The granny knot is what you get when you go blue over red in the second step.
