Philippe Petit - Why Knot?: How to Tie More than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving, and Secure Knots!

Often, to begin a high-wire walk, I grab the balancing pole, place both feet decisively on the cable, and swiftly step out from the departure platform. It is an act of defiance of the law of gravity, a statement of arrogance and panachesome might think it defines courage.

By ungluing myself almost brutally from the terrestrial, becoming almost instantly an aerial creature, I startle the onlookers and believe I inspire them more powerfully than if I had performed a slow-motion entrance onto the wire rope.

This preference of mine for such an introductory stylewhich I like to call attack!can be found in many aspects of my life. When I open a how-to book for the first time, it is with the impatience of a student-craftsman eager to start creating something. Noisily, I flip past the front matter to reach where the action is (eventually I will go back to the first pages and profit from a preface, some information, a piece of advice).

Thus, since this is my book, lets start immediately: Welcome to my personal world of knotting, where tying comes first! Quickly get a shoelace (or a little cord roughly 1/4 inch in diameter) and, together, lets jump right in!

I was not asking.

Also by Philippe Petit

Trois Coups
(Herscher, Paris 1983)

On the High Wire
(Random House, New York 1985)

Funambule
(Albin Michel, Paris 1991)

Trait du Funambulisme

(Actes Sud, Arles 1997)

To Reach the Clouds
(North Point Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2002)
Currently translated into nine languages.

LArt du Pickpocket
(Actes Sud, Arles 2006)

Man on Wire
(Skyhorse Publishing, New York 2008)

A Square Peg
(Unpublished, 2010)

Cheating the Impossible
(TED eBooks, New York 2012)

The material included in this book is presented only for informational purposes. The activities discussed in this book can be dangerous. Any person should approach these activities with caution and appropriate supervision and training. The publisher and author are not responsible for any accidents, injuries, damages, or loss suffered by any reader of this book.

For what is a rope but a story, a plot,

A beginning, an end, and in the middle a knot.

So whatever the problem you imagine youve got,

A conundrum, a puzzle, a Gordian spot,

A jumble of cordage, of ends that dont meet,

Well such is the province of Monsieur Petit,

To tie and unravel a hawser, a hitch,

A halyard, painter, a cable, a stitch,

Of chaos and string theory, problems abstruse,

As well as the technique for tying a noose,

And an end to confusion the editors hope,

But not of the things one can do with a rope.

Sting

A great producer-director, poet, painter, and cook al occhio and lest I forget: a transcendent man of boats, thus man of ropes. At eleven, after spending weeks intently observing his step-uncles sailboat being repaireda derelict seventeen-foot carvel-plank daysailerhe rode his bike at dawn to the marina and slipped the mooring line!

James has a courageous joie de vivre and such an unrivaled sense of humorwhich he keeps lending to the creation of those parody commercials youve seen on Saturday Night Live since its beginningthat after thirty years of being best friends, I still dont have the foggiest what hes talking about!

Thank you, sailor, for teaching me how to tie a Bowline with one hand.

Tie one of the oldest knots: THE SQUARE KNOT.

An introduction.

Graphic introduction to five of the most important knots: .

A basic appetizer before our tying feast: .

How to secure the ends of a rope prior to cutting or knotting. : With ends of the twine invisible!

One of my favorites, which can be tied instantly with my special method.

Intriguing in its perfect symmetry.

Slide it, untie it, and avoid its dangerous cousin the GRANNY KNOT.

Find out if someone opened your tied-up trunk.

Close a woundor a beltor both.

Surprise:

Virtuosity!

Keep your shoelaces from ever untying again.

Tired of people searching your trash bags? Learn a vicious knot no one can untie!

Connect your harness to your climbing rope or fashion a handsome belt.

Escape fire through your hotel window by tying your sheets together.

With a rare featureit slides into final shape when tightened.

A great way to tie a rope to the roof rack of a car.

Surprise:

Extraordinary!

Highwaymans Hitch:
The emergency knot par excellence.

Repair a broken leather strap on a harness or your handbag.

Secure a rope to a post in less than one second and try my Cow Experiment.

The knot with fourteen names, which is a simple and clever way to tie to a ring, and its variation, the COW HITCH IN THE BIGHT.

Pull a pipeeven a greasy onewithout it slipping.

Drag a tree trunk with a genius improvement on the treacherous TIMBER HITCH.

Surprise:

Ornamental!

Create a handsome and nice-to-the-touch cover for your cars steering wheel.

Make a classic knot safer.

Make another classic knot faster to untie.

Prevent a famous knot from coming loose.

An instant load-releaser in case of an emergency or for special effect.

Tie a line around yourself in an emergency situation.

Surprise:

Magic!

A cord with a bulky knot passes through the tiny eye of an improvised needle.

Make a lifesaving harness to hoist someone.

A safer version of what is known as the king of knots.

The best way to form a loop in the body of a rope.

Building a kite? Heres how to fasten together two cross pieces of wood.

An efficient solution for holding together the legs of an X made of poles.

Surprise:

Challenge!

Follow instructions that can be understood in 6,900 languages and tie this superb knot.

Transform a secure fastening into a dead-solid assembly.

Be ready to lasso a steer!

An ideal way to close or lift a soft, light parcel.

Hold on to a very thin cord under tension.

Put a damaged piece of rope back to use instantly.

Surprise:

Magic!

Make a knot vanish as youre tying it.

You never know!

Inch your way up a single rope after a rock-climbing fall.

A favorite method of joining two fishing lines.

True to its name, it flawlessly holds a minuscule loop in a minuscule thread.

Hoist a ladder with a knot that ties and unties in secondsand is self-stabilizing.