The Ashley Book of Knots

The Ashley Book of knots is an encyclopedia on the subject of knots and knot tying and on this issue the standard and reference work. It was completed in 1944 by the artist and sailor Clifford Ashley. He had worked for eleven years in it.

Content

The Ashley Book of knots is about 600 pages long and contains 3854 entries with more than 7,000 drawings, in which over 2000 different nodes. Each node is shown what he looks like, what it is used and how it is made ​​. In addition to manual and use the story and its historical mention is listed at some nodes.

By occasionally inserted symbols the meaning or the pros and cons of a node to be stressed - for example, a star marked the best node for the purpose of a skull warns of dangerous use. These symbols, however, are always to be considered against the background that at the time of writing the book was used exclusively rope made ​​of natural fibers. Modern material made of plastics has regularly a different behavior when nodes and within a node ( under load). A given node can be "safe " in a hemp rope, in a synthetic fiber rope, the same node can be life-threatening.

The Ashley Book of knots one knot on to different professions and activities, the most nodes are in the book as in real life from the former commercial shipping on sailing ships.

Even if many nodes have lost by modern joining techniques in importance is the detailed presentation of the topic, the Ashley Book of knots remains one of the most important books on knots. The German edition was translated by Gerhard Meyer- Uhl and published in 1977.

Suitability as reference nomenclature

Ashley did not intend to provide a nomenclature, and his book is therefore also limited as a basis for it. For the purposes of Ashley knowledge is needed about the production process of an existing node in order to call the correct names. This he explains in detail in his preface. This makes it impossible, however, to identify a node uniquely, whose history is not known.

Even though Ashley has compiled the most comprehensive collection and numbered each drawing, the book is not suitable as a reference for node name. Many drawings are redundant, but are listed under different numbers. Many names are plural, but show a different node. In the German edition is the fact that the translations of the node names are also not uniform. This leads to a corresponding confusion, both in the Big Book of nodes, as well as in the literature and result in the application with various stakeholders.

Use as a reference numerical

Expenditure

  • Clifford W. Ashley: The Ashley Book of knots. About 3800 nodes. How they look. What are they used. How are they made. Special edition. Edition Maritim, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89225-527- X.
  • Clifford W. Ashley: The Ashley Book of knots. About 3800 nodes. How they look. What are they used. How are they made. With 7000 drawings. 6th edition - Edition Maritim, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-922117-37-6.
  • Clifford W. Ashley: The Ashley Book of Knots. Doubleday, New York 1944, ISBN 0-385-04025-3 ( original English edition). Reprint: Doubleday, New York 1963-1979, ISBN 0-571-09659- X.

Comparable works

  • Raoul Grey Mont; John Hensel: Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work. 4th edition. Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge (Maryland) 1977, ISBN 0-87033-021-7 ( contains more than 3668 nodes with black and white photos ).
  • Geoffrey Budworth: THE ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KNOTS & ropework. Anness Publishing Limited, London 2006, ISBN 1-84309-146-1 ( contains over 200 knotting with colored step by step - Photographs ').

Trivia

In her book ' The Shipping News ' - ' Shipping News ' leads the author Annie Proulx a specific chapter with illustrations of nodes and a short accompanying text from this book. ( btb Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3442736110 )

Clifford Warren Ashley List of knots
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