Customer Reviews

Great Knots & How To Tie Them

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is another BAD book about knots. It appears that a publisher wanted a knot book, or an author wanted to be published? Worse, the book plagirizes good a good text and in crude paraphrasing renders even that advice as nonsense. A general failing of the book is that the pretty photos of tied knots are simply NOT of what they propose to be, and that the diagrams are unclear (and sometimes wrong). In short, this book seems to have been hastily prepared by an uniformed author, without regard for standards of care in advice or courtesy in acknowledging sources (there are no acknowledgements, and no info re author, such as credentials). (I'll spare this review my long list of compiled errors, but here is one: p.82 purports to show a mooring hitch; it doesn't even show a knot that will retain form!)

AT first glance this book appears to show a decent variety of knots including some more obscure button knots (why I originally looked at it). Sadly, this books fails miserably on at tleast 2 counts: 1 The diagrams are very poor, especially for the more complicated button knots. 2 Some of them are just plain wrong - if you follow the instructions (many of which are badly worded and confusing) you just end up with a tangle. Just search on knots and by something else - anything else!

I cannot stand to let any positive review of this book (even one
implying some acceptability of it) risk influencing a potential
reader: this supposed book on knots is beyond the pale bad!
One reviewer remarks that the book shows "a few knots that you
probably will not use (Hangman's Noose...)", and this helps show
one (of many) egregious flaws: the photo of the supposed Hangman's
Noose is in fact of a simply coiled hank of rope--you know, with
multiple loops at each end, and a couple lines that suspend this
hank running up out of the picture. In short, it's nothing at all
like the alleged knot! That is the nature of this terrible book.
How can anyone giving even cursory review of it not see this at
once? --(gross) negligence, or deceit!

The book doesn't live up to its 'impressive' title. One of the 'Top 50 reviewers' seems to at least try and give a attempt at an honest review with out being too cutting the other doesn't seem to have ever picked up a piece of rope. This book is almost all glitz with very little substance. It is mediocre at best. I think a beginner or un-knowledgeable person would be confused by bad descriptions that don't match up with pictures, pictures that show bad or misleading implementations and uses, good diagrams with bad descriptions, good descriptions with bad diagrams. It was impressive at first with clean photographic work on slick paper but when you delve into the substance and really look at the work then you see more and more flaws. Yes, it is cheap -- but this is one case where you get your $s worth.

I needed to know how to correctly tie knots because of my new hobby - sailing. When the main sheet is flapping and the lines are swinging wildly, you gotta' tie a good knot quickly.

`Great Knots' gives 175 examples of knots. Now there are a few knots that you probably will not use (Hangman's Noose, Shamrock, etc.) but others that can be used daily. Regardless, if you want a fancy knot or just a real simple knot, Derrick Lewis will show you how to tie it right.

The book has excellent color photos of every knot, and most of the photos show the knot being used . . . the hangman's noose a notable exception. The examples are good and generally easy to follow, though not as easy as the step-by-step color illustrations found in Budworth's `The Complete Book of Sailing Knots (see my review). Expert instructions at a very impressive price makes this a very good purchase . Recommended

This book contains a good variety of knots for various uses. Pretty much any knot that you are likely to need is here somewhere. The photographs and the drawings are very good when taken by themselves however the book suffers terribly when it comes to consistency and also leaves a few things out. For example, it shows a seized half hitch by showing how to tie the half hitch and then saying to "lash small stuff around the ends to secure". It does not say how to lash the smaller cord. Some people would also find it confusing that the illustrations on how to tie a knot sometimes do not match with the photograph of the finished knot. For example, the half hitch picture shows the standing end of the rope toward you and the illustrations show tieing it with the standing end away from you. Also the taunt line hitch (an extremely useful knot) in the photograph is around the standing end of the same rope (the most common way of tieing it) and the illustration appears to be tieing it around a pole of some type. If you already have a basic understanding of knots then it is easy enough to figure out and follow and a good book to use to expand your knowledge of knots. If you are a complete novice then you may find some difficulty following along but the extra effort is worth it when you get one figured out and tied right.