The Three Main Tarp Knots

I've detailed all the knots that I use for putting a tarp and hammock up elsewhere on my blog but I've separated out the three main knots onto their own page so that if you don't learn any others will at least get your tarp up and secured and indeed, if you are ground dwelling, no more would be needed. As they are key knots I've used a fairly large image at each stage of tying which would make a page with all the knots on rather large!

The Evenk Hitch 

The Evenk Hitch (or Slippery Figure-of-Eight) is the first knot to tie when erecting a tarp. In this picture the standing part (the length going through the tarp loops) is in my left hand, the working part (the end of the cordage). This knot can also be done the other way around too.

After going around the tree trunk the standing part is wrapped around the fingers of my outstretched left hand in and over, under and over motion.

You then hold both the working and standing end in your right hand and then point the fingers of your left hand down which should bring the standing end both close and parallel 

Then bring your left hand up to the position shown in the picture (which is effectively an anti clockwise motion as viewed).

Then reach over with your left fingers and grab the working end securely between your index and middle finger.

Pull the working end through the loop, releasing your fingers at the same time and then gently but firmly pull the loop with your left hand whilst pulling the standing end in the same manner. 

Keep going with this motion until the nearly completed knot is close to, but not tight around the tree.

The reason that this should be the first knot that you start with is evident now. It can be slid up the tree trunk to whatever height you desire and if you are using a hammock under your tarp that's usually as high as possible.

And this is the completed Evenk hitch. Although there's no need to I often put a forked stick through the loop to help secure the knot which is probably all in my mind, and some folk make extra loops through the first loop too.

Once you've had a practice it's actually a knot that has a sort of rhythm to it when tied and is actually quite easy to do. If you click on the above image it will show you it being tied in a shot clip.

Tarp Taut Hitch

Once the Evenk Hitch is tied and the ridge line positioned it's time to secure your tarp with the Tarp Taut Hitch  (which I also see written as the taut tarp hitch). Again as before the standing end is in my left hand, the working end in my right.

Predictably as before take the cordage around the second tree

Pull the working end towards you taking up any slack.

Then take the working end across the tree to the left as shown above. I usually take it under the standing part but I see no reason why it can't go above it as well.

Now the working end is taken over the standing part and is now facing to the right, again as shown above.

The stage between the above and the previous picture is key to getting the line taut. The working end should be pulled as tight as it can be to get tension into the standing part  (this may even see the standing part pulled in a little towards the tree) and passed from the right hand to the left hand as shown above. 

The working part is passed around the trunk (still held as taut as possible) and finish up being held near where it was looped over the standing part.

Form the working end into a small loop over the standing part which the right hand holds. If you tip your head to the right and look at the small loop of cordage formed in my right hand you can see it looks a bit like an upper case D. Don't lose the tension at this stage.

Form another small loop with your left hand and push it through the small D shaped loop in your right hand. 

If you can keep the D shaped small you won't lose much tension once you've pulled the second loop through.

Like the Evenk Knot you can put a small forked stick through the loop or do another (and another!) loop if you wish. Both knots are tried and trusted but I like the extra step for piece of mind.

The completed knot. If you've managed to keep the tension you should be able to pull down on the standing part of the cordage and get a 'Dung' sound from it. This should help towards you getting army bed sheet straightness in your tarp.

Again like the Evenk I've also done a small movie clip of the knot. Click on the above picture to watch it.

Prussic Hitch

Whilst a taut ridge line will contribute to a crease free tarp it is not the only thing that will help. The orange loop attached to a gated clip is a Prussic (or Prusik) Knot. It is well known to climbers as a loop that can me moved freely along a rope but can be locked quite securely in any given position too. This quality is used to attach the tarp securely at each end and work in tandem with the taut ridge line.

The loop that supports the Prussik Hitch above is secured using a Fisherman's or Double Fisherman's Bend. It needs a loop forming first. Use about a foot-and-a-half (45 cms) length of paracord and secure the two ends together using a Fisherman's Bend (animation is here although the Animated Knots website only  shows  double overhands being tied but single overhands are what I use). To save a long line of pictures of the Prussic knot being tied I've included another link to the Animated Knots website and here. To be honest my version differs from the animation in that I take two turns on the outside of the loop and put the final turn through the loop...It still works but I might get a furrowed brow and pursed lips from a climber if they ever saw it. 

Finally there are two other knots worthy of mention; the Adjustable Guy Line Knot and the Falconers Knot. The former, as the name suggests is used to tension a guy line that has no loop on it. I don't need it and that's the reason I've not included it on this page but Paul Kirtley has done a good article  in his blog about it here. The latter again has a clue in the name and is favoured by falconers because it is not only a quick release knot but it can be tied one handed. It can be employed in tarp erection but that said I've barely used it to the point where I would now be a bit ham fisted tying it. Evenk and Tarp Taut knot all the way for me. 

Suggested further reading:- 

DD Tarp M Review 

Sit Spot Bag

Tarp and Hammock Knots

Tarp Knots For Cub Camp

3x3 tarp tent

A Look at  Tarp Configurations

Tarp and Hammock Knots

I have previously completed a blog post about using my accommodation for the night into a knotting skills base on a cub competition camp (link here to the knots used). The list isn't a complete one however because I only listed the knots that the Cubs needed to know, which wasn't all of those that were/ can be used. I have therefore swiped some information of that page and added in the knots that I find that I use on a regular basis.

(L-R) Evenk Knot, Taut Tarp Hitch and Prussic Hitch

 Now the Evenk and Taut Tarp knots and Prussic Hitch are the three knots that are the minimum needed to erect a tarp over your head, you can use other knots but the first two are quick release and the latter is simply looped around the ridge line and is designed to be both loose and fixed. I've covered them on a separate blog page because I decided to show the tying of them stage by stage which would make a combined knot page rather big. And to make sure that the remaining knots didn't take up loads of room on their own I have declined to do individual how to pictures in favour of links to the excellent Animated Knots website. So the rest of the knots that I use or have used in no particular order are...

Clove Hitch

A rather handsome and symmetrical knot that I use if I ever use any type of  supporting pole to hold a side up at an angle. I often don't bother but in this instance I did because it gave me a way of utilising the knot for the competition. Animation here.

Bowline

A knot that often gets the Cubs confused, all this tree and rabbit talk and all that. I often, but not exclusively use this to secure guy lines to loops, or elastic loops if on a Cub camp to absorb a clod hopper who catches the guy with their foot. It's no accident that they are both hi viz and reflective too. Animation here.

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

Often depicted as a knot to hold a boat secure, the round turn and two half hitches is one of the knots that the Cubs often get right because of it's simple layout. Whilst I usually tie a bowline to secure a guy rope this knot will also do a job. It can also be 'slipped' to make it easier to un-tie (that means making the last half hitch into a loop by doubling the rope back). It is also the basis of the Anchor knot which sees the cordage threaded between the round turns and whatever the knot is being secured to. Animation here. You can also use the similar Anchor Hitch too (animation here).

Reef Knot

This isn't a knot which I often use so I utilised it in the making of a wooden tripod to hang my rucksack on to keep it both accessible and off the ground. A loop is tied and then loosely placed around the top of the three poles and then one of the poles (usually the middle one) is turned vertically through 360 degrees to tighten it. I deliberately used hi viz orange paracord for this to hopefully attract an attentive eye to it as it wasn't the most obvious of knots. I usually use a fisherman's bend which is essentially two overhand knots tied onto the ends of a cordage loop and pulled tight. Animation here.

Sheet Bend

Of the six this is the one knot that I probably use the least, although forming it in a tarp loop probably makes it a proper sheet bend doesn't it? What I did with this was to form up two different coloured guy lines with one and then attach it to a tree. Note the working ends should be on the same side of the knot. Animation here.

Double Sheet Bend

Animation here (it takes you to the Sheet Bend video but there is a tab to click for the double sheet bend underneath it).

Highwayman's Hitch

I've left this hitch until last as it's the showy one of the half dozen that the Cubs need to learn. As with a round turn and two half hitches often being associated with a boat mooring, the highwayman's hitch is usually associated with tying a horse up, although I'm not sure if it would work with reins as they are a loop. I use this knot to secure my footwear to a secondary paracord line that runs just under the tarp which is useful for hanging items off. It means that they are grabbable in the morning with a sharp tug but it isn't such a good idea if they are covered in liquid mud. Animation here.

Overhand

Note it's use as a stopper knot in the double sheet bend picture. The overhand is quite a useful knot and a base for several other more complex knots (see here).

Figure of Eight

This, like the overhand knot above, is another good stopper knot. Animation here.

Overhand Loop

Shown without the tarp in place for clarity. Instead of actually using the loops they effectively form part of a slipped double overhand for securing an underblanket to insulate the hammock at night. Wikipedia information here.

Lark's Head (or Cow Hitch)

This knot has several uses such as hanging the tarp and hammock bags from the kit line to keep things like phones and watches in, securing a guy line to a tarp loop and fixing a small length of cordage at the end of the hammock and the extra line running under the apex (to wick rain away). Animation here.

Sheepshank

Used for shortening a guy line and indeed can also form the first part of a waggoners hitch style tensioning knot which isn't featured on this page as I don't use it.  Animation here.

Prussic Hitch

Fisherman's Knot animation here (the animated knots website only  shows  double overhands being tied but single overhands are what I use) and Prussik animation here.

Chinese Button Knot

This is used in the adjustable loop on a 'Whoopie Sling' hammock suspension system and work in a roughly similar way to the Prussic Hitch mentioned earlier. It is effectively a fancy stopper knot to prevent the loop from pulling into the rest of the cordage and then be potentially unrecoverable. I got this simple idea from Adrian Rose's Northwest Bushcraft Youtube channel (see it in this video) and pimped it a little. The button knot is an embellishment but if you want to learn how to tie it I've covered it on this paracord blog page.

Whilst on the subject of Whoopie Slings if you don't use caribiners to connect to the tree hugging webbing then you'll need to learn how to make and more importantly set up a Marlinspike Hitch. I don't ever use it so I've not featured it but as mentioned it must be set up correctly.

Double Slipped Reef Knot

This is a shot I used from a tarp article that appeared in Scouting magazine which has Pablo checking my set up out. If you look at the green cordage in his left hand you'll see the supplied hammock lines for suspending it which I've replaced with the whoopie slings. They simply attach to the tree using a double slipped reef knot which I'm not going to feature a how to on because it is a technical name for the knot you tie a shoe lace with. I also used to double knot the 'bunny ears' too. 

Suggested further reading:- 

DD Tarp M Review 

Sit Spot Bag

The Three Main Tarp Knots

Tarp Knots For Cub Camp

3x3 tarp tent

A Look at  Tarp Configurations

Tarp Knots for a Cub Camp

Our Cub district holds a competition camp every September at a farm which is great because it gets a team of eight, nine and ten year old kids out into the countryside to practice core skills, but equally it's not too far away from home or a supermarket. Most years we are nearly always in shorts and shades but the main (Satur)day this year was pretty much full on rain which really did start to grate a little.

I usually use a tarp and hammock system, expect for last year when I did some reviews on some Vango kit via the Scout Association but this year the set up had a specific use other than being my home from home. 

Our Cub pack's base was knots of which I know 'One or two' and I suggested that the teams should come and find the six knots they've learnt (or not) in my set up once they'd been tested on them first. I opened my spiel by asking them not to touch (but they usually did!) and then told them that it's one thing being able to recognise a knot tied on the back of a chair in their HQ, but would be another to see it used. They were also told that I'd used about a dozen knots in total. On your marks, get set, your five minutes starts now...

The knot roll of honour.

Clove Hitch

A rather handsome and symmetrical knot that I use if I ever use any type of  supporting pole to hold a side up at an angle. I often don't bother but in this instance I did because it gave me a way of utilising the knot for the competition.

Bowline

A knot that often gets the Cubs confused, all this tree and rabbit talk and all that, coupled with the fact that it is under tension and therefore it's elongated looks a world away from the HQ tied one on a knotting evening. I often, but not exclusively use this to secure guy lines to loops, or elastic loops if on a Cub camp to absorb a clod hopper who catches the guy with their foot. It's no accident that they are both hi viz and reflective too.

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

Often depicted as a knot to hold a boat secure, the round turn and two half hitches is one of the knots that the Cubs often get right because of it's simple layout. Whilst I usually tie a bowline to secure a guy rope this knot will also do a job. It can also be 'slipped' to make it easier to un-tie (that means making the last half hitch into a loop by doubling the rope back). Again like the bowline, it doesn't sit neatly in the elasticated loop and therefore doesn't look like one tied to the back of a chair at their meeting hall. It is also the basis of the Anchor knot which sees the cordage threaded between the round turns and whatever the knot is being secured to.

Reef Knot

This isn't a knot which I often use so I utilised it in the making of a wooden tripod to hang my rucksack on to keep it both accessible and off the ground. A loop is tied and then loosely placed around the top of the three poles and then one of the poles (usually the middle one) is turned vertically through 360 degrees to tighten it. I deliberately used hi viz orange paracord for this to hopefully attract an attentive eye to it as it wasn't the most obvious of knots. I usually use a fisherman's bend which is essentially two overhand knots tied onto the ends of a cordage loop and pulled tight.

Sheet Bend

Of the six this is the one knot that I probably use the least, although forming it in a tarp loop probably makes it a proper sheet bend doesn't it? What I did with this was to form up two different coloured guy lines with one and then attach it to a tree. Note the ends should be on the same side of the knot.

Highwayman's Hitch

I've left this hitch until last as it's the showy one of the half dozen. As with a round turn and two half hitches often being associated with a boat mooring, the highwayman's hitch is usually associated with tying a horse up, although I'm not sure if it would work with reins as they are a loop. I use this knot to secure my footwear to a secondary paracord line that runs just under the tarp which is useful for hanging items off. It means that they are grabbable in the morning with a sharp tug but it isn't such a good idea if they are covered in liquidy mud.

As you might expect some teams did better than others and often their teamwork was marked down as they all started looking down a rabbit or badger hole but the practical application of the knots was a real leveller and if you do something similar in Scouting or otherwise I thought I'd just share this quick and easy method of mixing things up. I am currently working on a separate blog which details all the knots that I use and have used on a tarp and hammock system and will link to this page when it's done.