Doggie Tug-o-War Monkey's Fist

I have a friend who has a pretty big dog, I'm not sure what breed, who likes to play with rope. He came to me and asked about a large monkey's fist, on a bit of a lead, that the dog could grip while he (the owner) held the end and pulled. I told him it was a good idea, and started thinking.

I went to my local big box hardware store and picked up 15ft of manilla rope, since it's got a good, natural feel and wears well. In one end I tied a double overhand knot, and then started wrapping a 3 turn monkey's fist usingvthe overhand knots as the core. 

Once I had finished the fist, and tightened it up using a steel rod I had laying around as a marlin spike, I unravelled the working end and tied an eyesplice for my friend to grip. I ran the splice through 5 strands for strength, and then whipped it with 2mm tether cord. The whole thing ended up being about 4 ft long, plenty of play for a great tug-o-war.

Since we're in the middle of a move, I won't see my friend until next week, but I'm fairly sure his dog will love it.

Long Three Bight Hatchet Handle

So, for my first project post, I'm sort of working backwards and posting the last thing I did.  We're currently visiting family while moving from Nevada to Oklahoma City, and I noticed my wife's uncle had an old hatchet with a tape handle sitting in his shed.  I'd been looking for something to try a Long 3 Bight knot on, and this seemed perfect.

Before I go on, let me clarify something.  I seem to be completely incapable of tying knots just to tie them.  I have to make something.  So I am constantly trying to find applications for my hobby, even if it seems frivolous, like key chains.  I tend to end up with a lot of little "things".

The entire process took me a couple days, between family gatherings (sometimes during).  The mandrel I used to tie it was an old closet rod I'd found, which turned out to be way to big, making the tightening process very tedious after transferring it to the axe handle.  I ended up using about 25 ft of paracord, but I didn't measure it.  That's something I'll have to remember for the next blog.

Anyway, to tie this, I followed the late Bud Brewer's tutorial, located here. I really like most of his tut's, but I was having a hard time, so I visited Stormdrane's blog. His video tutorial is a little easier to follow, but it was the text sequence the really clarified the process. As if trying to learn wasn't complicated enough, I decided I needed to tie a 28L3B instead of the 16L3B Stormdrane had tied.

I started off much like the former tut's, but instead of 3 initial wraps, I did 5.  This did not change the sequence of under/over, just added a couple to it. Once I had the knot tied and dressed, I doubled it, and moved it to the axe.

According to Bud Brewer, the nice thing about a 3 bight is that you can use it to enclose a round end.  Since the handle is a hollow steel rod, I tried it out.  Here's the result.

It came out rather nice.  I think my hammers are going to need new handles, once the movers unpack them.