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The constrictor knot is one of the most effective binding knots.Clifford W. Ashley, The Ashley Book of Knots (New York: Doubleday, 1944), 224-225.Brion Toss, The Complete Rigger's Apprentice (Camden, Maine: International Marine, 1998), 10-13.Geoffrey Budworth, The Complete Book of Knots (London: Octopus, 1997), 136-139. Simple and secure, it is a harsh knot that can be difficult or impossible to untie once tightened. It is made similarly to a clove hitch but with one end passed under the other, forming an overhand knot under a riding turn. The double constrictor knot is an even more robust variation that features two riding turns.
Although the description is not entirely without ambiguity, the constrictor knot is thought to have appeared under the name "gunner's knot" in the 1866 work The Book of Knots, written under the pseudonym Tom Bowling. The knot is described in relation to the clove hitch, which he illustrated and called the "builder's knot". He wrote, "The Gunner's knot (of which we do not give a diagram) only differs from the builder's knot, by the ends of the cords being simply knotted before being brought from under the loop which crosses them.", But Bowling is simply an extraction and translation of the knotting work contained in the huge French Traite de L'Art de la Charpenterie, first published in 1841, which says "Le nœud de bombardier, que nous n'avons point figuré, ne differe du nœud d'artificier qu'en ce que les bouts du cordage sont croisés en nœud simple, avant de sortir de dessous la ganse qui les croise, fig.46." When J. T. Burgess copied from Bowling, he changed this text to merely state "when the ends are knotted, the builder's knot becomes the gunner's Knot."Joseph Tom Burgess, Knots, Ties, and Splices (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1884), viii, 101. Although a clove hitch with knotted ends is a workable binding knot, Burgess was not actually describing the constrictor knot. In 1917, A. Hyatt Verrill illustrated Burgess's clove hitch variation in Knots, Splices and Rope Work.A. Hyatt Verrill, Knots, Splices and Rope Work, Third Revised Edition (New York: Norman W. Henly Publishing Co., 1917; 2006 Dover republication), 33-35. ( second revised edition online)
The constrictor knot was clearly described but not pictured as the "timmerknut" ("timber knot") in the 1916 (2nd) edition of the Swedish book Om Knutar ("On Knots") by Hjalmar Öhrvall.Hjalmar Öhrvall, Om Knutar, Second edition, (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag, 1916), 78.( Online version) Finnish scout leader Martta Ropponen presented the knot in her 1931 scouting handbook Solmukirja ("Knot Book"),Martta E. Ropponen, Kaarina Westling illustrator, Solmukirja, Suomen Partioliiton Kirjasia N:4 (Porvoo, Finland: WSOY, 1931), 58-59. one of the first published works known to contain an illustration of the constrictor knot. Cyrus L. Day relates that, "she had never seen it in Finland, she wrote to me in 1954, but had learned about it from a Spaniard named Raphael Gaston, who called it 'whip knot', and told her it was used in the mountains of Spain by muleteers and herdsmen." The Finnish language name "ruoskasolmu" ("whip knot") was a translation from Esperanto, the language Ropponen used to correspond with Gaston. But even this explicit occurrence of the constrictor remains in doubt, as the name "whip knot" is not applied to the constrictor in other works, and otherwise is used for the strangle knot, tied in the ends of whip tails. Also in 1931 – and so of essentially same date as for Ropponen – James Drew presented the constrictor (as a strangle knot that can be tied in the bight) in Lester Griswold's book, "Handicraft"; but Drew did not show it in his on book of knots later published. (As Drew knew Clifford Ashley, it is suspected that he might have learned the knot from him; Ashley does praise Handicraft in his Book of Knots.)
There are also at least three methods to tie the constrictor knot in the bight and slip it over the end of an object to be bound.
Using one hand when the end of the object to tie to is available:
The slipped constrictor can also be tied in the bight and slipped over the object to constrict. Despite its advertised advantage (quick release), the slipped constrictor knot can also be hard to release when worked extremely tight in certain rope materials.
There are two types depending on which direction the two riding turns cross. When the bottom riding turn is along the grove of the ends wrapping around each other on their way out, it gives a slightly lower knot height and may be seen as a strangle knot with an extra riding turn across.
Constrictor knots can be used for temporarily binding the fibres of a rope (or strand ends) together while Rope splicing, or when cutting to length and before properly whipping knot the ends. Constrictor knots can also be quite effective as improvised or . The knot has also been recommended as a surgical knot for ligatures in human and veterinary surgery, where it has been shown to be far superior to any of the knots commonly used for ligation. Noted master-rigging Brion Toss says of the constrictor: "To know the knot is to constantly find uses for it..."
For spearguns, the constrictor knot is the usual knot used to secure modern, toggled, Dyneema, cord wishbones into the hollow, bulk-rubber loops, which are used to power the spear. Usually tied with braid, Kevlar or Dyneema cord of approximately 1.4-2mm diameter.
If the ends have been trimmed short, or the knot is otherwise hopelessly jammed, it can be easily released by cutting the riding turn with a sharp knife. The knot will spring apart as soon as the riding turn is cut. If care is taken not to cut too deeply, the underlying wraps will protect the bound object from being damaged by the knife.Geoffrey Budworth, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots (London: Hermes House, 1999), 159.
If the constricted object (such as a temporarily whipped rope) ends very close to where a constrictor binds it, a boa knot may prove a more stable solution.
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