knotwork

How-To: Quick ropecraft laptop shoulder sling

It’s probably not much good against the rain, but this handy bit of urban fieldcraft from YouTuber sumitsumit would be hard to beat for showing off your DIY-fu at the local hackerspace, coffeeshop, or school. Pretty much guaranteed to impress that attractive gentleman or lady in your engineering class. It takes about 20′ of rope, includes an adjustable shoulder-strap, and–I suspect–could probably be tied or untied in ten seconds or less with practice. I don’t want to spoil sumitsumit’s reveal, so I didn’t include a screen-cap, but you can scan forward to 4:20 to see the finished product. [via Boing Boing]

How to tie a sheepshank

How to tie a sheepshank

Were you down at the archery range when your scoutmaster showed you how to tie a this handy knot? Wikihow shows you the moves. The sheepshank is a useful knot for two purposes. It can be used to temporarily shorten a rope or it could be used to allow a rope with a damaged or […]

Cool Idea:  Bannister ropes

Cool Idea: Bannister ropes

Image courtesy W.R. Outhwaite & Son, Ropemakers. Depending on where you live, this may be old hat for you, but I’ve lived 30 years on this earth and never seen a rope bannister before. And I just finished remodeling my staircase too. Besides being less expensive, easier to ship, easier to install, and way more […]