Figure-of-eight knot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Figure-of-eight knot

Names	Figure-of-eight knot, Figure-eight knot, Savoy knot, Flemish knot, double stopper
Category	stopper
Efficiency	80%
Origin	Ancient
Related	Stevedore knot, Figure-of-eight loop, Figure-of-eight follow through, In-line figure-of-eight
Releasing	Non-jamming
Typical use	General-purpose stopper knot. Replaces the common overhand knot in many uses.
ABoK	#569

The figure-of-eight knot is a type of knot. It is very important in both sailing and rock climbing as a method of stopping ropes from running out of retaining devices.

Different types of figure-of-eight knots:

Double figure-of-eight knot, (figure-of-eight loop): used like an overhand loop knot. This type of knot can be used in prusik climbing when used in conjunction with a swiss seat, a climbing rope, and locking carabiner designed for climbing, to assend or descend with minimal equipment and effort.
Figure-of-eight splice knot: used to quickly and effectively splice two ropes of equal, or unequal diameter together. This knot consists of a loose figure-of-eight knot made in one rope, and feeding the lesser diameter of the two back through the figure-of-eight starting from the original knot's running end and retracing the rope through the figure-of-eight until the second ropes running end is parallel with the first's ropes standing end, essentially creating a figure-of-eight within a figure-of-eight. This can be a permanent or temporary approach to splicing ropes together and the anatomy of this knot allows two ropes to be spliced without slipping, however, it causes strength loss as with most knots. A blood knot is a better knot for rope splicing, but is more difficult to achieve.