One-sided overhand bend

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Overhand Bend

Names	Overhand Bend, European Death Knot, One-Sided Overhand Bend, Thumb knot, Openhand Knot
Category	bend
Related	Overhand knot, Water knot
Typical use	climbing, rappelling.
ABoK	#1410

The Overhand Bend (EDK, One-sided Overhand bend) is a knot used as a simple method of joining two ropes together.

1 Tying
2 Usage in Rock Climbing and Mountaineering
3 General Usage
4 References

[edit] Tying

1 Take a Bight of both ropes.

2 Keeping the ropes parallel to each other form a loop.

3 Run both ends through the loop.

Leave tails of appropriate length for application.

If the ropes are of different diameters (or flexibility), the thinner (or more flexible) rope should be in the position shown in the image by the blue rope, and the safety overhand stopper should be tied with this.

[edit] Usage in Rock Climbing and Mountaineering

The Overhand Bend is used for joining two ropes for a rappels longer than half of the standard 50 to 60 meter ropes. American climbers often refer to it as the European Death Knot. It is prone to catastrophic knot failure (capsizing), but initial failures of these knots can reform the knot tighter. [1][2]

Because the bulk of the knot is not inline with the rope it can slide more easily over mountain terrain than other bends. Its small size aides in rope retrieval by reducing its chance of getting stuck in cracks or descent equipment. These factors along with its ease of tying have made it popular with climbers. It can be made more secure by tying off one end around the other with an overhand stopper knot, snug to itself.

A similar knot, the One-Sided Figure Eight Bend has been used in the belief that its greater size brings more security but the evidence of at least one tragic failure and some testing shows the knot may possibly be less secure, more prone to capsize and in doing so to consume much more of the ends than does an Overhand Bend. Moreover, while there is one obvious proper dressing of the Overhand Bend, there are a couple of dressings that can arise for the Offset Figure Eight Bend.

See also European Death Knot

[edit] General Usage

Outside of rock climbing, the Overhand Bend is fairly commonplace, as it is a quite simple and easily tied bend. It is used, for example, on shopping tag strings. The knot has also been called "Flat Overhand", "Double Overhand", and "Thumb Bend"; the first name is a misnomer, the second has another, established denotation, and the third while good doesn't provide for the subclass of these offset bends.