Tags :: §rope handling (Shibari)
The most common way to join rope §finished with §stopper knots is to form a §lark's head in the new rope and tighten it against the knots.
For whipped rope, you can tie a temporary overhand knot in order to use this technique, which can alos be useful for setting the length of the join (see Lux video below).
To undo, simply pull the "lip" of the lark's head and it will fall off the rope.
For rope which is §whipped, this won't work as the lark's head will slip off the end. Instead, you can bend it into a §square knot, which will hold OK. However, the square knot can capsize under significant pressure.
To undo, note that the tails of the old rope now form a "U" shape in the knot. Simply pull the tails to straighten out this U to get back to your lark's head, which is then easily undone.
This will not work in "slippery" rope, in which case the next two methods are more appropriate.
Another method is the §sheet bend, which is popular and can be used to join ropes of different diameters (or rope to a handkerchief, for example), at any point in the old rope. However, I dislike this, as you have to tie an overhand knot in an awkward way.
To undo, simply pull the bight of the new rope, and the ropes should disconnect very easily.
My favoured method for joining rope is the §lapp knot, which is a little more obscure. This is nicer than the sheet bend because you can wrap the bight of the new rope around the tails of the old rope, pull the tails through the bight, then pull the new rope hard to complete the join.
It is very important that the new rope isn't bent in the end result, as this results in an insecure knot which will fall apart easily. This happens if, when wrapping the bight around the tails, you allow the bight to twist or you pull the bight towards the tails. Remember to only pull the tails towards the bight, not the bight towards the tails, keeping the new rope straight.
To undo, simply pull the bight of the new rope so that the tails pop out, and the ropes should disconnect very easily.
Unlike the prior techniques, which are for joining two ropes "as one", you can use an §overhand knot to tie a new rope anywhere on a completed form. This is very common in §Japanese-style Shibari.
A similar but less effective, §Western style option is to tie a §cow hitch.