Pocket Guide to Knots & Splices

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginning knotters!
Review: I checked out his first book from the local library, and I was impressed with the photos and detail. So, I figured that this second book would be just as good. It is more than good... it is great! The photos are very colorful, the details are easy to follow, and the book has more content. Plus, the physical size of the book makes it stay open while you have your hands busy with a rope. Now, I leave it on the coffee table with a hank of rope to help entertain guests. Thank you Des Pawson. Your book has brought me a new hobby!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginning knotters!
Review: I checked out his first book from the local library, and I was impressed with the photos and detail. So, I figured that this second book would be just as good. It is more than good... it is great! The photos are very colorful, the details are easy to follow, and the book has more content. Plus, the physical size of the book makes it stay open while you have your hands busy with a rope. Now, I leave it on the coffee table with a hank of rope to help entertain guests. Thank you Des Pawson. Your book has brought me a new hobby!

Rating:
Summary: Knot for beginners
Review: If you thought you learned everything there is to know about knots while you were in the Boy Scouts -- think again!

Before I bought this book, the only knots I knew about where the ones I tied my shoelaces with. And even those knots weren't as effective as I'd hoped.

"The Pocket Guide to Knots and Splices" is the ideal resource for the rope-smith on the go. With a number of knots to choose from, the only difficult part of this book is deciding which knot to try first. I found that the "Sink Stopper" knot does a good job of doing just what it says. However, my attempts to find a productive use for the "Monkey Fist" have produced only disastrous (and painful) results.

Don't be intimidated - grab your substantial length of rope and start tying! Because there's an exciting world of knots waiting for you!

Rating:
Summary: Good and bad
Review: Some fine information from a very knowledgeable and interesting knot expert. Beautifully illustrated and laid out, but the step-by-step illustrations require magnification to be of any utility. I find it difficult to hold a magnifying glass and tie a knot at the same time. Even then, some of those illustrations are with such dark rope that they are still a puzzle. For "bowline on a bight," the illustrations don't follow the text. I lost interest in pursuing that exercise, so I'm not sure how unusual that error is.

The lack of an index is the biggest killer. Isn't an index an absolute must in a book such as this? That deficit is compounded by the hiding of the table of contents, and compounded again by the only actual listing of knots being hidden in, and divided among, the chapter headings. My guess is that to get the book to fit in 256 pages (16 sixteens) the publisher simply dropped the index and stuffed the table of contents into the reverse of the title. Extremely poor choices of where to cut. Either lazy or placing style over utility.

Consider this a "miniature coffee table book," and buy or pass on that basis. Get the "Handbook of Knots" by the same author, or any of several other good knot books, for an actual guide to knots.