Great Knots & How to Tie Them

Rating:
Summary: Lewis loves knots and this book expresses his passion.
Review: I needed to know how to correctly tie knots because of my new hobby - sailing. When the main sheet is flapping and the lines are swinging wildly, you gotta' tie a good knot quickly.

`Great Knots' gives 175 examples of knots. Now there are a few knots that you probably will not use (Hangman's Noose, Shamrock, etc.) but others that can be used daily. Regardless, if you want a fancy knot or just a real simple knot, Derrick Lewis will show you how to tie it right.

The book has excellent color photos of every knot, and most of the photos show the knot being used . . . the hangman's noose a notable exception. The examples are good and generally easy to follow, though not as easy as the step-by-step color illustrations found in Budworth's `The Complete Book of Sailing Knots (see my review). Expert instructions at a very impressive price makes this a very good purchase . Recommended

Rating:
Summary: Lewis loves knots and this book expresses his passion.
Review: I needed to know how to correctly tie knots because of my new hobby - sailing. When the main sheet is flapping and the lines are swinging wildly, you gotta' tie a good knot quickly.

'Great Knots' gives 175 examples of knots. Now there are a few knots that you probably will not use (Hangman's Noose, Shamrock, etc.) but others that can be used daily. Regardless, if you want a fancy knot or just a real simple knot, Derrick Lewis will show you how to tie it right.

The book has excellent color photos of every knot, and most of the photos show the knot being used . . . the hangman's noose a notable exception. The examples are good and generally easy to follow, though not as easy as the step-by-step color illustrations found in Budworth's 'The Complete Book of Sailing Knots (see my review). Expert instructions at a very impressive price makes this a very good purchase . Recommended

Rating:
Summary: I'm being generous with 1 star!
Review: The book doesn't live up to its 'impressive' title. One of the 'Top 50 reviewers' seems to at least try and give a attempt at an honest review with out being too cutting the other doesn't seem to have ever picked up a piece of rope. This book is almost all glitz with very little substance. It is mediocre at best. I think a beginner or un-knowledgeable person would be confused by bad descriptions that don't match up with pictures, pictures that show bad or misleading implementations and uses, good diagrams with bad descriptions, good descriptions with bad diagrams. It was impressive at first with clean photographic work on slick paper but when you delve into the substance and really look at the work then you see more and more flaws. Yes, it is cheap -- but this is one case where you get your $s worth.

Rating:
Summary: I'm being generous with 1 star!
Review: The book doesn't live up to its 'impressive' title. One of the 'Top 50 reviewers' seems to at least try and give a attempt at an honest review with out being too cutting the other doesn't seem to have ever picked up a piece of rope. This book is almost all glitz with very little substance. It is mediocre at best. I think a beginner or un-knowledgeable person would be confused by bad descriptions that don't match up with pictures, pictures that show bad or misleading implementations and uses, good diagrams with bad descriptions, good descriptions with bad diagrams. It was impressive at first with clean photographic work on slick paper but when you delve into the substance and really look at the work then you see more and more flaws. Yes, it is cheap -- but this is one case where you get your $s worth.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad but could be better
Review: This book contains a good variety of knots for various uses. Pretty much any knot that you are likely to need is here somewhere. The photographs and the drawings are very good when taken by themselves however the book suffers terribly when it comes to consistency and also leaves a few things out. For example, it shows a seized half hitch by showing how to tie the half hitch and then saying to "lash small stuff around the ends to secure". It does not say how to lash the smaller cord. Some people would also find it confusing that the illustrations on how to tie a knot sometimes do not match with the photograph of the finished knot. For example, the half hitch picture shows the standing end of the rope toward you and the illustrations show tieing it with the standing end away from you. Also the taunt line hitch (an extremely useful knot) in the photograph is around the standing end of the same rope (the most common way of tieing it) and the illustration appears to be tieing it around a pole of some type. If you already have a basic understanding of knots then it is easy enough to figure out and follow and a good book to use to expand your knowledge of knots. If you are a complete novice then you may find some difficulty following along but the extra effort is worth it when you get one figured out and tied right.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad but could be better
Review: This book contains a good variety of knots for various uses. Pretty much any knot that you are likely to need is here somewhere. The photographs and the drawings are very good when taken by themselves however the book suffers terribly when it comes to consistency and also leaves a few things out. For example, it shows a seized half hitch by showing how to tie the half hitch and then saying to "lash small stuff around the ends to secure". It does not say how to lash the smaller cord. Some people would also find it confusing that the illustrations on how to tie a knot sometimes do not match with the photograph of the finished knot. For example, the half hitch picture shows the standing end of the rope toward you and the illustrations show tieing it with the standing end away from you. Also the taunt line hitch (an extremely useful knot) in the photograph is around the standing end of the same rope (the most common way of tieing it) and the illustration appears to be tieing it around a pole of some type. If you already have a basic understanding of knots then it is easy enough to figure out and follow and a good book to use to expand your knowledge of knots. If you are a complete novice then you may find some difficulty following along but the extra effort is worth it when you get one figured out and tied right.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: This is another BAD book about knots. It appears that a publisher wanted a knot book, or an author wanted to be published? Worse, the book plagirizes good a good text and in crude paraphrasing renders even that advice as nonsense. A general failing of the book is that the pretty photos of tied knots are simply NOT of what they propose to be, and that the diagrams are unclear (and sometimes wrong). In short, this book seems to have been hastily prepared by an uniformed author, without regard for standards of care in advice or courtesy in acknowledging sources (there are no acknowledgements, and no info re author, such as credentials). (I'll spare this review my long list of compiled errors, but here is one: p.82 purports to show a mooring hitch; it doesn't even show a knot that will retain form!)