Overhand knot

The working end forms a loop and passes through it once. As soon as the rope is loaded, the loop tightens around the tucked end and nips it. This creates a lump noticeably wider than the rope itself – enough not to slip through a suitably small eyelet.

Because the curves in an overhand knot are very tight, the rope is squeezed hard under load. That makes it reliable as long as it is meant to stay put, but also hard to untie. In thin cord or twine that rarely matters; in thick rope you want to reuse, it does.

The overhand is also a building block: tuck the end through twice and you get the double overhand. Tuck a bight instead of the end and you get the slipped version, and tied with doubled rope it becomes the overhand loop.

A neat overhand knot looks like a small pretzel with a single tuck: the end leaves the knot on the opposite side from where the standing part enters. Nothing is twisted and the turns lie snug.

Dress the knot before setting it: shape it so the curves are even, then pull evenly on standing part and end. Leave a tail at least several rope diameters long – tails trimmed too short can slip back through the loop under load.

A good test: pull firmly on the standing part and watch whether the tail keeps its length. If it gets visibly shorter, the knot was not set firmly enough.

The most common mistake is a tail that is too short. The second: using the knot where the opening is too large – under load it is simply pulled through, possibly deforming on the way. For larger openings a bulkier stopper (figure-eight, stevedore, double overhand) is the better choice.

After heavy loading the overhand often jams. Don't try to force it or pry it apart with a knife – that damages the rope and risks cutting yourself. Better: flex the knot back and forth in your hand and push it together from both sides until it loosens. A blunt wooden stick can help open up the curves.

The overhand knot is ideal for twine, thin cord and anywhere a knot may stay permanently: at the end of a drawstring, as a stopper behind an eyelet, as a quick fix for a fraying end. It uses hardly any rope and is tied in seconds, even with cold fingers.

It is less suitable when the knot must come undone later, or for thick, stiff rope. Nor does it replace a proper whipping for permanent use. None of the knots in this atlas is meant for life-safety use – not for climbing, abseiling, rescue or holding and lifting people. Life-safety use only after proper training with certified equipment.

Take a piece of cord about an arm's length long. Lay the standing part on the table and move only the working end, exactly as in the diagram, where the working end is orange: form the loop, lead the end through, take it out to the side. Dress and set, then compare with the final picture.

Once that works, tie it without looking, then with gloves on. Try it in two different ropes and feel how differently it tightens and how hard it is to undo afterwards. Along the way you will learn why the figure-eight is the more comfortable choice for many jobs.