MSCantrell
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2005
- Messages
- 1,213
Hi all,
This afternoon I spent some time tying up monkey's fists (interesting story about origin of name below).
Here I've got four monkey's fists: one, I melted the ends of the rope together. That one will have to attach to your knife with a split-ring, like your keys are on, probably.
The other three, the ends are loose. I melted the ends so they wouldn't fray. They're all made of black 550 cord, the real stuff, from www.countycomm.com.
I love these, because they sit at the top of your pocket, making it super easy to grab your knife out.
Also pictured is a Chris Reeve lanyard in green paracord. Can't tell you whether it's real cord or not, it came with a knife I traded for. Very nicely tied, that much is sure.
I'd like to trade all five of these for a small EDC type knife. Spyderco Delica, Meerkat, maybe Navigator, something that size would be ideal. Benchmade Pika or Mini-grip. Probably would be interested in a Queen slippie in D2.
Having said that, I'll gladly entertain all offers. Can't hurt, right? Email mscantrell at gmail.com
Thanks!
Mike
Now, the STORY:
This comes in two parts; together, they explain the name "monkey's fist."
As I understand it, monkeys are like raccoons in that they are stupidly tenacious about gripping things- so much so that hunters use the trait against them. A traditional coon/monkey trap involves a coin in the bottom of a hole in a log. The coon/monkey reaches in to grab the shiny object, and when it lays hold of it, nothing can persuade it to let go, not even the fact that its fattened fist won't come out of the hole. (Some variations involve downward-pointing nails, etc, to trap the fist.) That's one part of the story; when a coon/monkey grabs something, it doesn't let go.
The next part is this: sailors have always had to tie ships to docks with heavy cables, but it's well-nigh impossible to toss a 4-inch-diameter rope any useful distance. So you throw a skinny rope to the dock, and if one end of the skinny rope is tied to the end of the heavy rope, someone on the dock can pull the heavy rope through the water by means of the skinny rope and tie up the ship.
And how do you throw a light, skinny rope? It's TOO light to throw through the air. Well, you put something heavy in the end. Like a lead ball. And when you invent a knot that can reliably grip a round object (not easy to do) and never let go, what do you name it? Monkey's fist.
This afternoon I spent some time tying up monkey's fists (interesting story about origin of name below).
Here I've got four monkey's fists: one, I melted the ends of the rope together. That one will have to attach to your knife with a split-ring, like your keys are on, probably.
The other three, the ends are loose. I melted the ends so they wouldn't fray. They're all made of black 550 cord, the real stuff, from www.countycomm.com.
I love these, because they sit at the top of your pocket, making it super easy to grab your knife out.
Also pictured is a Chris Reeve lanyard in green paracord. Can't tell you whether it's real cord or not, it came with a knife I traded for. Very nicely tied, that much is sure.
I'd like to trade all five of these for a small EDC type knife. Spyderco Delica, Meerkat, maybe Navigator, something that size would be ideal. Benchmade Pika or Mini-grip. Probably would be interested in a Queen slippie in D2.
Having said that, I'll gladly entertain all offers. Can't hurt, right? Email mscantrell at gmail.com
Thanks!
Mike
Now, the STORY:
This comes in two parts; together, they explain the name "monkey's fist."
As I understand it, monkeys are like raccoons in that they are stupidly tenacious about gripping things- so much so that hunters use the trait against them. A traditional coon/monkey trap involves a coin in the bottom of a hole in a log. The coon/monkey reaches in to grab the shiny object, and when it lays hold of it, nothing can persuade it to let go, not even the fact that its fattened fist won't come out of the hole. (Some variations involve downward-pointing nails, etc, to trap the fist.) That's one part of the story; when a coon/monkey grabs something, it doesn't let go.
The next part is this: sailors have always had to tie ships to docks with heavy cables, but it's well-nigh impossible to toss a 4-inch-diameter rope any useful distance. So you throw a skinny rope to the dock, and if one end of the skinny rope is tied to the end of the heavy rope, someone on the dock can pull the heavy rope through the water by means of the skinny rope and tie up the ship.
And how do you throw a light, skinny rope? It's TOO light to throw through the air. Well, you put something heavy in the end. Like a lead ball. And when you invent a knot that can reliably grip a round object (not easy to do) and never let go, what do you name it? Monkey's fist.