Tie a knot as tight as possible

[jzmtl]

Let's say if I want a knot as tight as possible (short lanyard on my byrd robin with paracord), besides yank on the end with a big plier, would a wet or dry rope yield a tighter knot?

 

[Salamander42]

I believe that if you tie the knot wet with just about any kind of rope it will be as tight or tighter than if you tied the same knot with dry rope.

That having been said, I don't like to tie knots for lanyards that I can't untie if I want to. A simple figure eight knot is very unlikely to come untied if you use it on a lanyard, and you can untie it pretty easily when tied in para cord sized line.

I usually tie my lanyard into a hangman's noose fob to keep it from dangling and snagging on things. Then if I end up in a situation where I'm using the knife over water or someplace elevated I can untie the fob and use the cord either for a lanyard or to tether the knife to my belt. . . The length is usually a bit short for a tether, but works alright unless I really have to reach to make a cut.

 

[Watchful]

It can depend on whether the rope is natural or synthetic as well. A synthetic rope will be less likely to tighten over a damp hemp. But there are a lot of exceptions.

That said, you shouldn't tie a knot you yourself can't undo. If you can't get your knot to stay tied, use a different knot.

 

[Ebbtide]

The whole object of good knotwork is to tie knots that hold and are possible to untie.
A properly tied knot doesn't need to be wetted or tied incredibly tight to hold.

A word of caution on having the knife tethered to your person.
If the tether pulls tight while your hand is still moving away from the anchor point, it aint gunna be pretty.
Same thing goes for a dangling lanyard loop. Knife in hand, loop catches and a bad wreck is right there ready to happen.

 

[billym]

A simple over hand knot will stay tight. I actually rappel off what we climbers sometimes call the Euro death knot; looks scary but is safe. The over hand is very reliable as a knot to tie two climbing ropes together for a full rope length rappel so it would work fine for the end of a knife lanyard too.

 

[jzmtl]

On another note, how do you stop paracords from fraying? A knot at the end?

 

[Vorpal Blade]

On another note, how do you stop paracords from fraying? A knot at the end?

Melt the end a little with a lighter or other flame. Much less bulky and more permanent than a knot.

 

[coote]

I assume the 'byrd robin' is a knife.

I'm with Ebbtide on saying that it can be dangerous to have a tethered knife. I had a knife tethered to my kayak to use while fishing. I moved suddenly in the kayak while using the knife. The knife got pulled through my closed hand. The cut was not bad at all thank goodness, but I stopped tethering the knife after that. I tethered the sheath instead and carried a spare knife.

I am not sure that I understand exactly what you want your knot to do. But here is a knot that can be adapted to a lot of purposes. The pictured 'joining knot' is made up of two identical knots, and one of these knots can be tied with the end of the cord back on to itself to make a sliding loop that will hold tightly. When tying the knot, it is easy to upset the order of the turns to make a less efficient, more ugly knot. But if you keep everything 'crossed over' nicely, the result is very reliable. It is, however, difficult or nearly impossible to untie once it has been pulled tight...unless you make the 'slipped' version by doubling the end of the rope to make a tail that you can pull on to undo it. But even then it might pull so tight that undoing it will be difficult: