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Hey everyone. I've Starting construction for a practice meteor, even though my dryer is broken again I started using my clothesline to practice make monkey fist knots last night. I switched to a light nylon cord after half an hour. How do you guys effectively tighten (and keep even) the strands?
I've noticed in my three strand monkey fist (wrapped around an old marble) there were pretty big gaps. In the five strand wrapped around a bouncy ball I had a difficult time getting everything perfectly symmetrical. Is it just a matter of practice and taking time to pull each strand tight and adjust consistantly throughout or does anyone have any tricks? The five strand monkey fist looks pretty nifty until you start comparing each of the sections and notice the strands even in one section don't always have the same length.
I've noticed in my three strand monkey fist (wrapped around an old marble) there were pretty big gaps. In the five strand wrapped around a bouncy ball I had a difficult time getting everything perfectly symmetrical. Is it just a matter of practice and taking time to pull each strand tight and adjust consistantly throughout or does anyone have any tricks? The five strand monkey fist looks pretty nifty until you start comparing each of the sections and notice the strands even in one section don't always have the same length.
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Cincinnati
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Re: Monkey see Monkey do
Tue, February 27, 2007 - 8:33 AMBasically it's all time and tightening. Start out loose creating the knot pattern but keeping things in place as well as possible, and make sure your direction changes are consistent and well formed. That change in direction of the rope can deform a knot pretty well if it's neglected. then, when all the wraps are in loose place, tighten it in stages. Initial stage pulls the slack out and places all the loops nicely together. Second stage is a good hand tightening. For the third (and sometimes fourth and fifth) stage(s) I use a tool of some sort (I a small allen wrench works well) to dig in and grab one thread at a time, and tighten it down fully.
I use a 3/8" nylon rope for mine. I'm thinking of going slightly larger, but it works fine as is.
I hope that helps.
Peace,
- Sui -
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Re: Monkey see Monkey do
Tue, February 27, 2007 - 9:22 AMThanks! Yeah, I noticed the direction changes were more likely to cause warping. A screwdriver helped immensely last night as well. I'm looking into som 15-20 mm hemp rope for the practice (non-fire) meteor I want to make. It's pricy so I'm shopping around right now.
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Re: Monkey see Monkey do
Tue, February 27, 2007 - 12:13 PMalso if you have gaps between cords still, your ball may be too big for the number of wraps you are using. If the knot is still deforming your ball may be too small :) -
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Re: Monkey see Monkey do
Tue, February 27, 2007 - 2:08 PMAh!
I'm on my third type of material.
I've wrapped a three loop monkey fist in light leather cord around a bead. This one is pretty perfect though I'll admit the leather worked very well in holding it's shape as I tweaked the placement of the loops. -
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Re: Monkey see Monkey do
Wed, February 28, 2007 - 5:11 PMneedle nose plyers.
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