Bowline draws tighter as tension is placed on the standing part of the rope. The "Birmingham bowline" has two loops; the working part is passed twice around the standing part (the "rabbit" makes two trips out of the hole and around the tree). Other two-loop bowline knots include the Spanish bowline and the bowline on the bight; these can be tied in the middle of a rope without access to the ends. A triple bowline is used to make three loops. A Cossack knot is a bowline where the running end goes around the loop-start rather than the main part and
Knot factors come into play. Even if the rope does not break, a knot may still fail to hold. Knots that hold firm under a variety of adverse conditions are said to be more secure than those that do not. Repeated, dynamic loads will cause virtually every knot to fail. The main ways knots fail to hold are: The load creates tension that pulls the rope back through the knot in the direction of the load. If this continues far enough, the working end passes into the knot and the knot unravels and fails. This behavior can worsen when the knot