Sheepshank Sheepshank A shank is a type of knot that is used to shorten a rope or take up slack, such as the sheepshank. The sheepshank knot is not stable. It will fall apart under too much load or too little load. The knot has several features which allow a rope to be shortened: A sheepshank knot may be constructed as follows: ... An alternative method for quickly constructing a sheepshank is as follows: The result is a flattened loop which is held at each end by a half hitch. If the sides of the flattened loop are pulled away from
Becket hitch line, then tucked under inside the first bend. Becket hitch A becket hitch, including the double becket or figure-of-eight becket hitch, is any hitch that is made on an eye loop, i.e. on a becket. A becket hitch has the same structure as the sheet bend, which joins, or "bends", the ends of two ropes together. The becket hitch, in contrast, fixes a rope to a closed eye or hook. In this instance, a "becket" means the eye or hook of a pulley block, an eye in the end of a rope, or a rope handle on a sailors sea