Figure-eight knot

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Figure-eight knot" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Figure-eight knot
Names	Figure-eight knot, figure-of-eight knot, Savoy knot, Flemish knot, double stopper
Category	Stopper
Efficiency	80%
Origin	Ancient
Related	Stevedore knot, figure-eight loop, figure-eight follow through, directional figure eight
Releasing	Jamming
Typical use	General-purpose stopper knot. Replaces the common overhand knot in many uses.
ABoK	#420 #520 #570
Conway Notation	2 2
A/B notation	41
Instructions	[1]

The figure-eight knot or figure-of-eight knot is a type of stopper knot. It is very important in both sailing and rock climbing as a method of stopping ropes from running out of retaining devices. Like the overhand knot, which will jam under strain, often requiring the rope to be cut, the figure-eight will also jam, but is usually more easily undone than the overhand knot.

The figure-eight or figure-of-eight knot is also called (in books) the Flemish knot. The name figure-of-eight knot appears in Lever's Sheet Anchor; or, a Key to Rigging (London, 1808). The word "of" is nowadays usually omitted. The knot is the sailor's common single-strand stopper knot and is tied in the ends of tackle falls and running rigging, unless the latter is fitted with monkey's tails. It is used about ship wherever a temporary stopper knot is required. The figure-eight is much easier to untie than the overhand, it does not have the same tendency to jam and so injure the fiber, and is larger, stronger, and equally secure.

— The Ashley Book of Knots^[1]

The stevedore knot is the figure-eight knot with two half twists added before the end is finally stuck.