A long time ago I learned "as de guía", let me see the translation... bowline. It's the only knot I've ever needed. I know there are a lot of specialized knots for different situations. But this one in particular is like a swiss army knife. Clothes lines, anything to lift, packaging...
If I needed something more specific I'd be happy to learn more.
[1] https://www.animatedknots.com/two-half-hitches-knot
Best advice for learning: get a convenient (2-4' depending on knots) piece of rope, thin enough to be portable, thick enough to be manageable, and practice tying knots as a fidget spinner
Initially it will be tough and require thought, but for a lot of the patterns you can do it without looking after a bit of practice. And repetition breeds memory.
I find I use the midshipman’s knot at least as frequently. It seems I’m always tying knots in lines that need to be adjusted: Boat covers, awnings, tent ropes, etc.
There are 3 (that I know of) different ways to tie it that are worth learning as a next step. One of them lets you prepare it so you can quickly tie it around something and have it invert on itself to form. Another technique actually revels that the bowline is the same as a sheet bend, just using one line folded back on itself to make a loop instead of 2 lines joined. So that’s a freebie (and the sheet bend is a great knot).
It’s super versatile.
I never use the reef knot anymore. Lost a dingy in Greece because I trusted it for about 5 minutes. I find it works itself free really easily.
Hmmm... I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.
Knots on the other hand probably mostly only use the existing wiring scheme, so unless you have really bad hand/finger coordination you don't need to change how the muscles (of only arm - slightly, hand, fingers) are activated and used.
Purely intellectual knowledge is easily forgotten unless used, but activities that required certain neurons for proprioception and muscle control to find new connections remain much more easily - also takes a lot longer to gain.
For example, I can tie a bowline as well as most bowline-like knots (ex: sheet bend) without a recipe and even come up with variants on the fly, and I don't think I will ever forget that. This is, of course, after tying a lot of bowlines and forgetting recipes dozens of times.
I think that's for your "riding a bike" analogy. Really understanding a knot takes time and effort, but allows you to remember and even improvise. Memorizing a recipe is faster, more efficient, but easier to forget.
Square knot most people already know. Tautline and bowline are the two worth memorizing being able to do soaking wet in the dark.
So like, 4 essential knots: Figure 8, square knot, bowline, hitch. The map, filter, fold, and reduce of knots, if you will. Most everything else can be composed from those.
(this is omitting a few "foundation" knots like the overhand)
Knots are kind of like manual transmission. It's a skill that everybody used to have until it was replaced by a more convenient technology that nobody had to learn.
So for me, the realization that with a little knowledge I could obsolete an entire classification of annoying and breakable connectors got me to finally sit down and study knots.
1: https://www.animatedknots.com/truckers-hitch-knot 2: https://www.animatedknots.com/alpine-butterfly-loop-knot
To echo others, if you have interest to learn just one thing, learn the bowline. You can get through life knowing just that.
- figure 8 - clove hitch - klemheist - overhand bend - girth hitch - munter hitch - prussik - ring bend - double fishermans - bowline
I went down a rabbit hole recently surveying the "current internet wisdom" regarding the use of the double bowline with fisherman as a tie in knot for the climber ...
To recap briefly -- figure 8 follow through is the standard tie in knot that everyone is taught. It's easy to tie, easy to verify visually, and secure -- but it's hard to untie after being weighted by a fall.
That last fact matters a lot when sport climbing when taking big falls a lot is expected. Hence the several different versions of the bowline ... which is also secure if tied properly, easier to tie wrong, harder to verify visually, but extremely easy to untie after weighting ... Unfortunately there's a bit of a controversy in the climbing world regarding "what people are likely to do wrong" and whether those kinds of risks should guide people towards not using the double bowline as a tie in ... there are also multiple variations of the bowline -- some of which actually are less secure ...
Personally I've been using the double bowline with a fisherman finishing knot for years now when sport climbing -- but it's a bitch to say it ... -- but I think a worthy addition to your list (or at least a clarification that the regular bowline by itself is not really used for anything in climbing)
It's described in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAr-uHd8h8o Skip to 13:20 for the interesting part.
But I think that as rope wears and as humidity goes up -- you'll still easily find situations where the knot was correctly tied but still a lot of effort to untie after load ...
And 12-18 seconds to untie is still a lot more time required than untie'ing the double bowline ... And he's showing figure 8 on a bite so he doesn't have to take the extra seconds to undo the figure 8 after ... that's not a huge deal but the double bowline is still imo easier to tie, faster to tie, and faster/more ergonomic to untie -- and also of course, harder to verify that it was tied safely by visual inspection ...
I hate that knot, and never understood its widespread popularity. It tends to jam and slip. I guess that there are cases where these combined properties are useful, for example if you want to make things adjustable, but most of the times, I just find it unsafe and hard to control.
I did a bit of sailing and while the clove hitch was taught early, we almost never used it. I'd say the most useful list include, from memory: bowline - figure 8 - two half hitches - cleat hitch - reef knot, and of course, proper coiling.
About the reef knot. It is also called the square knot, and it should be used only when appropriate (ex: on reefing), it can be dangerous when misused.
I also tried a more... adult kind of knot tying and the clove hitch is generally a bad idea.
It's what I use between my harness and the anchor to tie myself to the belay
I have used it with, say, guy lines on a tent, and it is finicky there, or around a tree... but with a 9mm climbing rope and a carabiner it's quite good.
It's easy to inspect, it is easy to tell if you've tied a girth or munter hitch on accident, and it's easy to untie by removing the carabiner.
Best of all, it's very easy to adjust without fully undoing the knot, and so you can change the length of the tether quickly.
Maybe because in reality I have almost no use whatsoever for knot-tying, as cool as it is.