Background

The monkey's fist is originally a knot used by sailors to weigh the end of a line so has to throw and pass it. As such, it has become a symbol for solidarity.

It can also be made heavier by inserting a stone in the core and gradually tightening the knot around it.

Sailors, in the 19th century, commonly used it on the end of a small rope as an easily concealed, unconspicuous weapon.

Comments

[creative zen]

*GASP* ...My name!

[emoangelion]

wow. mine's creative too. but the very slim one.

[sthealthraider]

tuck a earbud in it!

[DarkSelenia]

Thank you! I have always wanted to learn to make a monkey's fist, now I have spent half of the evenin tying too long electric wires shorter.. Looks nicer than just meters of wire all around the floors. <3

[sssssbooom]

I did this and it looks great but some times I find myself putting the knot in my ear instead of my ear bud kind of funny, great instructable

[chicgeek]

I found the video quite clear enough. Great technique! Just used it - thank you!

[Whaleman]

Woohoo! That is the same MP3 I have! How many songs do you have one yours? I have around 230 on mine.....

[HIGHVOLTAGE-Z]

this is hard i dont know where you putthe rope after you roll it around the second time

[sam noyoun]

look at this instructable then... it will make it clearer: http://www.instructables.com/id/ELWFT4DF1L8VZFF/

[tankinreaper]

monkey fist<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g103/detachedbody/fc.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

[IMG]http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g103/detachedbody/fc.jpg[/IMG]

[sam noyoun]

Tighten it slowly and progressively... Don't try to tighten it all at once. It takes maybe three times before it looks good. Also, make sure all the strands stay side by side.

[tankinreaper]

this thing is awsome but i have some trouble tightening it.

[sam noyoun]

yeah... it takes a while... you kinda have to to it bit by bit.

[bigpinecone]

CREATIVE KICKS ASS great instructable

[blackhistorymonth]

Neat!

[royalestel]

I think this is cool. I don't have a problem with you making money on your instructable, and ewihelm doesn't either. Heck, he's making money on it . . .

[Weissensteinburg]

who said he's making money off it?

[royalestel]

Eh? Instructables gets ad money from every page view. Just like Google. Can't run a huge site like this for free, you know.

[Weissensteinburg]

but how does he make money off of it?

[royalestel]

I believe ewilhelm runs instructables. So when instructables makes money, ewilhelm makes money.

ewilhelm has no problem with ladyada making money off of MintyBoost, and so I personally don't see a problem with this page, but I don't speak for Squid Labs.

[Weissensteinburg]

but how does ladyada make money?

[royalestel]

Dude. Read. The. Pages. On. The. Links. Ladyada sells kits of MintyBoost that she advertised here.

[Weissensteinburg]

Is there something about metacafe that gets you money?

[Weissensteinburg]

Oh yeah, i've seen that..still though, how does someone make a money off of how to tie a knot?

[royalestel]

Are you just trollingme now? C'mon google or wikipedia metacafe.

[Weissensteinburg]

ahh, i see. I didn't realize that it was any different from youtube or putfile.

[Jack Daniels]

this is hardly an instructable the video was very unclear through most of it on how you thread the jack. please either stop spaming metacafe or make better instructables

[royalestel]

Actually, I thought the video was very clear. It seems to be a simple knot that looks complex, but he shows it very slowly. Did you mean it was a bit blurry?

[Weissensteinburg]

You think this is a bad instructable, when you have one on deleting your post and reposting if you mess up?

[sam noyoun]

You can hardly accuse me of spamming... I am merely embedding a player! You might find the video unclear, but I am sure some people will be interested in the idea. Also, it has the merit of showing you how to tie the monkey's fist around your fingers.

[LasVegas]

Not to mention that the bucks you make from the added viewers doesn't hurt either.

[sam noyoun]

Well, that does not hurt either, but to be honest, we are talking peanuts here...

[InfamousKirch]

I've been trying to figure out the 'details' of tying this knot for a while because I've found alot of unclear instructions .... but this helped me out alot. thank you .... p.s. I think most people's complaint about metacafe thing is that almost ALL your instructables are on metacafe....

[sam noyoun]

Well yeah, I made a bunch of "howto" videos for metacafe. When I discovered instructables.com, rather than having to redo everything, I decided to use the videos I already had. I've made some of them into 'proper' instructables though...

[InfamousKirch]

I think people are just trying to be a little "elitist" about instructables... but then again there are alot of stupid instructables (like some for making food that is just "Buy it ready-made & cook it") ... But yours are actually useful. thank you for all your neat instructables...

[ledzeppie]

this really doesnt work with headphones with thin wiring....my rubber coating around the wires ripped

[bigpinecone]

my first one looks more like a nice pile 'o monkey poo rather than a fist lol other wise it's nice

[papa-g]

For people who are interested in knots, there is a great book (still in print after 60 years!) call the Ashley Book of Knots, by Clifford Ashley. nearly 4000 knots are described and a full history on knots and their uses.

[ongissim]

If you have time to make a video, why can't you take pictures on how to make the knot?

[Shark500]

it would be dificult to take pictures of tieing a knot, this is jst good if not better.