Hangman's Noose Pack Closure

I've had this military backpack for several years. Over midterms the pull string closure broke. Because it broke during midterms I had alot of time to think about how to fix it. I had thought of several ways to fix it but I ended with what I thought was the best one.

In this instructable you will learn to tie a Hangman's Noose and a Monkey Fist and put them together to make an awesome closure for a military backpack

Wikipedia Background Knowledge

The hangman's knot or hangman's noose (also known as a collar during the Elizabethan era) is a well-known knot most often associated with its use in hanging. For a hanging, the knot of the rope is typically placed under or just behind the left ear. When the condemned drops to the end of the rope, the force is supposed to break the neck. The knot is non-jamming but tends to resist attempts to loosen it.

A monkey's fist or monkey paw is a type of knot, so named because it looks somewhat like a small bunched fist/paw. It also looks somewhat like a volleyball or an older style football. It is tied at the end of a rope to serve as a weight, making it easier to throw, and also as an ornamental knot. This type of weighted rope can be used as an improvised weapon, called a slungshot by sailors. It was also used in the past as an anchor in rock climbing, by stuffing it into a crack, but this is obsolete and dangerous.

The monkey's fist knot is most often used as the weight in a heaving line. The line would have the monkey's fist on one end, an eye splice or bowline on the other, with about 30 feet (~10 meters) of line between. A lightweight feeder line would be tied to the bowline, then the weighted monkey's fist could be hurled between ship and dock (or vice versa). The other end of the lightweight line would be attached to a heaver-weight line, allowing it to be drawn to the target easily.

The knot is usually tied around a small weight, such as a stone, marble, tight fold of paper, or a piece of wood. A thicker line will require a larger object in the center to hold the shape of the knot. Another variation of the monkey's fist knot omits the use of an external object as a weight and rather uses the spare end which gets tucked back into the knot. This results in a nicer looking knot of a lesser weight, minimizing the potential danger of hitting someone with the knot when hauling line.

***DISCLAIMER***

If you decide to kill yourself or someone else with the knots that I teach in this instructable, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR STUPIDITY.

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Step 1: Supplies

This is not a very supply intensive project. There are only three things you need.

1) Rope

I used 5 feed of twisted sisal rope. However, you could use parashoot cord or anything else that slips through the backpack's grommets.

2) Dental Floss or a Lighter

If you are using synthetic rope you can simply melt the end of the rope with a lighter to keep it from fraying. If you are using rope made from natural fibers you are going to need to whip the rope with Dental Floss.

3) A ball, nut, or bearing

To make a monkey fist that looks good you need a core to keep it's shape. Without it, your monkey fist looks like butt