What bowline is better?👀 The bowline knot is great for making a loop at the end of your rope, and is easily tied and untied even after a large load. One caveat of this knot is if not loaded consistently, the bowline is known to potentially shake loose. Follow us for more rope content like this!🫡 Buy rope today at RightRope.com 👊🏼 (link in bio) These videos and animations are for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered to be correct or reliable instructions. Right Rope LLC disclaims any and all liability related to the use of this content. Be sure to consult a competent professional before using rope for any purpose.⚠️

As a lefty tree climber i tie the cowboy bowline more than knot. I always way over estimate weight and force so ive never broke a knot. But seeing that break @ nearly 3g less than the ropes rating has me thinking.

Myth Busters meets Home Depot.

Here in Germany the outside bowline would be considered the “normal” one. At least for sailing

I've always wondered why I could never get the tail on the inside like that, but when you called it a left-handed bowline it all made sense. I'm left handed

I'm a lefty retired fisherman and have been tying the left handed bowline all my life . To me it makes the loop a neater construct with the tail outside . I'm surprised it's stronger , I thought it would be the same .

Hi Folks...As always, love the channel and your ropes as well. As someone with over 40 years working with lines of all types from tailoring to many "high angle" environments, including being an AMGA guide and Arborist I would like to share some insights you may find of value. Please do respond with more questions if you have any as my data is empirical in nature over a long career and exchange with leaders in the various rigging industries... The question is not..."strength"...of an "inboard" vs "outboard" Bowlin bend (knot...aka "Cowboy") but the tendency for the latter to "walk" itself apart in field service during actual applied actuality. The "Cowboy Bowlin" for this reason alone is considered a very unsafe knot by comparison unless "bent" with a tie-off and stopper. Thus, when instructing novices in rigging and knot tying, regardless of scope (sailing, mountaineering, rescue, etc.) it is the "inboard bowline" that is taught and encouraged. In the "non-live load" scenario both forms of bowline are more than acceptable...yet should still have an additional bend and/or stopper added... Thanks again for your videos and product line!!!

As a sailor I have always been taugth the rigth way and the better way to do it outside. It has one big advantage when attachung as it dosen’t go on with the thing you are attaching it to and it has less slippage and movement.

I've been tying my bowlines in whichever direction fancies me at the given moment, for years 😊 it's pretty apparent just by visually inspecting each version that they're going to load pretty much identically.

Now do ten more of each to get a statistical average.

Ha! I always had a dislike of the end getting in the way inside the loop. Now I feel vindicated. 👍

The BOW LINE knot is a sailing knot and should always have the tail on the outside since it is used for the BOW LINE usualy around a pole and if the tail is on the inside the repeated loading and unloading will allow the pole to push the tail through the knot if it is on the inside!

The most important part is if you use the regular bowline and there is various loads on it, (tensioned and untensioned like with a boat on a pole), it can get loose. The "cowboy" bowline doesnt do that, therefore its safer to use in these situations

Dead end on the outside keeps the tail out of the load bearing portion of the rope and keeps the loop clean for quick hook up.

Can't say I've ever paid attention to what side the tail comes out. If I wanted a knot for max strength and security, I wouldn't use a bowline anyway.

The reason it’s said to be wrong even though it is stronger is because it is has a higher risk of getting loose and slipping apart. At least that’s what they taught us in rigging school. Real world. We do both. At least for production rigging. For fire department rigging we are trained to put an overhand safety knot on the end to stop the knot from slipping apart.

The reverse bowline is used for throwing a hawser over a bit or a mooring line over a piling because it minimizes chaffing inside the temporary eye.

Cowboy bowline sucks when youre pulling over pulleys. The tail can pop it out of the pulley entirely.

I've only ever heard the explanation of it keeping the tail from getting caught on things, which i heard at a school teaching pole climbing, so is fairly relevant to the immediate application at that time. Both are plenty atrong as knots

As a British person I really appreciate you putting kg on there is well

In sailing you use the inside bowline because no matter how tight the knot gets it’s always easy to untie. Outside bowline will lock up

Thank you for displaying kilograms as well

Knot theory is a wild rabbit hole to explore. Every (or at least most) knot has a weak and a strong variant

Im a righty and been tying the cowboy bowline for 40 + years. Lefty looks more difficult and less neat and tidy to my eye.

It is also called German bowline btw.

The normal bowline is not safe under ring load, while the left handed is. Although usually not used under ring load, it's nice to know it won't fail, even if you accidentally load it like that.

I've been told a cowbow bowline works better for ring loading, i.e. loading the loop. Ive never seen real proof of this.

A bowline is designed for "wet" rigging. It also was first intro'd back with natural ropes and has a lot less slippage with them.

The bowline is susceptible to becoming untied with movement in the rope, especially with rigid rope. Putting the tail on the outside, the tail is not the first to be compressed by the loop and makes the chances of it becoming untied greater.

Double fisherman's vs surgeon's knot?? Been very curious which one is stronger!

I’ve heard the outside tailed bowline called a lineman bowline. It’s tied outside so the tail doesn’t interfere with the use of the loop😊

That’s why us horse people use cow bow bowline

The thing is a bowline is a knot that will never break it will only break when the rope does

I believe it (or similar) is known as a Dutch Bowline due to it's use by the Dutch Navy. Apparently it performs better with a more outward pull on the knot, ie tying a relatively small loop around a relatively wide object, making the angle of the legs of the loop greater than 60deg. Pull tests to failure are rarely if ever useful.

We learned the "cowboy" bowline in Combat Engineering school. We learned the other one too, we failed if we tied that one.

More knot breaking videos please! 😊

My dad was one of those upset about the lay of the dead end. For the longest time when I rolled a slip knot to make a bowline it only turned out that way and he would tell me it’s not a bowline.

The issue with the Lefty in my industry at least is the tail can catch on things your load is moving past. In tighter spaces the standard tucks the tail end safely inside the travel path.

That thing could hold up my damn car😂

Xtc fire , parallel core , 16 strands on the sleeve.

Love that test as I like to tie a bowlineit on the outside cowboy. Just looks cleaner to me but I tied it normal as everyone else on the inside. Also it’s stronger. 🎉

The interesting thing to me is the normal one came started to unravel, where the cowboy clean snapped under the knot without budging. Stronger rope and it would’ve lasted longer

I also know the "wrong" bowline as the Dutch bowline.

Honestly y'all should do the rest 3 times with each knot to rule out varying unforeseen factors

I always cowboy, makes the stopper a bit easier

At SAR training we learned to tie it one-handed. I actually struggle to do it otherwise. One-handed does leave an inside tail, but 1800kg is far outside of our use-case. Now I wonder what the break-weight is wet.

Can you do a video over safety's. We are required to tie them where we do industrial rescue.... do they help knot strength, or are they just there in case we mess up a knot?

"Cowboy bowline" traditionally called the "winter bowline" because when it gets wet and freezes the free end is not frozen onto the object it's tied to.

I’m left-handed this is just how they’re tied

The differences are minute, and if you notice the failure wasn't the knot, it was the rope.

Bowline with tail on inside is better for dressing in the Yosemite variation, so to build habit and muscle memory, I tie it like that, however, i dont think it matters for regular bowline

Sounds like there both more then good enough to use

In the uk we pretty much only tie the outside “cowboy” one as we are taught to keep our right hand on the mainline, the whole time

Boughlynn lol

Everyone: Them: HEY PEOPLE GET UPSET ABOUT KNOTS

Whichever way it comes out when I tie it is because 😂

You nearly always want the left-handed bowline, so you can more easily break open the knot when it's tight around a post ect.

The inline bowline will also incur more damage than the outline biwline

Cowboy just is cleaner and allows for a back up cleaner upper knot Good stuff

People secretly hate the cowboy bowline knot because it's the "left handed" bowline knot 😂

It is stronger because with the normal version the rope itself becomes an extra point of stress whereas the cowboy version does not have that, so you get an extra few hundred pounds worth of breaking strength

Haha left handers for the win

Wish you had included the Yosemite finish, as well.

With a sample size of one each I concur with your bias..

I do an outside tail with a safety

I'm a boy scout and I don't know if I'm crazy but I think we have always done the cowboy bowlen. Also fun fact you can tie that knot one handed.

I've learned the bolin to have the tail on out side. Didn't know it was also known as cowboy bolin

i keep getting so many videos about knots 🤔

I have always tied mine to the outside anyway. Never seemed right to have an end inside the loop to me.

I’m mostly left handed ans I’m pretty sure I tie the cowboy bowline.

When bowling I just bowl a strike.

I wasn’t upset. Now I’m upset. My dad taught me a lot of knots. He didn’t care LH or RH. I miss him.

Oooohhh beautiful rope... Yale Cordage?

This is good

I have personally seend and had a bowline inverse on me

The Cowboy Bowline is superior to the traditional in ring loading.

New Subscriber. Keep the videos coming

I like to add a quick release to my Bowline

Clove hitch and a half hitch all day.

It might be because I'm left handed but I'm army and all the bowlines I've seen tied are the cowboy version

The strength of the left handed vs right handed bowlin is based on the lay of the rope. Does the rope twist left or right?

Exactly the kind of hat someone who talks about knots would wear

I don't know if they tested the knots or just the rope. Because didn't either one of the Knott's brake

What’s the rope rated at? Regardless of knot.

Which is better twisted or braided bank line?

would it matter which way you tie it if you just add a finishing stopper knot or yosemite finish it?

Is it the knot that provides integrity. You need a control- ie the rope just being secured with a binder and stretched to see when it breaks. Without knots of any kind.

Can you tie them then pull and right before it snaps can you show if it can be untied easily or not

Since it is the rope that is breaking and not the knot undone, what is the takeaway?

Need to test multiple times to prove.

Didn't even come down to knot strength that was just the rope breaking. I will say the left hand didn't slip as much tho.

can you test ring loading both? that's supposed to be where the cowboy bowline really outperforms the strandard, this just looks within margin of error

"Cowbow Bowline" I am fully on board with renaming this knot the "Cowbow Bowline", or CowBowline

I tie to e second one

Wow 320 lbs more is crazy

In sapper school the tail is on the outside

TWO AND A HALF TONS!!!

In Boy Scouts it was called a false bowline.

I'm from Australia and was taught by my scout master that it always had to be out. I now live in the States and have unintentionally taught a generation of Cub scouts the hated way. I don't feel bad, muhahaha😊

From what I can see neither of them broke the rope in between broke so the answer is they are as strong as one another the rope was just weaker you may correct me if I'm wrong