| A few weeks ago, we did an update that featured Aurora Parker tied in an unusual way (see the prewiew of the April 24 update in the blog). Besides some fancy ropework that secured her arms, we also include a ‘claw tie’ on the fingers of her right hand. By no means can we take credit for thinking up this tie. We first saw it done during a presentation by the Two Knotty Boys at a ShibariCon event a few years ago. They have also include a description of it their second book “Back on the Ropes”. However, they show it done with a box knot while we do it with a single strand coin knot (see photo 1). Regrdless of the development, we thought you might want to see some more detailed pics on how the tie was done. The claw part of the tie starts with a single strand coin knot (photo 1), which produces several nice loops. Note this is a single strand coin knot, not the more comon double coin. You can Google coin knot (or Chinese coin knot or double coin knot) to see some demos on how it is tied. Initially tie the knot without tightening up the loops such that the 3 loops are large enough to fit a finger through. Next place the 3 loops over the 3 middle fingers from the back side of the hand (photo 2) with the center loop going over the middle finger and the outer loops going over each adjacent finger. Tighten the loops up. This will require some playing with the two ends to pull them tighter (photo 3). The 2 running ends can now be used to pull the fingers (and thus the entire hand) back. With Aurora, we simply incorporated the running ends into the rope harness that was securing her left hand behind her. The Two Knotty Boys show the running ends being used to secure the folding of the elbow, where we used a different rope for that. There are numberous ways this could be modified or used depending on the situation. Surprisingly, this simple tie is quite effective at limiting mobility of the hand and it makes using one’s fingers to do something like untying a knot almost impossible 🙂 If you used smaller diameter rope or string, you could use the coin knot in a similar fasion on the 3 middle toes and tie the running ends down to the shin area. This would effectively prevent flexing of the foot and might be a devious way to tie someone if you intended to do some foot tickling – but beware of foot cramping with the foot flexed that way! |
||
 Photo 1 – Structure of the coin knot |
 Photo 2 – how it goes over the fingers |
|
 Photo 3 – tighten up the loops |
 Aurora Parker – the claw tie done fancy! |
|