Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Research Graph

Research Graph
I was taught at a young age that a boy needs to be able to tie basic knots for the variety of work related and recreational activities he’ll do. For the most part I fulfill that requirement. I can tie your basics; bowline, heaving line, slip, clove, guy-line, sheep shank, constrictor, barrel, but I’m not rope or knot master. I am however always learning of a new knot and trying it out and about a year ago my buddy Curt asked me if I’d ever heard of ‘fusion knots’. He figured if anyone would know it would be me. He thought that for two reasons; first, I am always heckling him when he practices ‘if you can’t tie a knot tie a lot’, and second I am considered among my peers as a king of useless knowledge. But I had never heard of these fusion knots, however I did tell him I’d know more by morning. With that stored in my head, when I got home that night I Googled fusion knots and the standard ten thousand links came up.
The first link that caught my eye was titled, ‘tying fusion knots by…blah-blah’. *Click* that click alone was the beginning of a small obsession. The page was filled with mini links, the links where pictures of cool looking knots that seemed intricate and way more complicated than I was used to and they all had names that I’d never heard before; River bends, Solomon bars, Bugler’s braid. Clicking on these sub links took me to instructional write ups with rough drawings. I grabbed a hank of parachord from my shop and tried to tie a few with no success. The instruction appeared to be written by a NASA shuttle technician and the illustrations by his three year old. I hit the back arrow to see what other sites had to offer.
I clicked through various links and got a little more informed each time but didn’t find any site that could teach me how to tie these knots, explain their function or even fill me in on the definition of a ‘fusion knot’. On one site it might show me a really detailed picture of a finished Solomon bar but wouldn’t show me how to get there or what to do with it once I had it. The next would tell me Solomon Bars are good to use as belts but again, had poor instructional methods and didn’t fill me in on what made this ‘fusion’ material. I was getting a bit agitated but that’s par for the course when you’re on the hunt for knowledge.
About twelve to fifteen sites into my downward spiral of failed results and getting groggy I hit the alpha and omega, the fiddler’s green of my search. This link took me two a blog style site with Youtube video support and within a few seconds I had come to the conclusion, this must be the guy who invented fusion knots. Besides the fancy headers and tool buttons, the first useable piece on the site was a dictionary style blurb explaining what fusion knots are. Then there were the knot links that when clicked upon would take you to a very well filmed video of each knot, step by step. Finally I knew that a fusion knot is a decoratively tied rope that also has practical and functional uses. So from the previous site where it said an S-bar could make a good belt it meant that it is the fusion between decoration and function. Also I have the method to tie such items.
That site has been on my favorites bar since that night. I’ve learned how to tie several pieces that have proved useful and been the topic of conversation when people see them. I have; Solomon bar tool lanyards, a slats rescue belt, river bar bracelets that make great gifts, monkey’s fists (originally used as a heaving line tool, but now also makes a great dog catch toy.) and many other neat tied pieces. On an end note, it turns out the gentleman that does all this tying started out hosting parties where he would teach couples how to add knot tying bondage to their intimate moments…I’ll stick with fusion knots.

3 comments:

  1. This is top notch and I have more comments later, but for now: with reparagraphing to carve out a conclusion this could be your process essay, as is!

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  2. Boyoboy, I rarely get anything as good as this--either for greaf 10 or for a process essay either.

    A few clicks could turn it into a five graf essay but I have already done those clicks in my mind and so hereby accept it as your process essay.

    Can I add it to my group of samples?

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  3. Wow, thank you very much for the support and good review. That just made my day. Yes, feel free to use it for your samples or as you see fit.
    Thanks again.
    Mack

    ReplyDelete