French whipping
| Portuguese whipping | |
|---|---|
| Category | Whipping |
| Related | reef knot |
| Typical use | To prevent a rope from fraying |
A whipping knot or whipping is a binding of marline twine or whipcord around the end of a rope to prevent its natural tendency to fray. The whipping can be made neat and permanent by tying it off or sewing the ends of the twine through the rope. According to The Ashley Book of Knots, "The purpose of a whipping is to prevent the end of a rope from fraying...A whipping should be, in width, about equal to the diameter of the rope on which it is put...[Two sailmaker's whippings], a short distance apart, are put in the ends of every reef point, where the constant "whipping" against the sail makes the wear excessive; this is said to be the source of the name whipping." The other type of stopping knot is a seizing knot.
Whipping is suitable for synthetic and natural stranded and braided ropes, lines and cables, including 3-strand rope, 4-strand cable and 8-strand multiplait as well as concentric and braided constructions.
Multiple turns of twine (sometimes called small stuff for smaller lines) or heavier whipcord (for large diameter cables and ropes) are tightly wrapped around a rope's cut end to prevent its fibers from unlaying.
Usually one end of the whipping cord is looped along the rope to be whipped, and the remaining cord wound tightly over the loop. Finally the loose end of the wound whipping is passed through the loop so that both ends may be drawn securely inside the winding.
Whippings may also be applied by hand or using a palm and needle, and either simply tied off or made neat and permanent by reeving the twine's cut ends into or behind the whipping, sewing them to adjacent strands, or through the rope itself.
In applications where a lot of flexing is expected the whipping may be impregnated with dilute spar varnish or superglue.
French whipping is merely a series of half hitches. Start with a running eye and finish up with the end tucked back under the last few hitches. The ridge of the hitches should follow the lay of the rope.
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