Making A Monkey Fist Knot

Help!! I'm planning on making kevlar rope poi with monkey fist knots at the end.
Has anyone got advise on making them? What's got me stuck is the amount of kevlar rope needed for the whole thing? I'm planning on them being 1.5 foot long using the 10mm think rope.

Any help much needed/appreciated.

PLURR
FireMorphster
:0)~

[This message has been edited by FireMorphster (edited 02 April 2002).]

Funny you should ask. I've experimented with monkey-fists a bit lately.

I was using kevlar rope that is nominally 0.5" thick, but pretty stretchy, so it necked down to a smaller diameter when stretched. It took about 96" to make a basic monkey-fist knot with this stuff, if I recall correctly. I made a set of "whip poi" where I left 14" pigtails at each end, and joined the ends with ring clamps to a quick-link, and hooked the quick-link to a short section of ball-chain, to provide some heat isolation and swivelling action. In the end, there was about 10" of whip and knot (there was some overlap of the rope at the top), and about 6" of ball-chain.

Results from these whip-poi were unsatisfactory: the pigtail sections burned out after about a minute, and the friend I made them for suffered four freak burns on separate occasions using them. I want to try again with different rope. I've been using plain monkey-fist poi without whip sections, and those are fine. They're a little more aerodynamic than my interleave wicks, so they spin a little faster (doesn't suit my style), but other than that, I like 'em.

Good luck.

I've made something similar to Adam. I used 4m of kevlar rope, a small monkey fist at the end (2 loops of rope) and doubled up the kevlar rope for the 'pigtail', aiming for a bigger and longer flame. Nice addition to my toy family.

I've wanted to be able to make a Monkey Fist for ages now - can anyone tell me how?

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"With a bit of luck, his life was ruined; always thinking that just behind some narrow door, in his favourite bars, men in red woolen suits are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know."

To paraphrase C@ntus (I think)...

I hear there's this internet thingy where they have search engines where you type things in and you can find stuff out

Or ask somebody who already looked and found Ropers Knot Page - The Frequently Asked Knots Page.

This one's on the house

Better yet, check this out:

http://www.sacdelta.com/safety/knots/m_fista.htm

Animated instructions. Cool. Even a klutz like me got it after only a couple tries.

For my own monkey fists, I found that the standard knot was a little too small and light. The monkey fist is basically three loops each on three axes; I modified that to four loops each on three axes (and I'm thinking of going for five next).

Cheers for the info!! Maybe wrapping normal wick around the pigtails will increase burn time, as the if the rope is inside the wicking then they would act as a fuel reserve. I'll give it a try

I'm off to create
Thanx again for the ideas

FireMorphster
:0)~

[This message has been edited by FireMorphster (edited 03 April 2002).]

Firemorphster and others!

Help please!! Im bumping this thread cuz im wanting to make a monkey fist knot on the end of the 10mm kevlar rope. Does anyone know how much space this knot will take up? Cuz I need to know how much to order.

Ive tried to calculate by doing a little one, but it seems like id need about 3m, which cant be right!!!

Thanks!

I made small monkey fist knots (only 2 strands per 'side' of the knot, not 3) and it takes up a little over a metre.

Thanks Dom

so one small knot takes 1m? or is that enuf for two?

1 knot - thinking about it you also need more than a meter to start the knot with. With a monkey fist you make the shape then tighten it up, so you might use 2 metres to create a knot and then have a tail on it. This is how mine are made.

Mine worked out the same of Dom's.
I bought about 6 foot 10mm rope, after I tightened the knot (3 strands) it left me with tails just short of a foot long.
Dobber marbles work a treat to put in the middle!

Thanks Guys!

Im now gonna try to make a pair of those 'snakes' on the bearclaw website!

just made a set of meteors with monkey fist knots on the ends out of a continuous 20' of 1/2" kevlar rope. my problem is that they seem WAY too light. finished length is about 8' and I feel like there's not enough weight to the knots on the ends.

as far as the question of how much rope it takes - with the 1/2" rope I used about 6' for EACH knot - 3-strand ea. way size. and about a foot extra on each end makes it pretty easy to tie & then tighten.

I'm going to try to weight them down with & see if that makes em easier to handle. maybe it's just the extra length that I'm not used to...

I've never made one, but a monkey fist knot has a weight inside of it. A stone or I've heard a tire lug works good.
The monkey fist knot was used when a sailor had to throw a rope a long distance--too another ship or to shore.
Also dipping it in fuel will heavy it up quite a bit. That much kevlar should soak up a lot.
Good luck.

Maximus

You can weight a monkey-fist knot with something in the middle, but make it something soft, for goodness' sake!

The best thing would be to use something that would absorb fuel--more wicking, or perhaps a wad of cotton wool (which wouldn't add any appreciable weight dry, but would soak up a lot of fuel).

The lady that makes the snakes for Bearclaw warns about using metal for the weight. She tried a few but it caused the kevlar in the knot to wear out really fast.

hmm i need to use a rope?!
what kind of rope, a kevlar rope?!
where da hell am i supposed to find that?
HELP!

What about this?

Thanks bro