Making A Monkey Fist Knot

Monkey fists don't *need* a weight in them, they are quite heavy enough without (and as a sailor I can assure you they perform their original function just fine without - that's the point, the knot turns any old bit of line into a decent throwing weight). When you use a monkeyfist for toys, be aware that the knot will be heavy and hard! My small practice meteor is made of 5mm rope with 6 turns in the knots, and it has taken chunks out of my shins, really, I've got some lethal heavy poi but nothing comes near the knots!

Give yourself plenty of rope to play with, and perhaps buy yourself some cheap rope to practice with (something nice and smooth that will undo easily rather than fraying your kevlar). A good size knot might only take about a metre or rope when it is properly tightened, but you won't get it tight until the knot has been formed, so you do need 50-100% extra to give you room to work, you take up the slack methodically when you are done. As you get better you can work with less slack rope, but you do still need space to thread the rope through. Incidentally, tying it as tight as you can as you form the knot will make it neater as well, as long as you know what you are doing.

One other quick tip, many instructons, including the link above show you how to form the knot around your four fingers, forming the first set of loops, then passing the rope between your middle and ring finger. Trouble is, you run out of space for the rope, so you either have to stack the rope for the second set of loops, making it harder to get a neat row of loops, or remove it from your hand inevitably losing the whole thing! I recommend folding back your middle two fingers (like a rock hands gesture) or for a small knot, just use the index and ring fingers with the middle folded back. You can actually loosely tie the whole knot pretty neatly like this, or, once you get good at it, remove it from your hand as you begin the third set of loops.

Oh, and noone linked to this yet: http://www.homeofpoi.com/articles/monkey_fist.php

What is done with the extra rope after the knot is tied? All the monkey fist poi I see online don't have the end pieces sticking out but all the directions show the end pices magically disappearing. I don't get it!

The two ends of the cord used to make the knot are cut flush with the knot and secured to the core.

I would suggest a small stitch or five to secure it and then some white glue. probably you can do either or both and it will hold ok.

I would be unsure as to whether glue alone would hold it as they do get bashed around a lot as fire heads, but decent sewing will.

I know how to make a monkey fist ball, but I want to finish it off so I just have the ball without the ropes coming out. I'm having a tough time finding a site that shows me how to do that. If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

To finish the knot off you pull the rope as tight as you can and then cut off the excess rope flush with the surface of the knot. If you've pulled it tight enough the end will tend to pop back into the guts of the knot and be hidden, and if you didn't have it tight enough then you can push it back into the knot. THen you can seal the end of the cut rope with a dollop of glue.

I sew the end to the knot to hold it tighter. Although George's way does work I don't like to rest the fate of a burning fireball staying on or off your chains on the tightness of your knot.