Decorative knots were born on the decks of sailing ships, where sailors dressed up their ropes in their spare hours, and they reached the neckerchief through Scouting: the same Turk's head that marks the ship's wheel became the woggle. This guide presents 15 decorative knots from the portal's knots and lashings catalog, sorted by the piece each one becomes at a Unit meeting, and explains why each one suits that job, where it tends to fail and how to test the result. The step-by-step video is on each knot's page; here you pick the right project.
What are decorative knots, and where do they come from?
A decorative knot is one where form matters more than strength. Animated Knots, an international reference on knot technique, describes the category as fun and decoration, with no bearing on strength. That gives the Unit its first rule: no knot in this guide holds a person, a hammock or a load.
Many of them started out with a job on board. The Turk's Head Knot marks the king spoke of a ship's wheel, the spoke that stands upright when the rudder is centered, and the Monkey's Fist Knot adds weight to the end of the heaving line, the light line thrown from the ship to the dock. Rope mats, Ashley writes, were nailed to the deck in passageways and on ladders to protect the wood from chafe and to cushion the knock of the blocks.
The great reference for this tradition is The Ashley Book of Knots, published in 1944 by the American sailor and artist Clifford W. Ashley; according to Animated Knots, about half the book deals with knots that are more fun than useful. In 2016, Ashley's daughters donated to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, in the United States, the knot collection that served as the model for the book's nearly 7,000 illustrations. Ashley's number (ABOK) identifies a knot without depending on a local nickname. The story of the book is in how many types of knots there are; the working knots of the deck, in sailor knots.
What are the types of decorative knots?
The portal's knots and lashings catalog lists 25 knots in the Decorative category. The 15 in this guide fall into five families: the tubular ring, the balls and buttons for rope ends, the sinnets that become cords, the flat mats and the curtain tie-back. Seven of them are rated hard in the catalog and call for patience, tightening strand by strand.
| Knot | What it's for here | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Turk's Head Knot | Neckerchief slide (woggle) and decorative ring | Hard |
| Monkey's Fist Knot | Keychain and ball for a rope end | Hard |
| Lanyard Knot | Button with a loop on the whistle lanyard | Hard |
| Double Matthew Walker Knot | Finishing button on three-strand rope | Hard |
| Wall and Crown Knot | Firm ball that closes the end of the rope | Hard |
| Crown Sinnet | Solid cord for a keychain or a handle | Hard |
| Four Strand Square Sinnet | Keychain and zipper pull | Hard |
| French Sinnet | Flat band for a bracelet | Medium |
| Celtic Mat | Coaster and non-slip pad | Medium |
| Carrick Bend Mat | Small round table mat | Medium |
| Ocean Plait Mat | Long mat, tent doormat | Medium |
| Masthead Knot Mat | The Unit's first mat | Medium |
| Three Strand Braid | Bracelet, handle and first braid | Easy |
| Chain Sinnet | Shortening and storing a long rope | Easy |
| Curtain Tie-Back | Holding back the tent door | Easy |
Difficulty from the portal's knots and lashings catalog (October 2026); uses suggested by the portal.
Turk's head knot: what does the name mean, and why is it a woggle?
Ashley traces the name to the knot's likeness to a turban: in 1808, Lever's seamanship manual already compared it to a crown or a turban. Turk's head names a whole family of knots, and chapter 17 of Ashley's book devotes entries 1278 to 1401 to it. Among the uses he gathers are the mark on the ship's wheel, a handgrip on handrail ropes and the ring that holds neckerchiefs together.
Every Turk's head is described by two numbers: the passes the strand makes around the cylinder (leads) and the scallops along its edge (bights). The knot comes out with a single strand only when the two numbers share no common divisor other than 1, as in a 3 by 5; a 3 by 6 would take three strands.
In Scouting, according to The Scout Association in the United Kingdom, the person who brought the knot to the neckerchief was Bill Shankley, 18, who ran the workshop at Gilwell Park, in England: after several attempts, he made a Turk's head from a thin strip of leather sewing machine belting and named it the woggle. An article in The Scout magazine on June 9, 1923 already recorded the fashion started by leaders who held the Wood Badge, and the Gilwell model stayed on as the mark of those leaders. The slide tied with a pouch knot, more common among Units, is covered in neckerchief slide and knot.
Common mistakes: braiding around a cylinder that is too thin, which leaves the ring too tight for both ends of the neckerchief, and leaving synthetic rope unfinished. Animated Knots warns that modern rope is slippery and the ring can work itself loose; tuck the ends inside and, with synthetic fiber, fuse them with heat. To test it, the ring slides up with a firm push and stays in place through a running game.
What is the best knot for a keychain?
It depends on the shape. For a ball, the classic is the Monkey's Fist Knot (ABOK 2200 to 2203), which Ashley describes as a spherical covering with six faces in a regular over-one, under-one weave. By his record, the first person to draw and name the knot was E. N. Little, in 1888. With three turns in each direction, Ashley treats the core as optional: in a keychain, it can be a small wooden bead or an overhand knot tied in the center. The classic mistakes are miscounting the turns and tightening everything at once; follow the strand's path from start to finish, a little at a time.
For a button with a loop, use the Lanyard Knot (ABOK 787). Its center is a Carrick bend, its typical use is on a knife lanyard, and among the names Ashley records is the Bosun's Whistle Knot, a good hint for the whistle lanyard.
For a solid cord, the Four Strand Square Sinnet and the Crown Sinnet do the job. The second is a series of crown knots tied with three or four strands, the same braid that, in colored plastic lacing, picked up names like scoubidou and boondoggle. According to Animated Knots, alternating the direction of the crowns makes the cord square, and repeating the same direction makes a spiral. That is why both fit the project the Braiding honor asks for, a keychain or zipper pull with a round or square four-strand braid; check with the Instructor which braid will be evaluated.
What are the easiest decorative knots for beginners?
Three knots on this list are rated easy in the catalog. The Three Strand Braid is the same braid used for hair and turns string into a flat band; it is also the first requirement of the Braiding honor. The most common mistake is uneven tension: tie the three ends together before you start and pull each strand with the same force.
The Chain Sinnet links loops, one inside the other, and comes apart when you pull the end that closed the last link; pulling the other end only removes one link. It leaves twist in the rope when undone, and alternating the direction of the loops reduces the problem. Its use for washing and storing rope is in how to care for rope.
The Curtain Tie-Back, which the catalog describes as an ornament for holding drawn-back curtains to one side, also holds back the tent door flap or the curtain in the Unit's meeting room. The next step up is the French Sinnet, rated medium, in which each strand passes alternately over and under its neighbor. If the Unit still stumbles on the basics, start with the easy knots for beginners.
How do you make a rope mat with decorative knots?
The catalog's four mats, all rated medium, follow the same logic: you lay out a starting pattern, always crossing over and under, then follow the same path once or twice more to fill it out, tighten everything to close the gaps and hide the joint of the ends under another pass.
The Carrick Bend Mat is the basic small round mat and, according to Animated Knots, a three-lead, four-bight Turk's head laid flat, with the rope taken around a second time. The Celtic Mat (its catalog page carries the title Carrick Mat) appears in the catalog as a flat, mat-shaped plait used as an ornament and a non-slip pad; made small, it works as a coaster.
The Ocean Plait Mat grows out of many crossings of overhand knots and gets longer as you go: small, it becomes a placemat; large, a doormat, which makes it a good Unit project. The Masthead Knot Mat starts from the masthead knot, described in seamanship manuals for holding the stays of a jury mast, and has one of the quickest starting patterns to lay out, though it is not symmetrical like the others.
The ends are finished by fusing (synthetic fiber only, with an adult), by sewing, or by securing them with glue or a constrictor knot. To test it, the mat lies flat, with no gaps, and does not open when pulled by one edge.
How do you tie a decorative button knot on a rope end?
Button knots for rope ends need a rope with several strands: you unlay the end of a three-strand twisted rope or gather separate cords into a bundle.
The Double Matthew Walker Knot forms, according to Animated Knots, a secure stopper that cannot be untied without unlaying the rope. Ashley records that the Matthew Walker knot already appeared in an 1808 manual and that the double version served on board in rigging lanyards and in the handles of buckets and tubs. The Matthew Walker knot also appears on the card for the basic Knots and Lashings honor, as one of the options for finishing the end of a rope.
The Wall and Crown Knot (ABOK 672) makes a compact ball and, according to Ashley, was already mentioned in 1801. Doubled, it becomes the manrope knot (ABOK 847), tied in the ropes on either side of a ship's gangway as a handhold for anyone climbing the side ladder. The wall and the crown are building blocks for many other decorative knots, so learn the two separately before combining them.
Common mistakes: unlaying too little of the end, which leaves the strands too short to finish, and tightening one strand all the way before the others. Tighten each strand in turn and trim the ends only once the ball is firm.
How many decorative knots does the Knots and Lashings honor require?
The advanced Knots and Lashings honor (AR-099, level 3, created in 2012 by the South American Division) asks, according to the card in the portal's catalog, for at least 10 decorative knots from a list of 26 and a board with at least 50 knots, 5 lashings and 5 decorative knots. The other requirements are in Knots and Lashings honor requirements.
The list uses traditional Portuguese seamanship names (coxins, pinhas and gachetas), and the English card translates them literally: it includes the Turk's head cushion knot, the crossed knot or heaving-line knot, and even a ring knot, also called the sultan's knot. Agree with the Instructor on how those names match the catalog names before building the board.
Pathfinders who enjoyed the sinnets have a path of their own: the Braiding honor (HM-040, created in 1972 by the General Conference) and the advanced Braiding honor, which moves up to 6- or 8-strand braids.
Board tip: label each knot with its name and its ABOK number. The name friendship knot covers both the lanyard knot and the Chinese cross knot that some Scouts use to close the neckerchief, and the number clears up the doubt at evaluation time.