What's you favorite knot!

Mine's a Prusik. Mmm, friction hitches.

Alpine butterfly, hands down.

Many, many cool knots out there; some that go back 1000s of years like the clove hitch which was first known to be used by the Phoenicians (not Phoenix, AZ!).

+1 for the Alpine Butterfly. Sexy as hell and always reliable/badass.

The butterfly is indeed Sexy, but for all our utility the clove wins.

Seems to me that many knots were developed for maritime usage, but I'll bet the first were for weaving and such.

Stoned Master, where'd you get that tidbit about the Phoenicians using the clove hitch? I'm all fired up to learn about knot history now. :)

The clove is a hitch, not a knot, as is the prusik.

Touche Mr. Clean! Now-a-days they're all lumped together for simplicitys sake.

I have a few nerdy knot books at home that's where I gained the knowledge. I did find a cool web site though that goes into some of the history of some of the knots we even use today regularly to climb:

marinersmuseum.org/library/…

Balloon knot.

Hmm, variety is the spice of life. I guess this is more my take on usefulness than favoritism:

fig 8 series,

add clove hitch for fast efficient adjustment when anchoring.

Your choice of friction hitch for backing up rappel

above will cover 99% of climbing situations.

Everything else is potentially useful in specific circumstances e.g. BHK for top rope anchoring, EDK for various purposes joining ends, muenter & mule during rescue, ad infinitum.

Mr Clean wrote:The clove is a hitch, not a knot, as is the prusik.

There's a really cool variation of the clove hitch that turns into hand cuffs...

I know I've never tied the wedding knot, and hear it can be very dangerous to your climbing career.

Woodchuck ATC wrote:I know I've never tied the wedding knot, and hear it can be very dangerous to your climbing career.

Monkey's Fist. When my belayer falls asleep, pow.

The clove hitch by far. Every other knot has at least one and often several serviceable alternatives, but nothing else performs like a clove hitch.

I loves me some clove hitch and Munter hitch, but if going by the strict definition of "knot" then my vote has to go to the "bowline on a bight".

I use it to tie in (bowline follow-through variation, of course) and use it frequently for rope-based anchors.

Masthead, because it looks cool:
wildernessarena.com/main/wp…

Pretty sure I learned it in the context of sailing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_…

Certain I wouldn't want to have to use it.