How to Tie the Constrictor Knot

How to Tie the Constrictor Knot

Usage

The Constrictor Knot is designed to bind tightly and resist slipping. It’s basically a more secure version of the Clove Hitch - when you want a more reliable and often permanent hold. It grips well even on smooth, slippery cord like bushcraft paracord.

Why Learn the Constrictor Knot?

The Constrictor is a great one to know in Camping or Bushcraft specifically. It’s a good one to use on slippery ropes or whenever a permanent binding knot is needed. In Bushcraft, lashings will typically start or end with either a Clove hitch or Constrictor knot. If you'd rather watch the wraps form from every angle before you try it with rope, the Knot IQ app shows the Constrictor Knot as a slow, rotatable 3D animation.

Common Uses

This knot is tied to secure a bundle of objects together.

Camping and Bushcraft

Farming

Notable Features

Similar Knots

The Boa Knot sits in the same binding family.

Clove Hitch vs. Constrictor Knot

• Advantage: A clove hitch can be loosened, slid and retied as often as you like.
• Disadvantage: It gives tension back and rolls on smooth poles — the failure the constrictor’s extra tuck fixes.

Strangle Knot vs. Constrictor Knot

• Advantage: The strangle knot is the closest relative — both start with a round turn — and bites less harshly.
• Disadvantage: It is the less secure of the two. Tell them apart by the ends: parallel and outside the turns means strangle, crossed and between them means constrictor.

Security Level

Very secure when tied around poles, sticks, or sacks. Cannot be fully trusted if tied around irregularly shaped objects or objects with corners.

The grip is trusted beyond rope work: veterinary surgeon Steven Hancox, writing in Vet Times, reports a constrictor tied in polydioxanone suture holding about four times the tension of a surgeon’s knot’s first throw.

Downsides

• Only works well on cylindrical objects, and won't work at all on flat surface objects
• Once tied, it’s very difficult to get loose.
• If using a thin rope, it’s strong enough to cut through or damage/disfigure the material it’s wrapped around

Structure

Unlike the clove hitch knot, the constrictor knot differs primarily in its gripping power and intended use. While the clove hitch is a versatile and easy-to-tie knot commonly used for securing lines to objects, it can slip under load or with certain materials. In contrast, the constrictor knot, though slightly more complex, incorporates an extra wrap - this enables it to bind tightly on itself and resist slipping or coming loose, making it ideal for situations where a secure and permanent hold is required.

History

Clifford Ashley named this knot and published it as #1249 in The Ashley Book of Knots in 1944, saying he had worked it out himself about 25 years earlier. The structure is older: it appears as the “gunner’s knot” in Tom Bowling’s 1866 Book of Knots, a trail set out on the constrictor knot’s reference page. Ashley gave it the name and the fame, not the first description.

How to Tie a Constrictor Knot

Step 1

Wrap the rope around your object, such as a tree branch. Bring the rope up on the other side and cross it over, creating an X shape.

Step 2

As you continue with your wrap, cross your line over that main rope and then under the middle of the X shape

Step 3

Cross the free end over the main rope and slip it under the X shape

Step 4

Grab both ends of the rope and pull to tighten.

Step 5

Dress the knot, which is putting it perfectly in line. Now you have a constrictor knot that is cinched up really snug.

How to Undo the Constrictor Knot: Useful knot

If you're going to attempt to undo the knot, simply push both of the ends towards itself. If you're lucky, the whole thing will unravel. But most of the time, this knot is not going to let go.

Tying a Constrictor Knot With a Quick Release

Step 1

Wrap the object and create the X shape. With the free end of the rope, go all the way around and place it over the main line.

Step 2

Create a bight, which is a fold in the rope that resembles an inverted U-shape. Slide the bight through the center underneath the X.

Step 3

Tug both ends outward to tighten the knot. You'll have one end that's completely workable, while the other end is fixed. To apply the quick release, just pull the free end loose or tag end, as it's called, and the whole thing comes completely free.

Don't Have Access to the Free Ends?

Now, even if you don't have access to the free ends of the rope, you could still tie this knot midline and then slip it over an object. Here's how you can do it.

Step 1

Take your rope in both hands. Using your right hand, flip your wrist to create an overhand loop, which is a loop in the clockwise direction.

Step 2

Grab the loop of the rope so that the both ends are going out of opposite sides

Step 3

With your right hand, do an underhand loop, which is a counterclockwise motion

Step 4

Take both of your thumbs and touch them creating the floating constrictor hitch. Put on an object and tighten up without having access to either end.

FAQ

Can you untie a constrictor knot?

Rarely, once it is fully set. Plan on cutting it: put the blade on the riding turn — the bridge of the X — and the knot springs apart, the wraps underneath shielding the object.

Is the constrictor knot safe for climbing or rappelling?

No. It is a binding knot made to grip an object’s circumference, not a load-bearing hitch for human weight. Never use it for rappelling or belaying.

Does the constrictor knot work on any surface?

No. It needs a convex, roughly cylindrical surface to bite. On flat, square-edged or loosely bundled irregular objects it performs poorly.

Important Notes on Safety

Two hard rules. Never put human weight on a constrictor — it is a binder, not a load-bearing hitch. And never tie one around fingers, a wrist or any body part and pull it tight; it may have to be cut off. Use a dowel or rod instead.