4 stars (excellent book) - as reference books go, this is one of the best for knots. any knot imaginable is here and a clear concise way to tie it. great book for any purpose. 4 stars (Knots for beginners?) - I found this book to be both educational and entertaining. As a beginning I found the diagrams hard to follow and sometimes lacking. As a novice in knots tying and having the responsibilty of teaching young adults, this book was great for the history and use of knots but lacking in the illustrations needed for me to learn how to tie the knots. 5 stars (Should be a staple in every reference library) - Go to your nearest hardware store, and look at all the fasteners. There are U-bolts, swages, eye-hooks, and on, too many to count. Well, not too long ago, the metal in a bolt would have been a prohibitive cost. Instead, the jobs of all those fasteners were filled by knots. There is a branch of mathematics called "knot theory". It deals with one-dimensional fibers crossing in 3-space, and no other dimensionality has quite the same properties. A strand, wrapped around another and holding it, is a remarkable thing. Daily jobs in older eras touch abstract math in this book. It's a remarkable encyclopedia of practical, beautiful, and profound ways of pulling things together. Ashley shows bows, buttons, nooses, braids, knots, bights, and seemingly endless other ways to make simple strings into tools, toys, and decorations. You will come away from this book with respect. All those different people - fishermen, sailors, weavers, surgeons, and shipping clerks - all of them had their own needs and only strings to meet those needs with. They did their jobs, and did them well, using the techniques remembered in this book. What's more, mathematicians use this book as a fundamental reference. Just about any twist in space was named here, so Ashley has become the catalog. When a mathematician refers to "Ashley #128", the structure has been specified completely. This is his... Doubleday :: CRAFTS&HOBBIES :: Sports & Recreation & Sailing :: Ships & Shipbuilding - Engineering :: Sailing - General :: Knots and splices :: General :: Do-It-Yourself :: Craf :: Ashley Book of Knots
