American Death Knot
The Euro Death Knot has been killing mountain climbers for years. Well, we Americans can come up with much drummer ways of getting ourselves killed than any ol European can. And self bondage is the way to do it! You can tie this knot yourself, but it will be out of reach for you to untie it.
WARNING! This is called the American Death Knot for a reason. People die from doing self bondage. Dont let yourself be one of them.
Wrap a length of line around the bedpost. It should be long enough that you can still reach the tail after applying a wrist cuff to yourself.
The tail should come over the the top of the part that tethers to your wrist. You will be bringing it back over the top shortly. Start by placing your first two fingers over the tail.
Using your thumb, bring the part of the tail that is above your fingers down over them.
You should now have a loop formed around your first two fingers.
Reach down with your thumb, and push the lower part of the tail between your first two fingers with a scissor grip.
Pull your first two fingers out of the loop trailing the tail with them.
You now have an overhand knot in the tail. Keep that very loose and open. With your first two fingers, reach under the tether.
Reaching over the tether, stick your first two fingers into the overhand knot. They should point in the same direction as the tail exits the knot.
Carefully drag the overhand knot across the top of the tether. Don’t drag it too much or the tail will come across as well.
Reaching under the tether, once again grab the tail of the rope between your first two fingers.
Just as you did before, pull your first two fingers out, trailing the tail with them.
The knot is now set up and ready for application. Legend has it that this knot was used by pirates to hoist their flag on captured ships. The line used to hoist the flag becomes tied up at the top of the mast out of reach.
This closeup shows how the tether slides through the knot.
Keeping a loose grip on the tail, pull your wrist back. The knot will slid up out of reach toward the bedpost.
When the knot is far enough out of reach, it is time to lock it into place. Pull strongly on the tail and the knot will capsize over on itself locking it into place.
This closeup shows that the tether has been ’swallowed up’ by the knot. Pulling on the wist wont bring it back through because the knot is now too small to allow the tether to pass back through.
The knot is out of reach. Pulling the tether line wont un-capsize the knot. Pulling the tail only jams the knot more. Escaping from the cuff is difficult because the wrist is ‘free floating’ with nothing to gain leverage against.