The Ultimate Book of Everyday Knots: (over 15,000 copies sold)

5 Stars – Exactly What I NeededI’ve picked up a lot of knot books over the years, but The Ultimate Book of Everyday Knots by Geoffrey Budworth is the most useful one I’ve found. The illustrations are clear, step-by-step, and easy to follow without overcomplicating things. Whether you’re tying down gear, rigging something on the boat, or just want to master the basics, this book has you covered. It doesn’t waste space on fluff—just practical knots that work. I keep it close, and it’s already helped me out more than once. Highly recommend if you’re serious about learning knots the right way.

Love this book! Every knot u can think of is here with step by step instructions! Very useful!

The media could not be loaded. A good pass time book while learning information on ropes and its history, types of ropes, about 80 different types of knots. Each knots showing description and purpose of the knot as well as images to follow the forming of the knot. As I mentioned its great book to pass time and its also fun making and practicing making knots. Some are easier the others but practice makes perfect. I think practicing making the different knots is a good way to keep you mind sharp as well as you hand and finger coordination.

I had previously sampled this book when I checked out of the public library in the kindle format. It was hard to read but looked very promising. So I brought it. This hard copy is good sized and can be laid flat to see the illustration of the knots I am learning. Good clear and easy to understand instructions.

This book is gorgeous and beautifully illustrated. Very easy to read and follow. The book is larger than I expected. I didn't really read the specs when I bought it. Wasn't a factor just note worthy that it's not a dinky thin book. Each page is smooth and thick. Feels very durable. Filled with useful common and not so common knots. I am very happy with the purchase of this book.

Not as exhaustive as Ashley, but it covers all the essentials and then some. Lots of nice color pictures on how to tie things.

This is very useful for my grandson. He is learning knots for cub scouts and he shares it with his pack.

This a worthwhile book of common knots, even though this review leans negative. The book is complete from the standpoint of providing brief historical notes, applications and limitations for each knot presented, knot lore, cordage types and sources, term definitions/glossary and an index.In the spiral wound version, the book is colorful in a large lay-flat format – very important while learning and practicing a selected knot type. The book’s selection of “everyday knots” is sufficient, but with some notable exceptions.I found it surprising that among the various types of trucker’s hitches none (zero) are shown in the book. As well, the simple, but very useful, marlinspike is not included, nor are topics like splicing a permanent loop presented.Generally, the figures illustrating the tying of a given knot are adequate, but frequently they are sparse on needed intermediate tying steps. For example, the Reef (Square) Knot Loop is near impossible to complete/learn from the book’s illustrations. I had to resort to YouTube in order to learn how to tie this knot – and comically, at the end of the YT clip, the host compares his method to the “ridiculous method” shown in this book!Some notable knots lack more creative (simpler) tying methods. An example here is the important Alpine Butterfly. Again, YouTube provides methods used by climbers that are far easier to learn and tie in the field – I guess important if you’re hanging from a rock! Another knot in this category is the Bottle Sling Knot. Either Figure 2 is in error, or a step between Figures 2 and 3 is needed, or just go to YouTube for clearer instructions.The book’s organization is logical by knot type, but with some clinkers – for example, why are the Fisherman’s Knot and Double Fisherman’s Knot separated by 16 pages? One would think these knots would be grouped together in a single presentation.Finally, a major irritation of the book is that routing of the rope’s working end is illustrated with a faded green arrow over a similar light-green rope color. Thus, with many knot illustrations you have to look very carefully at whether the working end is being routed over, or under, a given rope section. If the book is reprinted it would be strongly recommended that these routing arrows be printed in a high contrast color, say, in black.In the book summary Budworth does give some rationale for his knot selections and the limitations of his treatment overall, including references to more comprehensive books on knot tying. Notwithstanding the book’s shortcomings, it does provide substantial useful information, and is worth having as a quick reference for many basic knots.