Knot Terminology

Knot Terminology Explained

STRANDS, PASSES, SOLID, and TWISTED
(See Picture Above)

Strands: To some extent, the terms "Strands" and "Passes" are equivalent. "Strands" refers to how many individual pieces of wire run side-by-side along the same path in an interwoven knot when viewed at one specific point. In the above knot we have highlighted the individual strands so you can see it is a "2 Strand" knot.

There is a complication to be understood with regard to knots, and not to be unduly confusing...we can actually produce the above knot (or others like it) with a single piece of wire! This doesn't mean that it is no longer a 2 Strand knot. It just means that because of the type of knot and how it is woven, we are sometimes able to double a piece of wire by bending it in half and still manage to produce a 2-Strand knot, or we can pass the single strand back through the knot again to produce a double strand appearance.

Passes: In the case of Turskhead knots, for instance, we can produce a 3-Strand knot with a single length of wire because the wire passes through the knot in such a way that it comes back to the starting point and can pass through the knot again (and again) weaving back into the knot side-by-side with the first pass. This means that we must sometimes distinguish between the Terms STRANDS and PASSES, although they are for all intents and purposes, equal.

Types of Wire Strands: We offer two types of wire strands - Solid, or Twisted. In the picture above, we have used solid strands, but we can also produce knots with twisted wire strands. The twisted wire strand is comprised of 3 individual smaller solid strands that are twisted together. We could twist only 2 strands together for this effect, but we choose to use 3 for both strength and the twisted strands' ability to bend without kinking.

PARTS
(See Picture Above)

Parts: The term "Parts" refers to the number of strands (or groups of strands) there are in any given knot along its width. In the above picture, We have drawn a line through the knot, but imagine if we cut through the knot with a saw along the path of the line from the top of the image towards the bottom. However many strands (or strand pairs as in the picture above) through which we would be cutting determines the number of "Parts" there are to the knot. There are 8 "Parts" in this knot.

The term "Plaits" or "Leads" can be (and sometimes are) used interchangeably with "Parts". For the sake of simplicity, we only use the term "Parts" throughout our website.

BIGHTS
(See Picture Above)

Bights: The term "Bight" with regard to our knots refers to the number of loops produced along the outer edges of our jewelry. In the above picture example, we have color-coded the Bights along the bottom edge of the knot so that you know how they are counted. We could have just as easily counted along the top edge.

Quick Contest

Can you name the knot we have used in our example pictures, given in the form of "# of Strands, # of Parts, and # of Bights"?

You guessed it...a 2-Strand, 8-Part, 6-Bight knot! What prize do you win for correctly answering? I'm glad you asked - Just browse through our website and pick whatever you like. You will of course be expected to purchase it.