How to sew ratlines help needed please.

[Peter Cane]

I have done some reading about this and have found out the following.

 1 It is good to practice suturing with surgical instruments.

 2 The rat line knots are clove hitches.

Okay so I have just ordered some curved surgical needles and a surgical needle holder but still require more in depth wisdom.

How do you start the knot?

Do you tie a row of clove hitched rat lines and then a finishing knot, snip off and start the next row?

I will be extremely grateful for a short video on this if anyone would oblige.

Do I need surgical curved needles?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Pete

 

[Gregory]

There is much discussion about ratline technique, but it is difficult to do a search because the subject appears in many different topics, including many different build logs.

You will probably get many suggestions from our members.

 

Here is a technique I like, offered by Jersey City Frankie  Glued Ratlines  ( Scroll down to post #118 )

 

I also like what Frankie said in another topic about tying them:

 

Quote

If there’s an angel on one shoulder telling you to tie 1,000 clove hitches don’t forget the devil on the other shoulder telling you it’s much easier and faster to simply glue the ratlines across the face of the shrouds, without tying ANY clove hitches. The benefit of glueing is not just speed, it’s also a LOT less bulky. 1,000 clove hitches take up a lot of space. It’s true the real ship certainly has 1,000 clove hitches, but you have to ask yourself if you can tie them as small and as tight.

The thing about knots, is that they can easily appear way out of scale, depending on the scale of the model and the size of the rope used.

 

Here are some actual ratlines from Victory and Constitution.

 

  

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Gregory

[Jim Rogers]

All clove hitches from beginning to end secured with diluted white glue (PVA).

[Bossman]

2 hours ago, Jim Rogers said:

All clove hitches from beginning to end secured with diluted white glue (PVA).

👍 This technique never failed me. 

[Bob Cleek]

2 hours ago, Jim Rogers said:

All clove hitches from beginning to end secured with diluted white glue (PVA).

Depending upon the scale, I suppose. In full-sized practice, a half-hitch is taken around each shroud, but the ratlines are secured to the outside shroud at either end of the length of the ratline by splicing a loop in the end of the ratline and then lashing that to the outermost shrouds. In practice, a clove hitch on the outside end would loosen and untie in short order. If you think tying scale half-hitches is tedious, just try splicing scale line! 

[Peter Cane]

6 hours ago, Dubz said:

You just MAY need tweezers no needles. Just go row for row. At the end secure the outer knots with some glue.

 

The picture speaks a thousand words.

It makes good sense to tie the inner rat lines first and leave the outsides longer so as yo clove hitch the outer lines and glue them to prevent unknotting with diluted pva.

Thank you.

I will try with just tweezers and if all works well I will box away the medical stuff until I go on my brain surgery course.

Pete

[Peter Cane]

Thanks for the replies.

I am restoring this old but seemly small sailing ship and will " have " to tie clove hitches because the original builder used them .

Well he used some kind of knot anyway.

I read about splicing on the originals.

On this scale I would end up tearing my hair out!!!

Pete