You never know how handy knot-tying can be until you find yourself in a situation where you really need to tie a good knot. Just because you’re not in the Navy or the Cub Scouts doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know a few basic knots. 

Anybody who works or plays in the great outdoors will eventually need to tie a knot. You might need to secure a tarp, hang a hammock or tie off a boat. No matter the situation, you can’t rely on a series of random loops that you call a knot unless you want to lose your tarp, fall on your butt or watch your boat float away. 

Luckily, most basic knots are actually not all that complicated. Once you learn one or two, you’ll start to develop an intuition that makes learning additional knots even easier. So read on, practice your skills, and watch your knotsmanship improve. 

1. Overhand Knot

The overhand knot is about as basic as a knot gets. Ask a little kid to tie a knot, and this is what you’ll get (unless that kid is some kind of knot-tying super genius). Chances are, you already know how to tie an overhand knot without even thinking about it. 

If not, take a second to brush up on it, because this simple knot is the basis of many other knots. Look at it this way: you need to learn basic addition before you tackle trigonometry. 

To tie an overhand knot, simply create a loop, push the working end of the line through the loop, and then pull both ends to tighten. That’s it! This knot is commonly used as a stopper, either when hand sewing or to prevent fraying or unraveling at the ends of rope, and is sometimes used as a basic safety knot for climbers. 

Aside from its simplicity, the chief advantage of this knot is its security. It’s a good knot to tie if you want the knot to be permanent. In some situations, this can also become a disadvantage, as the knot can jam badly and is difficult to untie.