Sailing Soft Shackles - Diamond Knot vs Button Knot

OUR RESULTS and TIMESTAMPS:
***2mm Dyneema is rated for 3.95kn or 890lbf***
***3.2mm (1/8) Dyneema is rated for 10.2kN or 2,500lbf***
00:00 What are diamond knots
02:53 Test 1 - 2mm Diamond 7.5kN or 1,686lbf
04:02 Test 2 - 2mm Diamond 7.0kN or 1,573lbf
04:17 Test 3 - 2mm Diamond 6.6kN or 1,483lbf
05:01 Test 4 - 2mm Eye to Eye 3.6kN or 809lbf
06:30 Test 5 - 2mm Diamond 5.05kN or 1,135lbf
08:07 How to tie a Diamond Knot
10:23 Test 6 - 2mm Diamond 6.1kN or 1,371lbf
10:55 Test 7 - 1/8" Diamond 21.2kN or 4,765lbf
11:29 Test 8 - 1/8" Diamond 21.3kN or 4,788lbf
11:48 Test 9 - 1/8" Diamond 22.5kN or 5,058lbf
13:11 Test 10 - 1/8" Eye to Eye 12.4kn or 2,787lbf
14:07 Test 11 - 1/8" Button Knot tied wrong 13.6kN or 3,057lbf
14:59 Test 12 - 1/8" Button Knot correct 27.7kN or 6,227lbf
15:46 Test 13 - 2mm Button Knot 9.45kN 2,124lbf

[MozzySails]

One problem with button knot when sailing, is where your line diameter is restricted by the size of the attachment. With buttons and their thicker noose you have to downsize line dimeter quicker, loosing any gains in strength. You can also make shorter shackles with the diamond knot, which is import if something needs to be attached close for performance reasons.

[dtae]

This was great! Thanks for going down the rabbit hole and testing everything that came up. The bad button knot was an eyeopener for me, though! What a giant loss of performance. 😅

[medleyshift]

This video would be better with more sailing/story from your guest. Get me invested in the testing what are these things doing? How did highlining steal them from sailing. Does my poor homeboy's sail fall off with out em? I want to cheer for that dyneema! P.S. Love the new direction Ryan, I hope you crush it literally!

[lucasbelknap]

I’m so happy you got to move away from the highline only channel! The new stuff is super cool!

[Nihilimus]

Look how hard that head gets. It's just rock rock hard.

[SustainableSailing]

Very interesting. We are also into sailing :-)
We are re-rigging our 44 year old 38 foot boat with all dyneema. Including the chainplates. We are using the overhand knot style of soft shackle from your channel (because the bigger know is a positive advantage for us). Instead of the eye looping over the knot we keep the full length. The knot is inside the boat under a big backing plate. The eye goes through a small hole to above the deck. We are putting a low friction ring in the eye and then the dyneema shroud that holds up the mast is lashed to this. Will start with some load testing in the next few weeks. Of course our scale is a bit larger. For our mizzen mast (the shorter mast) we are using 9mm dyneema (way over strength but that is because we are sizing for stretch to be similar to 6mm stainless steel).

[brentfink]

In my experience playing around with both of these knots, I've found that the button knot is harder to tie in smaller diameter lines. It seems like it's easier to make a tangled mess in narrower lines while the diamond knot is relatively easy to tie. For light duty applications, a diamond knot in smaller diameter line might be the right combination of ease of tying and "super good enough."

[groopmmex]

It's great to see some sailing content here!!

[IrisPPG]

This was a very fun video. Also, very informative. Thanks guys!

[Stewbphoto]

Awesome!! I don't high line or sail but I I do hang my hammock and things with dyneema 7/64 and that stuff is way stronger than I would ever need. Thanks for the video. This is great content!!

[benjefferson]

That was great! I'd love to see the forces on those main stays of the catamaran.

[foihdzas]

You have the best job I can think of. Love the content, and the usable info.

[kevinorr]

Very timely as I was just trying to learn the button knot last night.

[fs-il]

Very good guys. Love the sailing stuff. I’m a sailor and have been following since all the stuff is relevant. After all, occasionally I need to climb the mast.

[Rafapafa]

Infinite things to test in sailing. Please go down the rabbit hole!

[L-]

If you don't properly set the diamond knot it is just like anything when you don't make something correctly and then it fails. WTF do you expect? When you properly set a diamond knot you can tap it on a table and it should sound like it is made of metal or wood rather than feathers. I invented the idea of making soft shackles stronger by bringing the line back down through the knot and tucking them inside the line. Brion Toss came up with the actual button knot. A third person with screen name Estar did the testing and had the initial requirement for a stronger soft shackle which was to be able to pass the shackle through anchor chain. In the end, both Estar and I preferred the diamond knot and Brion preferred the button knot. What Estar and I preferred is using thicker Amsteel if you want a stronger soft shackle. Here is the dollars of it. For about +70% in price of thicker Amsteel, you get +60% more strength. For a button knot, for +14% more line (the tucks) you get 35% more strength. From that standpoint the button knot is a better deal but not by a lot. But the downside is it is harder to tie and is smaller so right there seems less secure, and you are stuck with the two strand Kohlhoff style with the open body rather than what is more secure in either the Colloigomarine style or my style what I call a better soft shackle and Animated Knots calls the Edwards soft shackle (my name). Much more on my website under Soft Shackle tab.
Allen
L-36.com
PS. I love your videos. I wish I had that test gear. Ester had a hydraulic press on an I beam. I use a winch on a 4x4 but can only break lashit. I hope you read this comment.

[PLGLaw]

What about the Big Overhand knot instead of button. Easier knot and from what I have read it is stronger.

[somebodydoingthings]

all the soft shackles I have made for my boat I put a brummel splice and then a diamond knot. I would be very interested to see how they test.

[bunyipdan]

Love me a soft shackle face the challenges you both had with the complexity of the two knots reckon you could try using a spliced continuous loop with loop locked overhand knot (this is where an overhand knot with the tail passing through as the terminating tail ‘ear loop’ is then locked off by passing the soft shackle loop through the ‘ear loop’ at the knot to then lock the overhand knot off....the knot is tied into the splice) Much easier to tie (not so easy to describe)....really just an overhand knot and a splice....with the advantages of the button knot.
Love your work

[tanguerochas]

"Swirly thing in the middle at about 9:00 - this is a Carrick Bend used in forming the Diamond Knot.