Ashley Book of Knots

What Hacker News says

1. deceptionatdFeb 2026
   I've got the Android app and love it, as well as Knots 3D.

   Most knot enthusiasts will already know about it, but in the analog world The Ashley Book of Knots is fantastic. Beautifully illustrated; the author, Clifford Ashley, was a marine painter and spent decades documenting almost 4,000 knots.

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2. oguz-ismail2Feb 2026
   > The Ashley Book of Knots is fantastic.

   Yup. Referring to knots by their ABoK numbers is also more practical than by their wildly varying names.

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3. burnt-resistorMay 2025
   You might be inclined to peruse The Ashley Book of Knots (ABOK).
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4. jrh3Sep 2023
   Great site. The goto place for learning or studying a knot.

   Place where I first heard about the Ashley Book of Knots (ABOK). The book is a historical gem, as well as the official reference for knots. Great stories about knots.

   Trucker's Knot, with cool reference to Ylvis, of What Did the Fox Say? https://www.animatedknots.com/truckers-hitch-knot

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5. Barrin92Oct 2022
   the foundational texts/histories of as many cultures and as many personal accounts of whatever pre-apocalypse was like, and some practical medical books.

   I find it funny (but not surprising) that tech people will always put some random science knowledge in there but post-apocalyptic, small scattered communities aren't going to rely on computers and need, if anything, human knowledge which is always relevant and answers on how to govern themselves and how they ended up in the mess.

   Basically whatever prevents Lord of the Flies and people dying of dysentery would I think have priority. Also gonna throw Ashley Book of Knots as a concrete recommendation in there because knowing your knots is probably a good idea when the world has ended and that book is a classic

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6. walterlbOct 2022
   I saw "The Ashley Book of Knots" mentioned on another post, and it has some interesting history of knots. Especially that the introduction of books led to sailors spending more time not knotting.
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