Classic (Square Knot) Double Column

For this example, we will tie the wrists.

Begin with your rope folded in half. Hold the rope in your guiding hand while your active hand lays the bight, on top of what you are tying.

Make two to three wraps for a total of four to six strands in the cuff. You will need a longer bight than you had for the Classic Single Column, roughly 10 to 14 inches, to have enough to finish the tie.

Keep a grip on all the strands with your guiding hand and use your active hand to lay the bight end over top of all of them…

…then wrap between the two columns, all the way to the other side.

Bring the bight around all the lines and back up to where you started.

Now we need to lock the cuff. First, reverse the direction of the tail to make a bend in the rope. (This, along with the crossing in Steps 4-5, creates the first twist of the Square Knot.)

Pull the bight straight up to begin cinching the lines of the cuff. This will tighten all the strands at the same time and to the same level.

Lay the bight on top of the bend in the tail.

Reach through the bend and hook the bight.

Pull the bight through. This is the second twist of the Square Knot.

If you have tied it correctly, you will have this distinctive shape with three lobes.

Confirm the cuffs are at the desired level of tightness. You need to be able to get two fingers under the cuffs. If not, it is too tight, and you risk impacting blood flow or causing nerve damage.

Tighten the knot very tightly as shown in the Single Column tutorial, Steps 22-30.

You will know you have the Square Knot version if you see this pattern with three sets of two lines converging and the tail and bight being parallel to the cuffs. If the tail and bight are perpendicular to the cuffs, you have made the Granny Knot version. Both can work fine if properly tightened, but the Granny Knot version is a little more prone to collapsing than the Square Knot version.

It is better to have the cuffs a little higher on the wrists so they do not impact the small bones of the wrists. The rope may have naturally migrated tight up to the hand while tying. If so, place your fingers inside the cuff and move them away slightly.

This way the pressure is not directly on the bones and other sensitive areas of the most vulnerable part of the wrist.

Grab the tail.

Give it a twist to create a loop. Do this so that the lines of the tail lay parallel to the lines of the cuffs.

Reach through that loop and grab the bight.

Pull the bight all the way through. Now that that loop is around something, it is a Hitch. That is why this technique is often called “dropping a hitch.”

Pull the tail and bight away from each other very firmly. Then tighten each individual strand as shown in the Single Column tutorial, Steps 22-30.

Now, if tension is added, the first twist may deform somewhat, but it protects the second and third twists from deforming.

See how the tail of the knot is naturally flowing in this direction?

To quickly release or pop this knot, pull the rope in the opposite direction…

…then pull firmly.

The knot will pop loose.

Then you can untie it easily from there.