Wrap & Cinch Double Column

Easy

This is forward-tension double column. It is great for tying any two things together:

Wrist to wrist
Ankle to ankle
Wrists to ankles
Wrists to thighs
Knee to knee
Ankle to thigh
Wrist to arm of a chair
Even elbow to elbow (if your partner is ridiculously flexible)

It is simple to apply and yet results in a snug and secure tie.

A double column is pretty much the same as a single column, but with a cinch in the middle. The same idea can be extended to three columns (as in a TK) or more… I am going to show two versions, the standard just-tie-them-up version and a useful variation if you are going to put the tie under tension -- make it "load-bearing".

Important Safety Tip! Wrists are sensitive, they must be handled with care. So "load-bearing", means reasonable amounts of load. Hands attached overhead is fine, suspending someone by their wrists alone is not. More:

Wrists have a lot of nerve and blood vessels near the skin on the inside of the wrists. Too much pressure there can impact blood flow or nerve conduction. Cuffs should never be too tight; you should always be able to run two fingers under a cuff.
The wrist joint itself is also fragile. If you pull on wrists too hard, you can damage that joint or even push some of those small wrist bones into the wrong position. NEVER suspend someone by the wrists alone. Never tie someone in a position where rope is a applying heavy continual stress on the wrists.
An example of this might be if you tied your partner's wrists to the bedposts, then grabbed their feet and pulled them sharply toward the foot of the bed. In that scenario, you may end up applying too much pressure to the wrist joints. Tying your partner to a bed can be amazing fun, but make sure there is enough slack in the tie that they can move their arms and wrists enough to adjust the lay of the cuff and rope strands from time to time.

For this tie, I used one 10' (~3m) piece of 1/4" (6mm) Braided Cotton Rope. This can be done with much less. 5' (~1.5m) is plenty.For most ties on this site, I use an amazing Natural hemp rope provided by my affiliate Twisted Monk. Check them out!Prerequisites:

Prerequisites

Прямой и хирургический узлы | Square Knot & Surgeon’s Knot

Video

Core Technique - Pictures & Text

Find someone with two things you want to tie together :)

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (1)

When doing wrists, it can be helpful to have your partner try to hold their wrists a little apart like this … provide a little resistance.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (2)

Start with a length of rope. Unlike most of our ties, which are “eastern-style” and start with the rope folded in half like this…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (3)

…this is a “western-style” tie and begins with the end of the rope, tying with only one strand at a time.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (4)

Wrap it around the wrists…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (5)

…4-6 times…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (6)

…like this. This distributes the pressure across the wrists and helps prevent loss of circulation.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (7)

Bring the two tail ends together and twist them around each other once as shown…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (8)

…so that they are now traveling perpendicularly to the strands of the cuffs.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (9)

Wrap these two tails around all the strands of the cuffs…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (10)

…around the strands on the other side of the cuff…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (11)

…back to your starting point (in this picture, the starting point is on the bottom because we moved the hands so you could see what is happening better). Now you can pull on the two tail ends and it will cinch all the cords of the cuffs together at the same time and at the same level of tension.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (12)

Zoom on Cinch: Lets take a look at this more closely. I have temporarily made the cuffs further apart so you can see this more clearly.

Zoom 1 on Cinch

Zoom on Cinch: When you pull on the tails, they will cinch both sides of the bands closer together.

Zoom 2 on Cinch

Zoom on Cinch: Like this. Now back to our tutorial, already in progress...

Zoom 3 on Cinch

Important safety tip! There are lots of blood vessels and nerves very close to the skin on the inside of the wrist. You don’t want too much pressure there or you risk impacting blood flow or nerve conduction. This is a *bad* thing. See the Safety tutorial if you have not already done so.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (13)

General Safety Rule: You should be able to get 2 fingers inside of a cuff like I am showing here.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (14)

Once you have the tension set properly…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (15)

Lock off with a Square Knot or Surgeon’s Knot.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (16)

Note: I showed this being tied on the pinky side of the hand for a reason. If you put the knot on the Thumb side, it can be easy for your partner to untie it with hand or mouth.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column (17)

Wrap & Cinch Double Column

Converting a Double Column into a Load-Bearing Double Column

Remember that it is these cinch lines that make the cords of the cuff get tighter. So you never want to use the tails coming out of the cuff to tie the cuffs to a hard point. If you do, any pulling your partner does will pull the cinch tighter and make the cuffs tighter. This is *bad*. So, if you want to attach your Double Column to a hard point, you need to convert it to a Load-Bearing version. This way you can pull on all the cords of the cuffs evenly, but in a way that does not make them clamp down more tightly.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (1)

To do this, grab a new rope and run the bight through the *inner* part of the cuff.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (2)

Run the bight of the new rope on one side of the cinch from the hand side to toward the elbow … like this…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (3)

…and then coming back up through the cuff on the other side of the cinch…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (4)

…like this…

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (5)

Now run your tail through the bight and tighten. You have just formed a Lark’s Head knot around the cords that make up the cinch lines of the cuff.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (6)

Now any tension you add will tighten around the cords of the *cinch*. This way the cords of the cuffs themselves do not clamp down on the wrists.

Wrap & Cinch Double Column - Load Bearing (7)

An older version of this tutorial that shows things from a different angle

Find someone with two things they want tied together :)

Wrap-Cinch-DC-01

Start with a length of rope (use one of your shorter ropes if doing wrists or ankles).

Wrap-Cinch-DC-02

Wrap it around the wrists 4-6 times. This distributes the pressure across the wrists and helps prevent loss of circulation.

Wrap-Cinch-DC-03

Bring the two tail ends together and cross them once as shown. From here you wrap these two strands around the cuff cords a few times, which is what I am showing from here through step 6

Wrap-Cinch-DC-04