Figure-of-nine loop
type of knot

The figure-of-nine loop is a type of knot to form a fixed loop in a rope. Tied in the bight, it is made similarly to a figure-of-eight loop but with an extra half-turn before finishing the knot.
Also similar to the stevedore loop, the figure-nine loop is generally shown as being based on an intermediate form between the figure-eight knot and the stevedore knot. The Ashley Book of Knots shows this intermediate knot, in stopper form, as #521.
While it uses more rope and is bulkier than the figure-of-eight loop, the figure-nine loop is somewhat stronger and less likely to jam. It is sometimes used instead of a figure-of-eight loop to attach a rope to an anchor point or belay.
Tying
Figure-of-nine knot
The knot can also be tied with the end of a rope - a single strand replaces the double strand, and therefore a naked end replaces the loop. This knot can be rearranged to form a stopper knot, in the same manner as a figure-of-eight stopper knot.
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This entry incorporates text from “Figure-of-nine loop” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.