The Easy-Release Locking Bow

Never have your boots undo while walking again.

When I was guiding a group of friendly walkers on one of our walking holidays, we stopped for our picnic lunch overlooking Pinkery Pond on Exmoor. I found myself sitting next to the oldest member of this group, a marvellous gentleman in his early nineties, fit as a fiddle and not looking anywhere near his age. His name was Horace, known to all his chums as Horry. One of the other members of the group called across and asked Horry if he had shown me his 'Horry Knot'. He then proceeded to show me his locking bow he and all his chums use without fail. I also now never go out without tying my boots with the Horry Knot. I have walked long distances with my boots being held with this bow and have never had to touch, let alone retighten this bow.

The other major beauty of it is it can get as wet as you like and it still undoes in the normal fashion, simply pull the two ends in the normal way for a bow and, with a snap, it undoes. As apposed to the granny knot done over the top of a standard bow, which once wet is enough to break most peoples nails in the attempt to loosen it. Below is a downloadable picture description of how to tie this amazing bow. Like me, once you have mastered it, you will never tie a bow in the original way or worse, lock it with a granny knot.

With all the walkers I have guided I have yet to find someone who knows this knot, yet it is so effective that I have to pass it on to visitors to this site. Please let me know how you get on with it, if you are already using it and if you know its origins.

Click here to download detailed pictorial instructions as an Adobe pdf file.