Figure eight
A chunky stopper knot that keeps a rope from sliding through a hole or pulley — and the starting point for climbing knots.
Scouts BSA, Venturing · 3 min
What it's for
Tie a figure eight in the end of a rope to keep it from slipping through a grommet, pulley, or your hand. It's bigger and easier to untie than an overhand knot. Climbers build their tie-in knots (the figure eight on a bight and the figure eight follow-through) from this same shape.
How to tie it
New to rope words like working end and bight? See rope words.
Step 1: Make a loop
Bring the working end around and over the standing part to make a loop.
Step 2: Around behind the standing part
Take the end around behind the standing part.
Step 3: Down through the loop
Bring the end down through the first loop from the front, then pull both ends to tighten.
Knots you trust your weight to
Climbing, rappelling, and rescue knots are only used with a trained, qualified instructor who checks every knot. This guide is for learning and practice, not a substitute for that training.
Check your knot
- It looks like the number 8 before you tighten it.
- If it looks like a simple pretzel with one crossing too few, it's an overhand knot. Untie it and go around the standing part before tucking.
Where you'll use it
Requirements that call for this skill in 3 ranks, badges, and awards.
- Climbing, Scouts BSA · Merit Badge
- Small-Boat Sailing, Scouts BSA · Merit Badge
- Ranger Award, Venturing · Award
- Ranger Award requirement C2h2: Show how to tie the bowline, bowline on a bight, sheet bend, fisherman's knot, clove hitch, timber hitch, taut-line hitch, two half hitches, and figure 8, and how to make square, shear, and diagonal lashings
- Ranger Award requirement S2c1: Learn these knots for vertical caving: endline knots (figure-eight, figure-eight on a bight, bowline), midline knots (butterfly, bowline on a bight), joiner knots (fisherman, water knot, figure-eight bend), and the Prusik ascending knot
- Ranger Award requirement S7c: Learn and show these climbing knots: figure-eight on a bight, figure-eight follow-through, water knot, and grapevine knot
Keep learning
- Bowline, A fixed loop at the end of a rope that won't slip tighter or come undone under load, and still unties easily afterward., 4 min
- Sheet bend, Joins two ropes, even ropes of different thickness. It's the bowline's cousin, and it unties easily., 3 min
- Square knot, Ties two ends of the same rope together around something — a bandage, a bundle, a bag. Flat, neat, and easy to untie., 3 min
Explanations here are ours, written to help you learn. Your unit leader or counselor decides when a requirement is complete.