Two half hitches
A quick, dependable way to tie a rope to a post, ring, or tree — and easy to untie when you're done.
Scouts BSA, Cub Scouts, Venturing · 3 min
What it's for
Two half hitches fasten a rope to something that won't move: a tree for a clothesline, a ring on a dock, a post for a dining fly. It holds well when the line is pulled and comes apart easily afterward.
How to tie it
New to rope words like working end and bight? See rope words.
Step 1: Go around the post
Pass the working end around the post and bring it back beside the standing part.
Step 2: Make the first half hitch
Take the end over the standing part, around behind it, and back out through the small loop you just made. Pull it close.
Step 3: Make the second one the same way
Repeat the same move a little farther along the standing part, wrapping in the same direction. Slide both hitches up snug.
Check your knot
- Both hitches wrap the standing part the same way, so together they look like a small clove hitch around the rope.
- If they twist apart or look different from each other, the second hitch went the other way. Untie it and match the first one.
- For extra grip, wrap the post twice before you start. That's a round turn and two half hitches, used in pioneering and boating.
Where you'll use it
Requirements that call for this skill in 6 ranks, badges, and awards.
- Scout, Scouts BSA · Rank
- Tenderfoot, Scouts BSA · Rank
- Pioneering, Scouts BSA · Merit Badge
- Pioneering requirement 2b: Demonstrate tying a rope tackle, a butterfly knot, a rolling hitch, a roundturn with two half hitches, a clove hitch on a bight, and a clove hitch made from two half hitches
- Pioneering requirement 3b: Build a 15-foot Scout Stave Flagpole using round lashings plus either rolling hitches or a roundturn and two half hitches (from 2b and 2c), or another camp gadget of your own design if your counselor allows
- Rowing, Scouts BSA · Merit Badge
- Small-Boat Sailing, Scouts BSA · Merit Badge
- Ranger Award, Venturing · Award
Keep learning
- Taut-line hitch, An adjustable loop that holds under tension, so you can tighten a tent guyline or clothesline just by sliding the knot., 4 min
- Clove hitch, Two turns around a pole that grip each other. It starts and ends most lashings and ties a line to a post in seconds., 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.