I didn't buy a whip finishing tool because I'm a masochist and cheap. I know there are great tyers out there that never touched one of these tools and I really wanted to be able to pull off this knot by hand.

After more than a week of struggling, watching videos and trying to get my sausage-like fingers to twist and turn the right way, I reached some kind of breakthrough this morning and managed to tie my first one, which I promptly followed up with thirty or forty more to make sure I had it down. (Did you know that thread is sharp? My middle finger does!)

It was mainly this video that I kept referring back to. It's 99% great, with only two things I can complain about:

1. The video doesn't show how he rotates his fingers as clearly as it might (in my opinion). Once I figured out exactly how to move my hand, everything else fell into place.

2. To keep tension on the loop while tightening the knot, he uses the point of his scissors. I tried this myself and noticed something: scissors are sharp too! And putting them in the middle of your knot while tightening it down has a good chance of slicing your thread.

If any of you want to try your hand at it, I couldn't find a better visual aid on the intertubes.