To start the New Year, my resolution is to spread the word about some misinformation.
In some detailed instructions and videos very skilled tyers will say they use a “double half hitch” where the thread is wrapped around a half hitch tool for several turns. He then contends that this results in a Whip Finish. This is NOT true. I challenge everyone to prove it for themselves by trying it with a piece of heavy cord. HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Ray, i’ve heard ppl say and i’ve read that half hitching is the same as whip finishing but i’ve never understood that since it doesn’t even resemble a whip finish at all. I’m wondering if maybe someone taught ‘them’ this idea and it’s gotten passed down as a truism over the years. Interesting !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Add in the fact that what most folks call a ‘half hitch’ is in reality a quarter hitch.
A true half hitch has the line going and coming from the knot in opposite directions, which requires two loops done opposite each other. It’s quite strong for line around a belaying pin, but not so much for a fly without good cement. The key to, and the reason it was used as it was on board a sailing vessel, is that properly tied the half hitch will disapear and not foul when the belaying pin is pulled. A full, or sometimes called a Midshipman’s hitch, is two half hitches interlocked so that the line is making four full loops around the pin and will still come completely loose when the pin is pulled.
What most fly tyers that say they half hitch are doing is a series of quarter hitches. Not strong at all, but probably durable enough if you finish the head well or use CA glues.
Good luck with your resolution. Spreading knowledge is often a frustrating endeavor.
Buddy
Buddy -
That is a very good description of the “two quarter hitch process” most people consider a half hitch. For myself, I usually do two half hitches as you’ve described them, with or without head cement.
There’s another name for the two quarter hitch thing, but it doesn’t come to mind at this time.
John
John,
Don’t know what two quarter hitches in a row would be called. Three or more in a row of them are termed a timber hitch. Used even in todays navy (I think, it’sbeen a while since I had a bosun around to talk to) for towing mops behind the ship to clean them.
Buddy
hmm - a double half hitch… I would call that a hitch.
martinwestbeek,
You’d think so, wouldn’t you. But the old sailors who made up all these knots and named them didn’t.
Still lots of uses for the quarter hitch. Mostly for temporary thread stabilization between steps.
Buddy
I saw that again just the other day. It always has me talking to the screen “That is not a whip finish!” Thanks Ray.
When I first started tying flies, I tried whip-finishing by hand, and then learned I was doing it wrong, and was really only doing this half-hitch or quarter-hitch thing. These would also often come unravelled on the fly while fishing. Perhaps this was all just sloppy operator error on my part.
The knots held fine if I added head cement.
Then I switched to using a whip-finishing tool. For me, this has resulted in a much smaller knot, and I haven’t had one unravel yet. I no longer use head cement, unless there is another reason to use it on a particular fly.
Some day I should really force myself to learn to whip-finish by hand… 
I never do a whip finish. Never have problems.
For me it’s just easier to finish that way.
The fish don’t care that it ‘looks better’.
Then I switched to using a whip-finishing tool. For me, this has resulted in a much smaller knot, and I haven’t had one unravel yet. I no longer use head cement, unless there is another reason to use it on a particular fly.
That goes for me too. Several other tyers (tiers?) I’ve met have zealously defended their preferred finishing knot, one way or the other, but ultimately, it comes down to whatever works for you, in all aspects, from knot security, ease of tying, aesthetics, and consistency.
When I first started tying, I dreaded the whip-finish, but eventually, I got a feel for it and I’m so glad I stuck with it. Now, I only use head cement (Sally Hansens’, actually), for specific patterns, preferring to simply whip finish twice on 95% of my ties. At first a whip finish (with a tool or by hand) will take forever to tie, but if you do it often enough, you’ll be throwing two whip finishes on a fly in under 10 seconds.
A whip finish is just that…a whip finish. No different than the whip finish you put on the end of a rope to keep it from unraveling.
2 half hitches MIGHT work on the head of a fly to tie it off…but a proper whip finish certainly will.
Basically, also, the same “tie off” you use to wrap fly rod guides
Good resolution, Ray…nice little discussion already.
I would suggest a new thread of each myth with the proper title of the myth…easier to search later and each subject wouldn’t get lost in one vast thread.
Very good discussion gentlemen, however to put a “fly in your ointment” ( pun intended) , Al Beatty, a professional fly tyer, in his video of rotary fly tying instruction that accompanies the Danvise uses a double quarter hitch several times which he calls a whip finish. Al is a sponsor on this site and a frequent poster! C’mon Al, defend your advise.:lol:
29 years of tying flies and finishing off with 2-3 hitches of whatever we are calling them in this thread and my flies DONT fall apart. go figure! 
I honestly mean no disrespect…
But I’ve been a ‘Knot-Head’ for many years now. I have a library of knot tying books including the ‘Sacred Tome’ known as Clifford Ashley’s Book of Knots. (Almost 4000 knots published in the 1940’s - weighs about 5 lbs!) He traveled at sea learning knots from sailors from different nationalities, then years later, published them in the book.
What you describe in the quote above sounds like a Clove Hitch (‘Which is two loops done opposite each other’) It is the simplest of hitches, and although it is extremely useful and I use it often, it should never be used in life or death situations (please remember that). Being the simplest of hitches, if you tie only half of it, you get a ‘Half Hitch’. A Timber Hitch does not contain Half Hitches, while a Killick Hitch is a Timber Hitch + 1 Half Hitch.
See this helpful page (the ‘ABOK’ next to knot titles stands for 'Ashley’s Book Of Knots + the knot’s number in the book):
http://www.layhands.com/Knots/Knots_Miscellaneous.htm#KillickHitch
AGAIN: DO NOT USE THESE KNOTS FOR PERSONAL SAFETY UNTIL YOU KNOW THE SAFE ONES FROM THE DANGEROUS ONES (and how to tie them properly).
Many knots only hold under a steady pull or can come loose if bounced, shaken, twisted or pulled in the wrong direction.
I highly recommend that everyone get a basic knot book. It is very helpful to fly fishing. (WARNING: Knot Tying is very addictive. Almost as much as fly fishing/tying. But good for winter days. I have lost many hours of sleep to this hobby) There’s even an ‘International Guild of Knot Tyers’ similar to the FFF.
I have never read anything referring to a ‘Quarter’ Hitch. ‘Quarter-Pole’ hitch yes, but it is quite complicated.
If you could provide reference information or a website, I would be much obliged.
I agree that the clove hitch is inappropriate for a whip finish. The super-glued ones will come undone, (I know from personal experience. Which I why I double-whip finish every fly with 5 or more wraps per whip. Sometimes triple for bass flies.)
Again, no disrespect
Bill
And can still somehow come apart ! Hello lepomac, very informative post, thank you. Maybe you can answer a question for me about the clove hitch you mention. By any chance would a girth hitch be the same knot? I suspect not, since someone went to the trouble to name it such. Also, if the clove and the girth aren’t the same, is the timber hitch the same as the girth hitch? I use the clove to hold a boat on a low dock post as it’s fast and hold well enough. Half hitches confuse me though and i don’t think two of them make anything called anything else besides two half hitches. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Bill
There you go! I am a long time knot guy, too and a boat captain with a USCG master license… You are almost exactly right in everything you posted. The only part you missed that I would have added is a couple big pokes in the ribs for Buddy!
art
Not the one you were asking, but another knothead…
No, a girth hitch is not a clove hitch. In a clove hitch the hard end and the bitter end come out in different directions. In the girth they come out in the same direction. They are both just two half hitches. The girth hitch looks identical to a loop to loop on the smaller side where the loop wraps back on itself.
Timber hitches are entirely different and extremely simple. The line is passed around the object, around the standing line, and then wrapped repeatedly back along itself. Loggers use it because they are fast and easy to tie and seldom slip when used to haul logs as the rough bark keeps the line from slipping.
art
Thanks hap, yes, i remembered the girth hitch once i looked it up but can’t remember what i used it for other than to earn my knot tying merit badge. Clove hitch is too easy to forget. The timber hitch you describe eludes me though…i thought it was…how to say this…continuous loops that look like half hitches but that are spaced apart a bit…would have to see a video i think, to clear myself up on that and yes, we used it on ‘logs’…mostly smaller stuff when making firewood.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose