Learn to Tie Any Tie Knot Using the Fink-Mao Notation - Q&A

In our previous video "How to tie a Four-in-Hand and a Bertie Knot", we made a mistake. Thanks to some eagle eyed YouTube and IGTV viewers, we have realized that the "Bertie" knot was mislabeled in the video. There does not seem to be an official name to the knot that was in the video so we are calling it the "Mutant Bertie" for the time being.

In this video, we want to bring to your attention: The Fink-Mao Notation, an ingenious way of describing how to tie any tie knot. Using Fink-Mao, you can easily learn to tie any of them. It's incredibly simple and intuitive. The notation consists of a two letter pair: The first letter is: L, R and C (left, right and center) and the second letter is: i and o (inwards and outwards). The notation can also be the letter T (through) which indicates the large blade should be pushed through the tie knot and will usually signal the end of the knot. These notations are then arranged into a sequence to describe how to tie a knot.

For instance, a Four-in-Hand in Fink-Mao is: Li Ro Li Co T (if you hold your large blade with your left hand) or Ri Lo Ri Co T (if you hold your large blade with your right hand).

The Bertie would be Li Co Ri Lo Ri Co T (large blade left hand) or Ri Co Li Ro Li Co T (large blade right hand).

The Mutant Bertie would be Li Co Li Ro Li Co T or Ri Co Ri Lo Ri Co T.

The Half Windsor would be Li Ro Ci Lo Ri Co T or Ri Lo Ci Ro Li Co T.

The Windsor would be Li Co Ri Lo Ci Ro Li Co T or Ri Co Li Ro Ci Lo Ri Co T.

For more details on this method, have a look at Dr Fink's page on the notation here: https://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~tmf20/...

When we were exploring the notation, we found that it was necessary to reverse L and R to make the notation more intuitive. If you look at their diagrams closely, you'll see what we mean.

Dr Fink and Mao's book is available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/85-Ways-Tie-Sc...

It seems to be out of print but hopefully it will come back a Kindle publication one day!

Special thanks to Derek and our other IGTV and YouTube commenters who pointed out the error!