Knots and pioneering can become a very useful skill in itself as well as a platform for showing what advantage scouting can offer over other youth organisations.

Once you have learnt the basic ideas and knots in the cubs and progressed on through the troop you will begin to pick up those true pioneering skills.

It really is a great feeling of achievement to construct a major bridge and framework across a river. Such pioneering activities can bring together not only your knotting skills but principles of teamwork, self motivation, physical abilities and problem solving.

All too often taught as a subject unto itself and separate from practical experience knotting often has the stigma of being 'boring'. There are a number of ways of holding the youngsters interest while building their skills up to the 'civil engineer' level. All of these should be pursued by the scouter lest they lose interest at the early stage and never progress and gain those vital skills mentioned above.

Connected is a central area that provides links to obtain further information on subjects contained in Scouting Resources. From here you can go on to websites related to your area of interest, pick up some further reading in related books and jot down some contact addresses.

The A-Z of Knots - An illustrated AZ walkthrough of some of the most common (and not so common) knots. Each knot has a short description and (almost) every one has an illustration demonstrating the knot.

Book Reviews - Reviews of a large variety of knotting books

Knots - Each knot gets a page describing its history, uses and an illustrated guide on how to tie the knot. The knots are broken down into categories according to use, such as Bends, Hitches and Stopper Knots

Lashings - Different types of lashings with instructions on how to tie and how best to use them

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Pioneering has its own section at Scouting Resouces. Visit the Pioneering section to get ideas for putting those knots into practice.

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