Interesting knot article! I had always heard that the butterfly knot reduced line strength the least. Nice to know it is actually true. Interesting to note that the figure eight knots they tested did almost as well. They did not however test the in-line figure eight knot.

I wonder if these data can be applied to the Hennesy Hammock lines though. They have that very specialized core. Hmm.

SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC:
It appears that the sheet bends (single and double) really reduce the strength of a line.

The real surprise is that a bowline reduces the strength of a line so much. The bowline is such a widely used knot. A figure eight appears to be preferable.

The (single) fishermans knot is also a big loser, but the double fishermans turns out to be a pretty good knot. Interesting that there is such a great difference between the single fishermans knot and the double fishermans knot.

It would be interesting to see them test a figure eight bend and a carrick bend.