Meet Knotbench — Tie any knot. Animated. Free

Reference

Knotbench

Tie any knot. Animated. Free.

What Knotbench does

Every popular knot-tying iOS app uses photos or low-res GIFs. When you're on a boat with one hand on a line and one on the phone, low-res photos at a sketchy angle aren't enough.

Knotbench animates every knot using SwiftUI Path drawings — vector-perfect at every zoom level, infinitely smooth. Pinch to zoom, drag to rotate, tap to step through the tie.

30+ knots organized by use:

— Boating: bowline, cleat hitch, clove hitch, round turn + two half hitches, anchor hitch, sheet bend. — Climbing: figure-eight follow-through, double fisherman's, prusik, clove hitch on carabiner, alpine butterfly. — Fishing: improved clinch, palomar, uni knot, blood knot, double surgeon's loop. — Household: square (reef) knot, taut-line hitch, trucker's hitch, double half hitch. — Decorative: monkey's fist, turk's head (3 lead 4 bight), lanyard knot.

Each knot includes: — Animated step-by-step tie — When to use / strength / failure mode — Common mistakes — Practice timer ('tie a bowline in under 10 seconds')

No account. No subscription. No internet. Ships fully offline because cell signal at the dock is bad and yours might be too.

A look inside

Tap any screenshot to open the full-resolution version.

What's inside

• Category browse — Pick boating / climbing / fishing / household / decorative
• Animated knot — SwiftUI Path drawing with step controls
• Use notes — When to use, strength, failure mode, mistakes
• Practice timer — Time yourself tying a knot from memory
• Favorites — Pin knots you use often for quick access

Why we built it

Existing knot apps use static photos or pixelated GIFs that fail at boat-rail viewing distance. Top app on the store (Animated Knots by Grog) uses video which needs to buffer and is hard to scrub. No app uses vector animation for crisp zoom.

What makes it different

Knotbench is the only iOS knot reference where every knot is drawn natively in SwiftUI Path — vector-perfect at any zoom, with step controls (tap to advance, swipe to scrub). 30+ knots span boating/climbing/fishing/household/decorative categories. Practice timers, failure-mode notes, no subscription, fully offline.

Who it's for

Built for anyone who values fast, private, on-device software with a calm, focused UX.

In one line: Tie any knot. Animated. Free.

Try it

See the Knotbench app page for the full feature list, the info table, and support links.

Use Knotbench, found a bug, or have a feature request? Comments are open below — anonymous is fine.