It can be tough to cinch a rope tight around a bundle, especially if it is a bundle of springy things like sticks or canes. Once you have it tight, you must somehow hold it there while you tie a knot. If the bundle then settles, the knot you have tied makes it hard to cinch yet tighter. You must cut and retie or tie it over again with more rope/twine.
I propose a cinch tool. I have linked an image - I am sorry it came out so small. It is made of two pieces of bamboo. One piece is a short round pipe, cut along the side to form a C. The end of the side cut is notched. After looping it one or more time around the bundle, the rope to be cinched is pushed in through this slot to lie along the bottom of the pipe.
The second piece is a "pinch piece" section of bamboo sharpened at one end. It is inserted through a shot at the top of the pipe so it meets the bottom of the pipe interior at an angle. The ropes run under this pinch piece. When the ropes are pulled forward through the tube the pinch piece can flex up to let them pass. However the ropes cannot easily slide backwards as the sharp part of the angled pinch piece cannot flex down or backwards. On cinching the bundle tight, a knot placed in the rope will ensure it cannot slide back through the pipe unless the pinch piece is broken off.
This cinch tool is made of bamboo because it is organic, durable, cheap and widely available. The tool size can be scaled up or down depending on the bundle size and the rope or twine used. I imagine someone good at it could make about one of these a minute.-- bungston, Aug 14 2006 (?) Cinch tool images http://img109.image...ge=cinchtubetx4.png [bungston, Aug 14 2006] no tool needed. http://en.wikipedia...iki/Taut-line_hitch [jhomrighaus, Aug 14 2006] No rope needed http://www.sellotape.com/ [methinksnot, Aug 15 2006] Not seeing how this is an improvement on regular cinch straps.-- DrCurry, Aug 14 2006 Sorry, I couldn't understand the drawing.
Try a trucker's hitch. Make or tie a loop in one end of the rope. Wrap the rope around the bundle, and thread the free end of the rope into the loop. Pull the free end back on itself, which makes a very crude pulley out of the loop, and tug out the slack, compressing your bundle. Hold the intersection together with one hand. Then tuck a bight of the free end through itself to make an overhand knot that can be removed with a simple tug of the free end.
The trucker's hitch can also be made in one end of a long rope by putting a bight through itself to make an overhand knot, which provides a pulley loop a foot or so from the railing of the trailer or whatever you are tying to, which makes a crude compound pulley. Use a single overhand, which wants to disappear as the rope tightens--you have to remember which way to make it face, but it all goes away easily when you are done with the rope.-- baconbrain, Aug 14 2006 A tautline hitch works quite well for this.-- jhomrighaus, Aug 14 2006 random, halfbakery