Raoul Graumont (1896–1985) was born in Algiers, the son of a cavalry colonel in a French colonial regiment. He began his maritime apprenticeship at the age of thirteen on one of the last great French sailing vessels, the five-masted barque France. He learned knot work aboard ship and in the hundreds of foreign ports to which his ships carried him.

He later served in the French Army for eight years, until his discharge in 1922. He was a Texas cowpuncher, a Montana lumberjack, a rigger in Washington and Oregon, and mushed dog teams in Alaska. He is the author of Handbook of Knots, and the coauthor of Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work, Fourth Edition, Fisherman’s Knots and Nets, and Splicing Wire and Fiber Rope.