The reef knot (square knot in Scouts lingo) is a good binding knot. It's a terrible bend. Scouts teach it as a bend, for some idiotic reason.

Reefing a sail or tying a parcel, a reef knot the role will fulfill. But joining two ends one should only use bends, And a reef knot's a sure way to kill.

⸻Stuart Grainger, ex-Master Mariner, 1985. Referenced from "The Complete Book of Knots" by Geoffrey Budworth.