What knot would you use...

The summarized question is: What knot would you use to tie a rope to a 
pipe when you're holding tension on the line, with lots of excess rope?


Don't worry, I'll be more specific.  I did a fair amount of work today 
hauling pipes and scenic pieces into position, and tying them in place 
tem****arily while more permanent rigging was installed.  So for the 
rest of you, what knot do you use when you've pulled something up to 
just by the catwalk you're on, you want to tie it in place, and you've 
got say 50' of slack on the dead end of the rope?

I've been in the (bad?) habit of doubling up a foot or two of slack and 
doing several half hitches around the loaded line.  Learned it from a 
reputable rigger a while ago, but I thought I'd ask if there was a 
better knot for this, one where I could actually read it's efficiency 
versus rope strength and know that it doesn't have a tendency to do 
something bad if loaded improperly.

I'm hoping that there's something faster than simply tying a clove 
through all 50' feet of slack like my partner was doing.

Thoughts?

Ben