Releasing knot from rope

[Marc Lewis]

I have found a well dressed bowline or bowline on a bight always easy to undo. I used to do the stick trick but now just make sure my knots are tidy and don't have a problem.

[peds]

5 hours ago, jfc said:

Photo didn't attach first time.

 

4 hours ago, Deafhead said:

It's called a Fid. Try a boat chandler.

 

Canyoneers, an inherently weird bunch of people who are known for some pretty odd rope practices (and to a lesser extent, rock climbers and mountaineers), have a device called a "fiddlestick", you can buy purpose-built ones or knock something up yourself at home similar to jfc's piece there. You use them so you can abseil down the whole length of your rope, instead of only being able to descend half of its length with the rope doubled over, and then give a single sharp pull on a much thinner, lighter strand of abseil cord or tagline, which works the stick free from your anchor knot and sends everything (hopefully) crashing down on top of you, without having to haul the rope down constantly. You've just got to be careful you don't bounce around too much or accidentally snag the tagline on your way down, otherwise your knot might undo itself a bit too early, and your descent is markedly faster than intended. Scary stuff!

Anyway, I was wondering if a "fid" and a "fiddlestick" shared any etymological history, but sailing doesn't really seem like an activity where you'd want knots suddenly coming undone at the slightest tug...

 

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/techtips/fiddlestick/

 

edit: in the photo below, the carabiner is left in place for everyone except the last person to rappel as a failsafe, and the final person takes it with them, leaving only the stick.

 

Edited November 4, 2018 by peds

[billpierce]

 
Canyoneers, an inherently weird bunch of people who are known for some pretty odd rope practices (and to a lesser extent, rock climbers and mountaineers), have a device called a "fiddlestick", you can buy purpose-built ones or knock something up yourself at home similar to jfc's piece there. You use them so you can abseil down the whole length of your rope, instead of only being able to descend half of its length with the rope doubled over, and then give a single sharp pull on a much thinner, lighter strand of abseil cord or tagline, which works the stick free from your anchor knot and sends everything (hopefully) crashing down on top of you, without having to haul the rope down constantly. You've just got to be careful you don't bounce around too much or accidentally snag the tagline on your way down, otherwise your knot might undo itself a bit too early, and your descent is markedly faster than intended. Scary stuff!

Anyway, I was wondering if a "fid" and a "fiddlestick" shared any etymological history, but sailing doesn't really seem like an activity where you'd want knots suddenly coming undone at the slightest tug...
 
http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/techtips/fiddlestick/
 
edit: in the photo below, the carabiner is left in place for everyone except the last person to rappel as a failsafe, and the final person takes it with them, leaving only the stick.
 

Interesting idea. Gives me the Willies thinking about using one. Not done much rock climbing etc but coming straight from arb kit to Rick climbing kit I had difficult trusting it all! So light and thin!

[peds]

15 minutes ago, billpierce said:

Interesting idea. Gives me the Willies thinking about using one. Not done much rock climbing etc but coming straight from arb kit to Rick climbing kit I had difficult trusting it all! So light and thin!

If you like the idea of trusting your life to a fiddlestick, you'll love these two... canyoneers have also been known to lay a tarp flat on the stream bed at the top of their rappel, secure the tagline to the center of the tarp, cover it with gravel and sand, then gather the four corners and tie their rope to that, then rappel as normal. Once everyone has rappeled, you pull the tagline, the center of the tarp is disturbed, all the gravel and sand falls out of the sides, and the whole lot follows you down. It works, sure, but... no thanks.

 

A much better idea, released recently, is the Beal Escaper... it works on a system that releases your climbing rope after a series of tugs, so the constant weight of a body whilst rappeling doesn't bother it, but once everyone is down, pulling on it a dozen times releases the grab incrementally, until it feeds through your anchor and follows you. Genius stuff.

 

https://www.climbing.com/gear/review-beal-escaper/

 

 

And yeah, having a background in rock climbing and mountaineering, I have to say the size and weight of arb gear is reassuring, to say the least... hopping around at a height of 20m on a 13mm cord is nothing after spending a big chunk of my life on 8mm string with a thousand meters of granite, ice, and air beneath your feet. I definitely need to learn a bit more about the relative strength of the tree, though!

Edited November 4, 2018 by peds

[Deafhead]

Fids are used mainly for rope splicing,but are handy for teasing locked knots apart.

[Vespasian]

I wonder if these might be useful for tree work...  looks like a good idea...

 

 

[Luckyeleven]

solo rigging possibly....

[peds]

3 hours ago, Vespasian said:

I wonder if these might be useful for tree work...  looks like a good idea...

 

 

I wouldn't have thought so, as soon as your weight is off the rope even slightly, the bungee wrapped around the uphill strand of the anchor relaxes a little and lets a few centimeters through... and you get around 50cm of wiggle room. I'm not sure how long a branch walk you could get out of that.

[Vespasian]

41 minutes ago, peds said:

I wouldn't have thought so, as soon as your weight is off the rope even slightly, the bungee wrapped around the uphill strand of the anchor relaxes a little and lets a few centimeters through... and you get around 50cm of wiggle room. I'm not sure how long a branch walk you could get out of that.

I thought of that, then thought it wouldn't take much to design em for tree work..  you know, a bigger meatier version..