Rope terminations

[finchyo]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering what your guys opinions are on having sewn (or spliced) rope terminations (ends) on your climbing ropes. I have rarely used a rope with them and just used a bowline, but sewn terminations look neater, safer and stronger.

 

I going to be getting a new 35m rope soon and it can come with 1 or 2 eyes sewn on. Which one should i get? I like alternating between ends of the rope now and then, as is good practice, so might go for 2 (can always be cut off if need too). Only problems i can think of is getting the eyes through a standard cambium saver (might need one with gates on it) and getting the rope stuck when pulling it through a fork.

[atree]

Spliced eyes are way neater and stronger to than knot termintaions.

 

You can get a ball to attach to your spliced eye to retrieve you cam saver/rope guide,if thats what you were wondering

 

Hope that helps

[john dawson]

splices are fine. they will work in a standard cambium saver, just stick a knot in the end of your rope just up from the splice before retrieval, cuz its a long climb back up there!!

[taffupatree]

think im right in saying that certain knot terminations can cause up to a 35- 40% loss in rope strength? where as spliced eyes have to be tested up to 22kn? retrieval is the same as a normal rope but like atree said make the knot near the splice

Edited January 25, 2010 by taffupatree
spelling

[Jamie]

splices are way stronger than knots.

 

With braided ropes (ropes like Arbormaster, xtc, blaze etc) you have to watch out for the rope milking (where the sheath of teh rope stretches and you end up with a floppy end to your rope). the only 16 strand rope i know of that doesn't milk is Samson Arbormaster. I don't know where you could get someone to splice 2 eyes however. I do all my own.

 

hope that helped a bit

 

Jamie

[educated arborist]

think im right in saying that certain knot terminations can cause up to a 35- 40% loss in rope strength? where as spliced eyes have to be tested up to 22kn?

 

Not quite right or true but never mind, with the PPE safety factors which we work with this is not really of any concern

I am currently researching termination options on arborist ropes but firstly you should not climb on both ends of a spliced rope this can cause the splice to fail. If the terminations are sewn it is not so bad but should still be avoided

 

sewn terminations are stronger & much more consistant than splices, however, as i said earlyer this is prety irrelevent.

 

splices are more practical, they are less likely to get stuck & most work well with a cambium saver/ rope guide etc. They are a little more expensive thats there only real drawback IMO

[DrewB]

you should not climb on both ends of a spliced rope this can cause the splice to fail.

 

IMO

 

How come? what causes this? on 16 strand, double braid, kernmantle? interested to know................

[educated arborist]

double braid is kernmantle, by kernmantle do you mean rope which has a core which bears >60% of the load?

 

tust think of a splice as a thumb trap,

 

as a rope milks towards the splice the splice becomes alot weaker, i am currently testing a wide variety of 35m brand new spliced arborist ropes by setting up an anchor 18m high running through a rope guide. A 16.5 stone climber ascended to the anchor via a seperate SRT system & desended on the other double line on a prussic & bowline milking the rope towards the splice. This is repeated 5 times then the spliced end of the rope is tested to destruction. So far we have found a huge loss of strength >50% loss!

[John Shutler]

double braid is kernmantle, by kernmantle do you mean rope which has a core which bears >60% of the load?

 

tust think of a splice as a thumb trap,

 

as a rope milks towards the splice the splice becomes alot weaker, i am currently testing a wide variety of 35m brand new spliced arborist ropes by setting up an anchor 18m high running through a rope guide. A 16.5 stone climber ascended to the anchor via a seperate SRT system & desended on the other double line on a prussic & bowline milking the rope towards the splice. This is repeated 5 times then the spliced end of the rope is tested to destruction. So far we have found a huge loss of strength >50% loss!

 

im guessing you are doing this as an experiment to see the effects of splicing both ends of a climbing line

[DrewB]

double braid is kernmantle, by kernmantle do you mean rope which has a core which bears >60% of the load?

 

tust think of a splice as a thumb trap,

 

as a rope milks towards the splice the splice becomes alot weaker, i am currently testing a wide variety of 35m brand new spliced arborist ropes by setting up an anchor 18m high running through a rope guide. A 16.5 stone climber ascended to the anchor via a seperate SRT system & desended on the other double line on a prussic & bowline milking the rope towards the splice. This is repeated 5 times then the spliced end of the rope is tested to destruction. So far we have found a huge loss of strength >50% loss!

 

sorry for the confusion, yeah i meant kernmantle as core bearing the majority of load. Thats a really interesting test you got going there but would having both ends spliced mean that the ropes gets used alternate ends and so the bunching towards the splice gets stretched back out evry time its used? Having just one spliced eye means that all the bunching is always going to be going towards the eye? In the test, are the 5 descents done without milking the rope back away from the splice or just left as is and repeated? Are you doing the tests with a bowline on end to act as a constant to see what the bunching does to this?

Nice idea for a test mate:001_smile: