splicing for beginners

[Jamie]

To my mind the area where its best to stitch and whip the splice is right up by the throat of the splice because:

 

• Thats where the splice begins
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As the splice is used and settles it may shift slightly as the fibres are run home throughly during use

• The rope has had less human interaction to the braid at the throat of teh splice, if you stitch it where the rope begins to taper there are less strands of the rope to help bind the stitching

 

How to make the throat easier to stitch.

 

• Bend it baby, bend the splice lots every way, massage it some more and bend bend bend

• Take a rubber mallet and pummel it on a non abrasive surface

• Get some sail makers needles and a sailmakers palm and some pliers

 

Sailmakers needle, notice the beefy eye and the slightly fatter nose they have. once the nose of teh needle is through they slide through pretty easily. sewing needles really ain't up to it. i've only broken one in 4 years of abuse. sewing needles i was breaking a fair few.

 

A sail makers palm allows you to push the needle through, you wear it on your hand (they come in lefts and rights) they help a lot for tight throats

 

My essentials, i've not put up a picture of some pliers as i'm sure you have all seen 'em before, i've missed out whipping twine, i use marlow no. 4

 

In all of that i'm assuming everyone knows why we stitch braided rope bury splices, just to make sure here is a very brief over view. A splice will hold under heavy load, the stitching is to prevent any slipping under low loads. more slippery rope fibers (often called class 2) have buries twice the length of standard splices as the fibers will pass over each other easier and a low load to those rope types may be a very substantial weight.

 

Any more ideas?

 

Jamie

[Jamie]

Carl, my blaze splice in that pic was from years ago, I gave up trying at the throat and whiplocked it there, it's used as a slack line tensioner now. When i've spliced blaze recently it's been a throat whiplock.

 

Oh and make sure your frapping turns don't cross and twist. doubt there is much structural concern but it looks better and shows attention to detail.

 

Jamie

[High Scale]

Yeah I am struggling with my needle control, the palm makes it easier but I still keep stabbing myself.

The crossover is also a concern a I am finding hard to get really smooth.

[Jamie]

at the cross over on 16 strand i always taper it down a bit past what i think it should be. i'm not a fan of doing it. i much prefer doublebraids

 

Jamie