How to Eye Splice Double Braid Rope

[Shas]

Since having a stroke a few years back
I find great difficulty in translating words and pictures to rope.
Brian Toss's book is excellent, but his VIDEO
made it possible for me to get his results.
It costs something, yes, especially if you buy
his splicing tools (which I did), but I figure a feller
could recoup that doing eyesplices for others.
The video shows eyesplices in double braid,
three-strand, Spectra, Regatta,
and stuff I never heard of before!

Shas

[ssullivan]

Don't worry Shas. If you are able to do it at all, you're better than I am.

I had to have my wife look at the New England Ropes site and show my how the braiding went (for 3 strand). I was able to reason out the double braid techniques.

The key is to have new line you are working with, as said before. Also, you don't need fids and all that crap. The screwdriver or knitting needle works just as well.

I'm now fully up to speed splicing 3 strand to chain and doing eye splices in 3 strand and double braid of any type. Kind of fun once you get the hang of it.

[GMac]

A blunt screwdriver I hope.

[David M]

Hah!....the few splices I have tried came out looking like crap. I cant wait to try your method. Thanks!

[mikereed100]

David,

Check out page 121 of this month's Latitude 38. It may not be pretty but it looks quick and strong. It takes me about 45 min to put an eyesplice in double braid using the instructions that came with the fid.

Mike

[Blue]

I only joined this site to thank Bob for posting this how to article. Fawsome job.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Blue

I only joined this site to thank Bob for posting this how to article. Fawsome job.

I'm sure Bob would appreciate all the positive comments.

Just a shame he felt the need to leave due to all the negativity comments at the start.

Dave

[GordMay]

I’m sure Bob would be gratified to hear your thanks directly. You might also mention that he is missed at the CruisersForum.
Bob Norson:
Website (“The Coastal Passage” free magazine): The Coastal Passage Home Page
Email: mail@thecoastalpassage.com

[Weyalan]

For what it is worth, Brion Toss' book (Riggers Apprentice) is both interesting and informative. I have used it for teaching myself to splice double-braid exotics such as Vectran and Spectra. Nevertheless, be sure to read through the whole splicing instruction, probably twice, before attempting the splice... he does have an unfortunate habit of mentioning that you should have done something critical just after you have completed the step that follows it... for example he mentions that you should have threaded your clip into the eye after you have buried the tail of the eye... hrmmmph!

[GMac]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

. for example he mentions that you should have threaded your clip into the eye after you have buried the tail of the eye... hrmmmph!

That one gets even the harden pros who have done 1000's. And I can assure you it is incredibly annoying

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by GMac

That one gets even the harden pros who have done 1000's. And I can assure you it is incredibly annoying

Because, most of the time, I am just splicing for fun / learning the ropes, I have been using a shackle rather than a clip, so if I get it wrong, I can always just remove the shackle. I haven't messed up on one that actually mattered.... yet (but it is only a matter of time)

[GMac]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

(but it is only a matter of time)

Good to see a realist
Hope it goes well and the cock-ups are only occasional.

[Weyalan]

I'm so realistic I did my own splicing for my checkstays (1/4" Vectran with stainless thimbles), but paid for a professional to splice my runners (3/8" Vectran with stainless thimbles)... masts don't fall down when a checkstay fails...

[oldbilbo]

Hello, people. I'm newly-registered here, having found my way via a Google/YouTube search for braid/braid techniques. I have tup'pence worth to add or, if you prefer, 'my two bits worth'....

I'm now looking after an 11000lb sailboat on a fore/aft mooring near Plymouth, UK, which needed inter alia 4 new mooring strops. I was given several hundred feet of new, soft 20mm polyester braid-on-braid made by English Braids, rated by them at over 11200kg. "Should be man enuff for the job", I thought.

Most of the problems mentioned by others turned up at my door - especially 'burying that last few inches.' I found an application of washing up liquid to be a little helpful, but the main cause of the difficulty was created when I first eased the initial small loop of core from the cover at, I believe, 'Point X'. I managed to pull several individual strands out of place a bit from their proper position in the rope-core, and that meant there was more material, a bundle or 'knuckle', AT THAT POINT to be buried, right at the end. So I learned A) to pull any such extra strand-material back up the length of the core, out of the way. B) to lever the cover strands well back from the first tiny opening as shown in, I believe, one of the Samson videos, making a bigger initial hole on the cover and making it much easier to get that initial grip on most/all of the core. That made a big difference right at the end.

I took to 'lockstitching' my splices and also whipping them tightly, using 1.5-2mm monofil garden strimmer line ( like thick sea-fishing line ), as I'd been advised that process - done tightly - adds quite a bit of strength to the splice by keeping it all stabilised under repetitive 'jerk' loads. The problem there was passing the end of the monofil line initially and at the end, for while I could, with some difficulty, drive a sailmaker's needle through the buried splice, the stiff monofil threaded through the needle eye would not bend through 180 degrees to pass easily through the centre of the rope splice. I've broken off several needle eyes doing this, and have been hunting unsuccessfully for 'cannulae', or hypodermic needles, of suitable dimensions to be used as mini-fids.

Once I had the splices and whippings sorted, I covered each in a length of industrial heat-shrink tubing. That may add little to the strength, but it hides some sins and certainly does look good. See piccy.




Please note I have whipped together the two 'throats' of the paired mooring strops to minimise chafe, using 3mm cordage.





Now, I also have several hundred metres of 5-6mm line which has been used once to pull fibre-optic cable through underground ducting, and then discarded. This has a loose orange braided polyprop cover and a bundle of load-carrying straight, unbraided, un-laid core fibres. I suspect this white core fibre is some form of 'exotic' and relatively strong. It's very difficult to knot this stuff successfully, and the only splice technique I've tried which holds more than a minute of two is weaving it back through itself, in a 'ski slalom' pattern, a dozen times.

I'd certainly not use it for 'Safety Of Life At Sea' tasks, but would be interested to hear of any better techniques I could try.