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I think it looks great the way you did it. The bend radius looks fine. I used to use thimbles but stopped for two main reasons: I couldn't make a tight connection to the snap, and I didn't like the geometry the thimble forces on the splice. Ideally you want the buried leg of the splice to enter...

After the ring broke, it was time to explain what had happened. The first photo is two views of the broken ring. The top view is where the pin had been--note the total absence of crazing. Crazing is very evident in the second view, which shows the midpoint between the pin and the girth...

What is very cool about doing experiments like this are the big surprises that sometimes await you. That was the case here. The ring did not break near any notch, nor did it get particularly close to its rated strength. It broke where the Amsteel Blue girth hitch was crushing it like a python...

How cool to see a 4-yr-old thread come back to life. Here's another update on Amsteel Blue. About a year ago I had the opportunity to test a 32-kN SMC aluminum ring that someone sent me. The first picture shows the initial setup. I used this setup for 3 sequential pulls (1K, 2K and 3K...

This is a very interesting suggestion by pdqdl: when the very same technique is applied to very small branches it is called air layering. In that case the girdling is intentional and the purpose is to encourage the branch tip above the wound to form roots. Once rooted, the branch is cut free and...

I doubt if anyone here will recommend it, but I recommend a nylon rope. The stretch, which equates to stored energy, is your friend for pulling over trees with a come-along. You can crank up your come-along, knowing you are within the WLL rating for the rope, then go release your tree with the...

By "safe tail length" do you mean the length of the back splice? The only function of the back splice is to keep the long adjuster tail from accidentally being pulled through the sling. This should never happen if the sling is properly set, but if it did, the back splice would probably help. I...

Cesar, yes, that's right. The stitching guarantees there is pressure and thus friction between cover and core even with no load. Another way to think if it is that whenever tension is applied, both cover and core will have to share it. Tension in the cover means friction against the core.

Here's a way to do it, similar to what Bermie suggests (see post #18):http://www.arboristsite.com/arborist-101/32834-2.htm

Here's a picture of an Australian tourist who did make it to the top. The building is actually 2 stories! I would estimate it is about 8 ft. x 8 ft. The second row of rebar is to hang the security curtain, the 4-inch steel mesh you can see in the third photo. It would have been great fun to...

The second-tallest flowering plant in the world is found only in a few pockets in the soutwest corner of Australia, where I was fortunate enough to spend a week in January. The tree is the spectacular Karri, Eucalyptus diversicolor. Even second-growth trees 100 years old ("regrowth" in...

I've stopped using it--it seems too bulky and clunky somehow. Instead I have become a fan of pdqdl's man-harness knot tied as a mid-line loop for an SRT anchor.

What, this is not an end-for-end splice?

I can't figure out what I'm looking at. And end-for-end splice in the middle of an eye?? Where is the splice that slipped out?

Well, I dusted off my statistics book (way more than 30 yrs for me!) and think I have it figured out. The control group broke at 48, 50 and 54 lbs. for a mean value of 50.67. The ethanol group seemed most degraded by the long soak with a mean breaking strength of 46 lbs. The 3 tensile...

I have the results of my experiments to determine the weakening effect of various treatments on residual fiber strength. All the strands tested came from the same piece of slightly used 1/2-inch Samson Treemaster. These are the smallest strands in the rope--162 of them--all made of filament...

Pdqdl, now I feel bad. The devil made me do it. I knew you meant no insult and none was taken, but somehow my words came out as if I were miffed. I apologize for whiny tone of my post. This is a good point and probably helps explain why the pitch problem just goes away even if you don't wash...

Experiment Update After being away for about 3 days, I returned to find the nail was completely clean. When I shook the test tube, a hazy cloud of emulsified pitch swirled up from the bottom to fill the tube. Bad chemistry? Hmmmm...I don't remember saying anything at all about chemistry...

Detergent vs Pitch Various people have recommended using mild soap, Woolite, or detergent to clean pitch from ropes. I decided to test the efficacy of strong detergent. In a test tube I put a mixture of 3 parts water and one part liquid laundry detergent. For those who are math challenged, this...

Great work, pdqdl! The next time I recommend acetone I'll have an actual source I can cite.