there are much better choices for friction hitches. my fav is bail out cord
tenex is great when not a lot of heat is involved.
Splicing 101 - Tenex
- Thread starter moray
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tenex is great when not a lot of heat is involved.Black?? I can only report my own experience with the stuff, which may or may not be "normal". Mine immediately got frayed and ratty-looking. But it stabilized right there and has looked about the same for many months.
I don't know why WLL doesn't like it but does like Tenex. I switched from Tenex because the Ice Tail seemed to grip a little more reliably, and because it was a smaller tidier rope. The heat resistance wasn't really a consideration, but it's nice to know it's there, just in case. I should try the Tenex again to see if I misremember how it behaves...
An odd behavior
The arborist supply houses usually supply Tenex split tails with locked Brummels at each eye. Without going into the merits (or demerits) of using a locked Brummel, it is worth mentioning a truly spooky way of making one, as detailed in the instructions by New England Ropes:
http://www.neropes.com/SPL_12Strand_EyeSpliceBrummel.aspx
Whoever invented this sucker had a capacity for geometric visualization far beyond mine. In the procedure detailed, the Tenex is actually turned inside out where the rope passes through itself.
But Tenex is capable of more than this! In the Brummel case, when the rope is passed through itself at a right angle, an eye is formed. There is no bury as in a normal eye, but it is an eye nonetheless. The eye is then pulled closed, then a little more until it flips inside out. What if we did this with a normal eye with a bury? The photo below shows 2 eyes. The upper one is normal, but in the lower one, I pulled the tail out through the side of the rope, and then pulled the eye closed.
The next photo shows what the rope end looks like. It is actually a lot of physical work to continue to pull the tail further, slowly forcing the rope to invert.
The arborist supply houses usually supply Tenex split tails with locked Brummels at each eye. Without going into the merits (or demerits) of using a locked Brummel, it is worth mentioning a truly spooky way of making one, as detailed in the instructions by New England Ropes:
http://www.neropes.com/SPL_12Strand_EyeSpliceBrummel.aspx
Whoever invented this sucker had a capacity for geometric visualization far beyond mine. In the procedure detailed, the Tenex is actually turned inside out where the rope passes through itself.
But Tenex is capable of more than this! In the Brummel case, when the rope is passed through itself at a right angle, an eye is formed. There is no bury as in a normal eye, but it is an eye nonetheless. The eye is then pulled closed, then a little more until it flips inside out. What if we did this with a normal eye with a bury? The photo below shows 2 eyes. The upper one is normal, but in the lower one, I pulled the tail out through the side of the rope, and then pulled the eye closed.
The next photo shows what the rope end looks like. It is actually a lot of physical work to continue to pull the tail further, slowly forcing the rope to invert.
The next two photos show the inversion process at later stages.
One last hard pull, and the rope is fully inverted, as shown below. The photo details the exact location of one of the inversions.
Interestingly, the rope is not highly distorted, and the casual observer might notice nothing, or think the braid merely looked a little funny in that one spot.
The full result is shown in the last photo. The entire length from A to B is inside out; the rest of the rope is normal. No, I can't think of any use for this, other than the special case of making a locked Brummel. But it is one more illustration of the versatility of 12-strand hollow braid ropes like Tenex.
One last hard pull, and the rope is fully inverted, as shown below. The photo details the exact location of one of the inversions.
Interestingly, the rope is not highly distorted, and the casual observer might notice nothing, or think the braid merely looked a little funny in that one spot.
The full result is shown in the last photo. The entire length from A to B is inside out; the rest of the rope is normal. No, I can't think of any use for this, other than the special case of making a locked Brummel. But it is one more illustration of the versatility of 12-strand hollow braid ropes like Tenex.
Find a buddy with a log splitter. Put a GOOD pressure guage on it, preferably with a maximum pressure indicator on it, do some math, and you have the same rig as the factories.
They test their ropes and splices on hydraulic equipment, but probably with special bollards to attach to and they probably have much more accurate scales than a pressure guage. You could still come close.
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dont know why they flip the ropei never do em like that. can you find a reason why? it does give you a nice place to cross threw but other than that it looks like its not nessasary.
Because you can make the whole thing even if the other end of the rope is inaccessible, like tied to a horse or spliced onto some huge ring.
I have made a couple using the "flip" method, just to see if I could wrap my brain around it, but all the ones I have made for real were done the "normal" way.
This is a VERY good idea. I am going to look into this...
BeeVee
ArboristSite Member
When I worked in the local paper mill part of my job(20 years) was splicing the ropes on the 2 paper machines .
We switched from 3 strand nylon rope to braided many years ago ...braided was so much faster and made a flatter splice...not as bulky as the 3 strand .
We must have made thousands of splices .
We were allowed to take the used rope home .When I made a eye splice for an emergency rope(pulling vehicles out of the ditch etc, etc..) I would run a loose stitch of strong thread up and down the splice to keep the splice from vibrating loose in storage(it will happen)
The splices will never come undone under tension/load ....but I have seen them come apart lying in the back of a truck or especially snow machines ....the stitches prevent that from happening .
PS I have made fids out of brass brazing rods(1/16), fold a 30 inch piece in half with one leg slightly longer, bend the ends at right angles, sharpen and drive into the taped tapered end of the rope, tape over the legs and you are good to go ...
Good tutorial , Moray .
We switched from 3 strand nylon rope to braided many years ago ...braided was so much faster and made a flatter splice...not as bulky as the 3 strand .
We must have made thousands of splices .
We were allowed to take the used rope home .When I made a eye splice for an emergency rope(pulling vehicles out of the ditch etc, etc..) I would run a loose stitch of strong thread up and down the splice to keep the splice from vibrating loose in storage(it will happen)
The splices will never come undone under tension/load ....but I have seen them come apart lying in the back of a truck or especially snow machines ....the stitches prevent that from happening .
PS I have made fids out of brass brazing rods(1/16), fold a 30 inch piece in half with one leg slightly longer, bend the ends at right angles, sharpen and drive into the taped tapered end of the rope, tape over the legs and you are good to go ...
Good tutorial , Moray .
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Adkpk
Addicted to ArboristSite
Excellent post BeeVee. Good to know. Now how about some pics of the stitching and maybe one of that fid. Thanks
I think you should actually start a thread on the subject on how knots can loosen (or splices). I remember another thread on here somewhere, where a member almost had a fall because of a loose double fishermans and I think it was because he hadn't checked it after not using for a while.
I think you should actually start a thread on the subject on how knots can loosen (or splices). I remember another thread on here somewhere, where a member almost had a fall because of a loose double fishermans and I think it was because he hadn't checked it after not using for a while.
BeeVee
ArboristSite Member
Thanks for the kind words Adkpk .
When I was in the mill we would make up a lot of tow ropes for fellow employees .The ones we made for snowmobilers would sometimes vibrate loose from all the rough travel that snow machines are subject to . Once we started to stitch the splice we never had that problem .
I'll see if I can dig up /make a new fid later .
When I was in the mill we would make up a lot of tow ropes for fellow employees .The ones we made for snowmobilers would sometimes vibrate loose from all the rough travel that snow machines are subject to . Once we started to stitch the splice we never had that problem .
I'll see if I can dig up /make a new fid later .
parrisw
Tree Freak
Your layout pic in post 2 is missing, anyway you can repost it?
Thanks
Thanks
parrisw
Tree Freak
Dunno what happened to the original posted pic???
Here it is again...
Thanks muchly
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