Rope Marking

[TheTreeSpyder]

Every once in a while marking ropes comes up. There have been specialty products and 'safe' brands of markers mentioned.

The UIAA has done some research that sifts out to that manufactures use what ever is cheaply availbale making for changing, unreliable formulaes. Also even with the proper and specialized inks, they are showing higher failure rates for the marked section of ropes, specifically pointing at when that section is bending over an edge. When i tried datng, marking lines i did at the end, so this might not be peritnent so much to such a practice, but wasn't sure how others where refrencing it.

Other curious notations where that bug repellent didn't hurt the fibers, but uric acid reduced strength by 30%. How many kegs did that take to test properly?

Tom Dunlap had this posted 'elsewhere', and have seen some refrences to courtesy of not sending people to other boards, don't like 'stealing' directly like this either; But hold safety of the brethren above all that...........!

 

[kf_tree]

how does a marked middle apply to tree work? this rope marking thing is getting alot of print lately, but all testing was done on rock and ice climbing ropes. a marked middle is helpful to set up rapels. an alternative is a bicolored rope, they have a different pattern at the half way point. when i ice climb i use 8.6mm double ropes. this way i could do full length rapels and the end is the middle. i'd like to see a test of a 1 year old climbing line that has the occasional splash of gas or oil. even sand in the core will cut fibers. there is a big difference between tree ropes and rock and ice ropes. every thing for for rock and ice is about light weight.

 

[geofore]

rope

What so hard about tying a coloured whip or sewing a coloured thread through the rope to mark it? If coloured markers are bad take the time to put a thread in to mark it. You can get polyester in day-glo colours.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Like spike says, our ropes get so much abuse in a work day.

I have marked rigging lines at 40ft so that a groundie can throw in a stopper knot easily. 40 because this seems to be a good all around working hight.

a little bit of sharpe ink cant be worse then some of the other stuff we do.

I do like the thread marker though. should be more permanent.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

If anyone is interested in the full article, go over to Mark Chisholm and my website, t*r*e*e*b*u*z*z*dot*c*o*m

Decide for yourself if marking ropes with a pen is an issue. After reading the discussion at rec.climbing, I'm reluctant to use a marker on my arbo ropes.

Stitching would be OK if the marker can be kept in the lay of the rope. If it site proud it might catch on a climbing hitch.

A while ago Tim Walsh wondered about the effect of the adhesive from tapes on rope. He poked around for several months before finding an engineer who told him that the adhesive would not break down the fibers that are in the ropes we use.

Finding out these little details is interesting to some folks. Others just blow it off. To each their own.

Tom

 

[rahtreelimbs]

tape the ends and mark the tape, works for me. Rich.

 

[Stumper]

TreeSpyder, Uric acid reduces strength 30%? Does this mean that if the cat pees on my climbing line I should retire it?!? Seriously, do you have any acid strength info?

 

[Nickrosis]

Two Z's in ????????, just so you know. T*R*E*E*B*U*Z*Z

This is probably obvious, but I'm a nutcase for these things. JPS sent me bonkers when I first got to this site, but I'm in therapy, and I'm learning to look past typos and to read what they intended. It's a 3 step process, and I'm on base 2 - very proud of myself.

Nickrosis

 

[Tim Walsh]

I used to mark my ropes during the splicing process with markers. I will be changing that now, as applying something to the cord that weakens it during the process that is supposed to make a stronger termination doesn't makes sense to me.

In tree work, as in life, things keep changing.

Thanks for the information, I'll see if I can pass it along.

TMW

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Come to think of it the HiVee is a few hundred lbs lower tensil then then it's white parrent because the orange dye weakens the fibers.

So the ink takes less thern 5% away. This is less then knots, less then the gas mix that sometimes leaks from the saw. the bar oil that is flinging all over the place....but one could argue that one more confounding variable needs not be entered into the equation.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

My understanding of the reason that several brands of line that have white, then the sister lines only colored; that are weaker rated is not that those inks weakened the line. Such line families as Safety blue/Hy Vee; Tree Perfect/EZV/MaxV; Tree Master/EZ See Orange etc. ; rather the molecules of ink take up space in the 1/2" package, that pure (white) fibre could have been occuppying, thereby being weaker on that 'count'.

i believe inks in markers where refered to as diffrent formulaes that might drift in corrosive elements, which is a lil'diffrent.

Hopefully i briefly got it right when refrencing this in the beginning post, i tried to give proper credit; and give a possible safety alert where i saw none. Personally i have passed up marking lines, but was just passing something along i thought i saw questioned before along the journey. There were some other views given. but i chose to flag and err on the conservative side of safety.

P.S.The Uric acid strength loss was something from Tom's Post; that i feel less likely to quote here, as i further tiptoe; and the address to it has been given.