I climb on split tails that I make, and I'll put an eye in the end of my Hi-Vee climbing line this weekend. Hollow braid is very easy to splice - almost too easy. Double braid, on the other hand, I have not learned how to splice, but about 5 people at my school can splice it in their sleep.
How do I feel climbing on them? Very safe. Especially after Yale told me that my split tail of XTC Spearmint didn't even break after they put 5100 lbs. on it. It slid off of their machine before they could get to break. The engineer said it would probably have made it to 5800 lbs. based on his experience. That split tail I hadn't even finished - it wasn't lockstitched or whipped. I would never climb on one if it hadn't been.
When I got the split tail back, it was beat up on the end from the machine, but I could feel lumps inside of the outer coat. I knew the strands had broken, but I wanted to test it. I tossed the eye around something that wouldn't move and pulled with all my might, but it didn't budge. When I gingerly held it in my hand, I was able to wiggle the bury out with any trouble, and I saw that every strand had broken inside - it was the cover wrapping around the bury that held it in place (Chinese finger-cuff effect). With whipping, I doubt I could have done that though.
Nickrosis