Sweet Sweat

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

TheTreeSpyder

Addicted to ArboristSite
AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Dec 31, 2001
Messages
3,888
Reaction score
228
Location
Florida, USA
Brion Toss's "The Rigger's (sorcerer's?) Apprentice is a compilation of lore, quotations and art of boating/shipping splicing, knotting, leverageing, braking speaks of hoisting a sail, row boat, anchor etc. with it's 'halyard' (line).

With a capstan winch handle broken or lost even this work had to be done, powerfully, quickly and positively. A capstan is an open spool, that can give power like a comealong/winch, to a line. The line spools on/off so that the wraps never build up like a comealong/winch, so MA is not lost in that way; and if ya got 500' of line you have 500' of raw pull available, several lines can be sequentially quickly pulled quickly loading on and off of spool! With a hand crank on the device it is like comealong (hand powered, leverage crank), so halyards would be pulled etc. by throwing line arround the spool, and cranking (while maintaining pull on other end to make line friction grab turning drum to transmit power to line), from a fixed winch position, providing lift/pull power to lines all over a boat. When the handle would get broke or lost, they would 'sweat' the line for the powerful leverage they needed. Over a long haul i could see this being quite grueling sometimes, but i think there is real advantage here for gaining key final tightness in lines over short runs of line, making this an easy/powerful strategy to be habitually performed for maximum performance.

It seems that if ya tighten a line up between 2 points,then pull sharply out on it bending line like pulling bowstring, you can get leverage, and lift/tighten/pull line more powerfully. For you have just taken a fixed length of line offering restriction and asked it to travel more distance under the same load with the same amount of line, so it takes more force to reach that desitnation in the same time/space! Now someone else (or your free hand) draws that slack through/around mount,then go again. Pulling a line tight with truck, parking and bending line sideways to pull tree down is just one version of this powerful strategy.

As a climber, whenever rigging, i sweat the line between support and load constantly. Sometimes, jumping off a branch to impact the sweating on the line the best i can with massive body wieght, then handing that slack out to pulling ropeman. This alone is another reason for running line through 2 supports to load, so ya can sweat the line in between,as you are also adding more support and no friction without pulley/ with branch as support alternative more friction to task!

Sometimes this takes remote sweating, so between the 2 supports i will leave a karab as sweater device and sling(s)/line as tail to sweat per load 10' away. Sometimes i throw my JP shorty lanyard (only 19') up over the line to be sweated, hook snap to sling on nearby limb, and have a 2/1 remote line sweater, that i can impact. for real high friction, but leveraged tight i form a round turn on support with remote sweater in center of lacing for sweating and removal. Can be installed from ground too.

Using a Porty i can get the line tight, stand in the sling that Porty is hitched to anchor with, and sweat line violently tight. For the last tightness with 5x1 compression rig, wrap pull line around porty breifly and sweat that leveraged pull into the 5x1!!!!! Just as a simple, easier slipping around Porty lacing to prusik/karab on pull into Porty line for quick <3x1, truker's hitch type lacing, then quick sweating by wrapping pull line to Porty, then hold friction to Porty as you readjust tensioned line for lowering.

Pretightening like this can take a lot of play out of lines, offering full support, pulling/restriction. Full intense restriction, further line tightening set by load itself (so load can dial in/match it's own force with leveraged line pull), can give very intense aid to steering and support in grigging etc. IMLHO. Habitual sweating of the line can empower that grately, and diminish some shock loading.


Orrrrrrrrrrr something like that!

Sweating lines tight rules, thank-you Brion Toss!
:alien:
 
In rigging especially you have usually 1 main support of line, and one part time of hinge.

Pretightening the main support empowers it with usable force to diminish shock loading, offer more ground clearance, steer a limb sideways etc., in seconds.

Also, if while the hinge is still connected, the line is so tight that it carries most of the wieght, then the hinge's job is much easier and can give more decisive steering etc.

Seeing as the support point would be not on the end like a hinge, if some balance across both sides of the hitching, the hinge's job can be greatly releived, for the mechanics have changed to a balanced 1st class lever. Now, the line, and the balance releive the hinge, and hinge can give rest of support more easily, aand direct load around lightly sometimes on line when done to maximum potential.

Even without that, sweating a line is a quick, great technique to tap force to your bidding, usually with nothing added to situation, has few requirements.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top