Eric H-L
Treehouser
Thanks for the suggestion. I ordered one. I have plenty of Blue Moon to practice on. If that seems to work well I might get some more Tachyon.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
I went all out and ordered all three sizes. There was some kind of supply chain delay and no one in US seemed to have them. They finally arrived this week after about 7 weeks!
I found one on Amazon I thought might come sooner but instead they shipped me a wire fid from the same company. It was not what I ordered but I can always use a really nice wire fid so I kept it.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
Our Indianapolis house was built in 1943. It has some kind of hardwood parquet everywhere except the kitchen. When we bought it around 35 years ago it was completely covered in deep shag carpet. We have gradually removed all the carpet. We never got around to removing the flat head nails or refinishing the floor. I suspect that when previous owner decided to carpet, their flooring contractor drove all those nails to firm up squeaky floors.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
When doing an eye splice in polyester double braid which do you do first? Re-insert cover or reinsert core? I started out using Samson instructions which advised cover first. Then I got Nick Arya’s splicing series from TreeStuff which is opposite so I did that for a while. I think Brian Toss and Yale are like Nick. This week when I got the soft fid from Holland I went back to the cover first. Either way, the second one is the most difficult.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
I have been working on making a Blue Moon Lanyard. In my past the second bury seemed almost impossible with a Toss Wand. It was still tough but noticeably better with the soft fid from D-Splicer. I wish I had a way to make the final bury easier. I am working on it a little at a time to spread out my frustration. Almost done but not quite!
Choke a small loop on a hammer just below the head, and use it to shock load the loop. It'll pull it all tight for you, brian toss trick.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
How do you mark the size of your tight eye? I
mentioned earlier how I struggle with tightly braided lines to run the final bury home. One trick I have resorted to is over sizing my eye a little and then seizing it if needed to hold the carabiner tightly. This adventure I tried to size it perfectly for a thimble. It came out way too small. Not sure why it was too small. I suspect that was one reason I had trouble.
I held the Blue Moon around the thimble and marked it where the rope comes together. Do you add any shrink factor?
mentioned earlier how I struggle with tightly braided lines to run the final bury home. One trick I have resorted to is over sizing my eye a little and then seizing it if needed to hold the carabiner tightly. This adventure I tried to size it perfectly for a thimble. It came out way too small. Not sure why it was too small. I suspect that was one reason I had trouble.
I held the Blue Moon around the thimble and marked it where the rope comes together. Do you add any shrink factor?
Eric H-L
Treehouser
The final result is nice and tight but too much work!
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I simply sieze it, as is tradition, far simpler. That way you can even replace the thimble when it's worn or damaged too, but it's just far simpler to get right. The seizing also protects the rope right where the abrasion is the worst.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
@friedrich I am really enjoying the soft fids from The Netherlands. I use them for the second bury even in looser ropes. I use the Toss Wand to pull the soft fid in place.
Today I had run out of looser ropes and I made the mistake of telling myself that this 9 mm Sirius Robline yacht line was only slightly used! Its true I did not use it for more than a few hours but it was in a very dusty environment and I washed it in a machine. The cover had shrunk and become like felt. Never again! The most difficult parts were extracting the core and tapering the cover. The first bury was easy and the second one was acceptable thanks to the soft fid. Now I will see how difficult it will be to run the spice home.
Today I had run out of looser ropes and I made the mistake of telling myself that this 9 mm Sirius Robline yacht line was only slightly used! Its true I did not use it for more than a few hours but it was in a very dusty environment and I washed it in a machine. The cover had shrunk and become like felt. Never again! The most difficult parts were extracting the core and tapering the cover. The first bury was easy and the second one was acceptable thanks to the soft fid. Now I will see how difficult it will be to run the spice home.
Eric H-L
Treehouser
PS
Running it home was not too difficult.
I swear I will never splice used rope again. (Unless it is some kind of emergency. Never again for fun.)
Running it home was not too difficult.I swear I will never splice used rope again. (Unless it is some kind of emergency. Never again for fun.)
Kaveman
Treehouser
I don't even want to know how to do that, looks like misery, but now with 100% more jaggers.
stikine
Treehouser
That looks awful Kyle, I've got poke marks all over my hands now. 
Yeah it's small stuff with lots of wires per strand, and it was crappy lighting, and i was off and on again on it because it was only while the apprentice was welding . If one of those little wires comes undone it'll do that, and it was a quick deal so i didn't even tape the ends. Here's the exact moment that it went to shit, or rather when i said eff it and just continued. I'm gonna have to handle it daily so i wrapped it really well with electrical tape, and I'll see if i can't hunt down some shrinkwrap to finish it off better. It's a quick crappy one, and it'll work for it's intended purpose, but yeah that would normally have been a cut off.
@Kaveman It's not hard at all, hell even i can do it (kinda lol), and it's stupid handy to know how to do for different stuff. I do the flemish eye where you split the rope in 2 parts, go right over left and it'll snap back together, then you just braid the eye back together. If you wanted you could then simply twist the end back together and add a single rope clip or siezing and you have 70 percent strength, not for lifting obviously but it only takes a min or so to do. I wanted it nice (yes i failed kinda lol) so i tucked the strands and did the whole splice. Once it's all good you tuck all the strands once, then roll tucks up the line. Beat it with a hammer to fair it and then deal with the ends. Nothing to it, i use a little scratch awl normally just for picking up a strand but for that tiny stuff i used it as the marlinspike too. It's not much different than 3 strand, just more of it to deal with and it's not very flexible, so you just roll up the rope to where you can do it easily and then roll it back down. Get a little screwdriver and a vise and try it one day, you'll be surprised that it's not that bad, just make sure to wear safety glasses and leather gloves.
I had about 5 feet left over, so I'm doing little grommets out of that for random things. I'm strangely better at those than the eye splices, so I'll grab some pics of them tomorrow. Half tempted to make a rod holder out of some scrap leather i have and use the wire grommets for holding the shape top and bottom and for the attachment loop. I might even make a few bolt buckets with some bigger wire, that would be super handy to have and a good lesson/gift for the apprentices, since one is currently using an empty can of welding rod to store his stuff
. If one of those little wires comes undone it'll do that, and it was a quick deal so i didn't even tape the ends. Here's the exact moment that it went to shit, or rather when i said eff it and just continued. I'm gonna have to handle it daily so i wrapped it really well with electrical tape, and I'll see if i can't hunt down some shrinkwrap to finish it off better. It's a quick crappy one, and it'll work for it's intended purpose, but yeah that would normally have been a cut off.
@Kaveman It's not hard at all, hell even i can do it (kinda lol), and it's stupid handy to know how to do for different stuff. I do the flemish eye where you split the rope in 2 parts, go right over left and it'll snap back together, then you just braid the eye back together. If you wanted you could then simply twist the end back together and add a single rope clip or siezing and you have 70 percent strength, not for lifting obviously but it only takes a min or so to do. I wanted it nice (yes i failed kinda lol) so i tucked the strands and did the whole splice. Once it's all good you tuck all the strands once, then roll tucks up the line. Beat it with a hammer to fair it and then deal with the ends. Nothing to it, i use a little scratch awl normally just for picking up a strand but for that tiny stuff i used it as the marlinspike too. It's not much different than 3 strand, just more of it to deal with and it's not very flexible, so you just roll up the rope to where you can do it easily and then roll it back down. Get a little screwdriver and a vise and try it one day, you'll be surprised that it's not that bad, just make sure to wear safety glasses and leather gloves.
I had about 5 feet left over, so I'm doing little grommets out of that for random things. I'm strangely better at those than the eye splices, so I'll grab some pics of them tomorrow. Half tempted to make a rod holder out of some scrap leather i have and use the wire grommets for holding the shape top and bottom and for the attachment loop. I might even make a few bolt buckets with some bigger wire, that would be super handy to have and a good lesson/gift for the apprentices, since one is currently using an empty can of welding rod to store his stuff
Well the wires were too short to do a proper grommet (not enough wire to do the core at all) but here's some. Man these little wires sure love to get loose I'll likely just use the core wires to sieze them and they work fine for what i was thinking, they just help keep the shape of the leather.
I'll likely just use the core wires to sieze them and they work fine for what i was thinking, they just help keep the shape of the leather. 
Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
After the splicing, maybe you could hit the free little wires with a torch. A short but violent heating wouldn't affect much the cable but will blow away the single wires, like a fuse under a curent surge.
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