Jed
TreeHouser
Sorry Stig:
I was writing like I had had too much to drink yesterday--my tone is a bit surly and I'm pretty sure that that kind of a "not" is still spelled with a k in front--but I really hadn't. Today, I just possibly may have had (I pray not) too much to drink, but I shall try to write as if I where stone sober.
Look sir, you really must mess-around a bit to get optimum performance out of a VT, and here's the deal: (everybody out here's gonna' think I'm nuts) the fisherman knots actually provide a mechanical advantage to the "knot-bite". I'm not kidding. Get the "wide-ended style" beaner, and then make up an eye-and-eye that seems crazy short to you--I mean really, really short. Go ahead and "doubt it," but until you've tried it, don't "talk-back" to me. There's the beer talking again. No, seriously... you'll get by with at least one fewer wrap than you usually use, (way easier slide-up) and it'll still bite much better.
Here's the thing: I have Arbormaster (Samson?) which is like half an inch or so. I took some Velocity that Clarence and Keith gave me (the poopstains actually use it to climb on!) which is only an eighth of an inch or so smaller, and made up a couple of eye-and-eye deals about eighteen inches long. I take three wraps and two "cross-overs" with mine. At about 40 to 50 feet up the tree, the weight of the rope begins to pull out the slack all by itself, but kick out with your spurs, and you find that the VT will grab your full weight with absolutely no slip and (here's the amazing thing) no "knot-tending" at all. Try it. You'll feel like you've had a bowl full of mead!
I was writing like I had had too much to drink yesterday--my tone is a bit surly and I'm pretty sure that that kind of a "not" is still spelled with a k in front--but I really hadn't. Today, I just possibly may have had (I pray not) too much to drink, but I shall try to write as if I where stone sober.
Look sir, you really must mess-around a bit to get optimum performance out of a VT, and here's the deal: (everybody out here's gonna' think I'm nuts) the fisherman knots actually provide a mechanical advantage to the "knot-bite". I'm not kidding. Get the "wide-ended style" beaner, and then make up an eye-and-eye that seems crazy short to you--I mean really, really short. Go ahead and "doubt it," but until you've tried it, don't "talk-back" to me. There's the beer talking again. No, seriously... you'll get by with at least one fewer wrap than you usually use, (way easier slide-up) and it'll still bite much better.
Here's the thing: I have Arbormaster (Samson?) which is like half an inch or so. I took some Velocity that Clarence and Keith gave me (the poopstains actually use it to climb on!) which is only an eighth of an inch or so smaller, and made up a couple of eye-and-eye deals about eighteen inches long. I take three wraps and two "cross-overs" with mine. At about 40 to 50 feet up the tree, the weight of the rope begins to pull out the slack all by itself, but kick out with your spurs, and you find that the VT will grab your full weight with absolutely no slip and (here's the amazing thing) no "knot-tending" at all. Try it. You'll feel like you've had a bowl full of mead!
