Many times, you will find that you need a "loop"
in the end of a line for various purposes. The proper way to do
this is by making an "eye" splice in the end of the
line.
Splicing is the sailor's art of joining any two parts of line
together permanently. The most important step in splicing is the
start. If you start it wrong, the entire splice will look messy
and unbalanced. If you get it right in the first step, the rest
will follow quite easily.
To properly prepare a line for splicing, un-lay the end adequately
(untwist the ends of the line from each other about 7 or 8 "
up) and whip each strand with a temporary whipping of "small
stuff" which is simply wrapping them with twine. This not
a necessary step but when you are finished with the splice, the
ends will need to be secured in some manner to prevent raveling
so if you do this first, you will have no need to do anything
else to the ends when you are finished with the eye. If you do
not do this first, you will have to burn the ends with a rope
cutting gun or take other measures to keep it from raveling.
Before beginning to splice, you will need several tools (unless
your fingers are tough enough to intertwine the line back into
itself without hurting your fingers.) If it is new nylon or cotton,
I normally only use my fingers. If it is older line that has grown
stiff or hemp, I normally use a tool to open the line for feeding
the ends through.
The first tool you will need is a knife. The second is a marlin
spike or fid. Normally, a marlin spike is used more to splice
cable than line and a fid, which is made of wood, is used to splice
line but…it is a matter of preference, I suppose. If I use
anything at all, I use a fid. I have a set with 3 different sizes.
A marlin spike is made of steel and is about 1 inch in diameter
at the butt, tapering to a point.
A fid is a wooden tool similar to a marlinspike but larger
…1 ½ to 2 inches in diameter at the butt and tapered,
usually over a foot in length but they make shorter ones, which
I use. It is generally made of hardwood, such a hickory and it
should be smooth or you will snare the strands that make up the
line.
Either tool is used for opening the lay of line at the point where
a strand is to be introduced
Four tucks will hold any splice, providing they are full strands;
i.e., not tapered off. Tapering off is made after the fourth tuck
and is done by reducing each of the strands by one-third; tucking,
reducing by another third; and, finally, tucking and burning off
close unless you have had the foresight to wrap the ends with
small stuff before beginning. You can also, instead of using the
tapering method or the wrapping method, use a rope cutting gun
to simply burn the ends of the line that were too short to splice
to seal the strands.
EYE SPLICE OR SHORT SPLICE
The eye splice is the strongest type of line loop and
may be formed around a thimble, such as when attaching to an anchor.
A thimble is not necessary if you just want a loop or eye in the
end of the line for other purposes. This will be covered in another
section at a later date.
After you have "unlayed" a section of the line, use
the fid or marlinspike to lift one strand of the standing part.
(The "standing part" is the line itself that hasn't
been unlayed.) Tuck one of the unlaid strands under it following
the lay or pattern of the layed section or the standing part.
Now draw the section you have just tucked taut to make it neat.
This strand will be called Number The other two strands are
to lie on each side of this middle strand, again, following the
"lay" of the standing part so it will all come together
nicely. Actually, you are simply going to re-lay the line in reverse
order. In other words, back in upon itself.
Keep the eye towards you and the strands and standing part of
the line away from you.
Now, take the left strand, tuck it from right to left under the
next strand of the line and haul firmly taut. (See figure 2.)
The last strand is to be tucked to the right. Give it an extra
turn and tuck from right to left.
Make certain the three strands are properly taut (all equally
so) and each under it's proper strand of line. Also, make sure
the eye you have formed to this point is the required size and
the eye itself is not distorted in any way.
Now, repeat the tucks in the same order until the end strands
are too short to work. You can "fair" the splice to
some extent by rolling it under your shoe or pounding it gently
with a wooden or rubber mallet. This will aid the appearance of
the splice and cause it to lay more evenly. When you finish, your
eye splice should look like figure 3
with all of the parts woven evenly together.
If you did not wind the ends with small stuff before beginning, remember to use a rope cutting gun to burn the flat ends that were too short to tuck. Not much, just enough to seal the strands that make up each "section" of the line.
