First set of soft shackles made

After looking at the thread here I decided to give making a set of soft shackles a try.

• I began each shackle with 40" 1/8" amsteel.
• I marked bury points at 12" and 26" on one end of the line (I'll call this end the bury end and the other end the working end).
• I buried the working end working from the 26" mark back to the 12" mark, using my Sharpie marker as a toggle to prevent the loop from closing.
• I used a brummel (not sure if that is the correct term) to lock the bury in place at that point by passing the bury end of the line through the middle of the working end of the line.
• I tapered the bury end of the line and back-spliced the bury end to a length of about 2".
• I then measured the distance of the bury end from the taper end of the back-splice to the brummel (the remainder of the working end will be buried in this).
• I cut the working end of the line 1" shorter than the measurement in the previous step, tapered, and buried the working end in the bury end. At this point you should have what appears to be one line with a loop at one end.
• I then tied the "admiralty stopper" or "blood knot" (see video here).
• I added pull loops of mason's twine to aid in opening the loop one-handed.

http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...open_thumb.jpg http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/....osed_thumb.jpg

Look'n good!

Interesting looking soft shackles Shane. I like.
Gets me thinking to try the very same.

Thanks for the info and details. Nice job.

-islander

They look good, I really like the mason line pull tab. I might give that a go on my next set.

Why make them so long?

I was just working from what I could glean in the mentioned thread... so I started with 40" and used it (almost) all...

I'll do the next set starting with 30" of line, shooting for a 6" loop to stopper length when open. I'm out of amsteel now (just ordered more) or I'd already have a shorter set done.

The first set is definitely usable, just "heavy":cool:.