on another thread about knot basics, hogn8r made this statement..

[quote=Hogn8r;32440].I once talked to a guy about using the gizzies on ropes and his thot was that it is better to use something like the figure 9 or double buckle because it has a higher breaking strength than a knot. This is a misconception because ANY turn, bend or loop in a rope, wether in a knot or on a friction device causes the same weakening. The loss of strength comes from the fibers being unequally burdened in the radius of the turn. IOW, fewer of the fibers are taking the load and this happens when you tie a knot or you a friction/clamp device that uses ANY bend,turn or pinch point in the rope.
QUOTE]

i'll use that thought to make mention of a concern w/ the clinch buckle i've expressed before.

now don't get me wrong & get your feathers all ruffled because like i said before i like the clinch buckle & what i'm going to describe may not take very much away from the strength of the webbing, but it's just a thought that sticks in my mind when ever i think about the time i spent using the clinch buckle.

i saw how using the clinch buckle every night in approximately the same spot on the webbing caused that section of webbing to become noticeably more soft than the rest, making it harder to push back through to loosen.
it also showed signs of light fraying in that section too.

the webbing's i used for the clinch buckle were the cheap wal-mart 1" pollyester webbing (which is'nt IMO a good representative of the better webbing's) & the 1" tubular nylon webbing from the climbing section at the local outfitters.

both showed the softening i talked about above. the fraying was more on the wal-mart webbing.

point is that there is a sharper bend & all the force is placed on a smaller point in the webbing when using the clinch buckle.

it may never cause an actual failure as long as the webbing is of good quality, but just some thing to think about.

with the double rings the webbing is traveling over a larger, round surface. of course the slip knot that is tied & untied each time may work on the integrity of the webbing too???