Hardware Issue

[nothermark]

Looking at LostInSpace's testing with the buckle has me thinking about hardware. I'm betting the buckle was cut with something like a water jet as opposed to stamped. That seems to be current technology.

When metal is stamped the exit edge gets a knife burr something like a wood scraper that has to be removed. That is well known and usually dealt with. If they are not removed it's easy to get a nasty paper cut like wound. (OTOH I have purposely left it on straight edges used to guide knife blades as it digs in a bit.)

With water jet parts there is no exit burr like a stamping die makes. OTOH from what I have seen there is a pretty nice square corner. I think that is what was getting the cord in the video.

My thought is that I will break (round off) the corners where cordage passes through my hardware with some fine abrasive and maybe polish it. In essence dull the knife. Right now I am thinking about using 400 grit wet or dry paper with tape backing. I thought I would post here to see better suggestions and maybe that I am wrong in my thinking. I skip Holiday Inns and am not a major metal worker... ;-)

[gmcttr]

Any piece of hardware I'm connecting rope to and hanging from gets inspected and the edges rounded if I'm not comfortable with the way they came. Doesn't matter where I got it, it gets looked over carefully.

I clamp the hardware in a vise and use a narrow strip of emery cloth in a shoe shine motion to quickly smooth out/round off edges when needed.