Hey,
Tried to splice a continuous loop, got stuck, and made something up. Hung on the result a few times and haven't fallen yet. Curious whether this is a known technique, or if people can see any obvious problems.
Was trying to splice myself a continuous loop per the L-36.com instructions:
https://l-36.com/loop.php
But I got stuck when it came time to pull the end past the halfway point:
https://l-36.com/image/loop_loop17.jpg
The overlap was too tight. I couldn't get a second thickness of amsteel down the center with the other end already in that space.
So instead I took the two ends as they emerged from the "sheath" at the halfway point
https://l-36.com/image/loop_loop10.jpg
and I did another end to end long splice. Now I have the main loop, and then the ends coming out and making a little continuous loop. I did the tapering to reduce this second end to end splice down to the single thickness of amsteel, and milked the sheath until the little loop got all the way in.
Put another way: instead of doing the overlap as instructed with the ends side by side, I did the overlap with each end diving into the other.
At first the two loops were not exactly the same size. The inner loop was smaller, and the outer "sheath" loop wasn't bearing load. After I massaged the loop a lot, I got the inner loop to slip a bit and even out the two loops. (In a way, this experience has made me a lot less concerned about lockstitching my splices. It takes a lot of work to make the splice slip!)
If I did it again, I'd err on the side of making the inner loop bigger, because you can easily make the outer splice slip.
Anyway, does this sound safe? It's certainly a lot easier than the published method.
(If you're wondering why I bother with the overlap at all, it's mostly for fun. I like the look of the constant thickness, and the idea that I'm getting the most out of whatever thickness of amsteel I've used.)
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