Here is usage from a paper by technicians / engineers of Black Diamond.
"The material is unbelievably slippery, which makes it difficult for manufacturers to form into a workable rope. And, while the modulus of the fibers is comparable to steel, they slowly elongate under a continuous load. This process is called "creep." It is mostly irrelevant to climbers, but annoying to sailors."
from http://www.caves.org/section/vertica...hsc/cthsc.html
Notice the application of "creep" to the "fibers." I will grant that in most everything else I have read, most of which is application oriented, "creep" refers to the cordage, and not the fibers or strands. No textile / rope engineers have joined in this.
What I had in mind is the process of knots undoing themselves. This must be due to the redistribution of tensions -- stressed fibers -- within the knot, by the slow elongation of fibers (or perhaps over an extremely long period from self-destruction from over-tightening.) I don't know what term everyone agrees to in labeling that process of self-untying of knots. But, slow elongation of fibers or strands within a knot or in a constrictor would loosen it.
It is self-loosening I was referring to when I wrote of a hammock that had "has been set a week ago, and not pre-stressed since" that should not be climbed into without inspection of all splices and knots.
That some splices (and knots) set so hard they need to be cut out doesn't mean that some splices don't come undone of themselves-- the reason for locking or stitching. This stuff is literally plastic, so once there has been "plastic deformation", its properties have changed, and maybe not for the better.
I think we can agree that no knot or splice is set until it is set, if it can be set; and that there is a difference between the condition of a splice in a whoopie or similar that has been loaded severely or not so much but continuously -- from one which has just been milked shut.
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Originally Posted by hppyfngy
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