tapering..?

[momtaxi]

Just picked up some amsteel from our local marine store rigging shop. The guy in charge told me I had been tapering all wrong. I've gone up about 1" from the end and pulled out half the strands and cut them off so the last inch is half the thickness. He says on a 6" bury I should taper one strand at about 4", another at 3", a third at 2" and the fourth at an inch.

Overkill or good practise?

[pgibson]

Overkill. I'm sure it would work fine the way he told you but for hammock uses I know some that don't taper at all. Tapering out over the last few inches is just fine. The strands should be pulled out over a little length though not all right from the same spot. I pull from the side if the line in sequence towards the end.

[MAD777]

I go back 1/2 fid, so about 10 diameters, and pull one strand out and cut it. Then I put the second one out a wee bit shorter and cut. I repeat the process of inching my way to the end such that there are only 2 or 3 strands left at the end.

[gmcttr]

Agreed...overkill. The guy in charge needs to refresh his knowledge on Samson Rope Class II splicing instructions.

The tapering instructions in this set of instructions is typical for Samson... http://www.samsonrope.com/Documents/...UL2012_WEB.pdf. They call for the taper to start 1 fid from the end (~2.3" for 7/64") and to pull every other pair of strands fo remove 1/2 the strands.

More typical for our use is to start ~1.5" from the end and pull one, skip one, pull one, skip one, etc to remove 4 strands in 7/64" and 6 in 1/8".

[momtaxi]

He said if you don't taper that where the buried length ends is where it will break.

[gmcttr]

He said if you don't taper that where the buried length ends is where it will break.

If you pull test a correctly spliced amsteel blue eye splice to destruction, it should break at the taper and at or above the rated minimum breaking strength. Without the taper, it will break at the end of the bury at something less than rated MBS.

On a Whoopie sling, the weakest point is at the exit of the adjustable bury and is in the neighborhood of 80-85% of the rated single line MBS which I'm guessing is less than the breaking strength would be at the end of an eye splice bury with a poorly done taper when using 7/64"-1/8" amsteel.

[Bubba]

I can't remember reading about any whoopie sling failures recently and given the variety of tapering I've read that people do around here, I wouldn't be overly concerned. Before I knew better, I did not taper my buries and they are still holding fine. Yes there is a higher likelihood of the untapered ones breaking over my properly tapered whoopies but I still would not hesitate to use them if needed. YMMV.

[momtaxi]

thank you!

[mrmike65]

I used to try to taper, but then found out about using a knitting needle or chopstick to open the braid. I haven't found the need to taper since then.

[momtaxi]

? chopstick? Opening braid? Tapering is a pain, tell me more!