Strength of brummel
 

Interesting discussion going on at Sailing anarchy about Brummels.
Starts out discussing whether stitching is necessary but quickly moves on to strength of Brummel vs more conventional splices.

It's made me stop and think about how a brummel works and what it's actual strength relative to a well tapered and buried simple splice would be.

Contention of some on SA is that the locks take most or all of the load mechanically and the brummel is therefore weaker, more like a knot than a splice.

As always with SA, your mileage may vary, don't try this at home, if you choose to add to the debate be aware that some amount of raw abuse is considered mandatory for new contributors, there's some angry people out there :-) etc etc. but there are also some very knowledgeable people who frequent the place.

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...opic=54230&hl=