[Anton B]

First: Yes, Lash-It has a breaking strength of 500 Lbs. I got the 400 number from somewhere on the web which was not the Samson website. Careless Googling...

Basically, this is what allene on L-36 is calling a line shackle or a soft halyard, only with more diamond knots in line so as to be able to attach the eye at various points to make an adjustable assembly. What I am erroneously referring to as the "adjustable end" is the eye that you can enlarge to put over the diamond knot. I am not sure what the name for that part of the assembly is, just "eye"? The soft shackle eye? Retractible eye? Please tell me what I should be calling it so as to make myself better understood. I am going to go with soft halyard for the assembly, even though I plan to use this attachment on a small boat for the shrouds and forestay, hence the need for at least a gross method of adjustment. But what do you call the spliced eye which can be enlarged temporarily to insert the diamond knot? I know I am doing this against the advice and good sense of people smarter than I, but will do it anyway ;-)

In any case, I whipped the soft shackle eye in place, as opposed to sewing it, only out of laziness, as I couldn't find a needle at the time. I figured it didn't matter as long as it held the splice in place so the eye size wouldn't change when opening and closing it to put it on the diamond knot, and since the whipping is not what makes the splice stick, it didn't really matter that I did that instead of sewing. Correct me if I am wrong.

As for the pulling rig, I have the stainless flat bar arranged so the mechanical advantage is 3:1, with the scale reading 1/3 of the load on the line being tested. The scale was reading between 100 and 140 or so, but it is hard to certain since it is bouncing around, and the come-along is a ways away from the scale face. I plan to rearrange it to get an easier read. I also plan to make a holder for my cell phone so I can take video, which will make it very easy to ascertain the maximum reading. The scale goes up to 550Lbs, but I did the lever so I could test higher strength lines. I will probably re-do these tests with the scale pulling directly as I think that will be more accurate.

I too was a bit surprised that the one eye broke, and am not sure why that happened. Could have been bad workmanship; eye too small? At this point, I can do all the splices quickly and easily, so further testing will be easy. Pulling straight with the scale, and getting the break on video will make the test easier to do, more accurate, and I can watch the line break instead of trying to watch the scale while it happens, which is less fun.

I don't have a theory as to why the line is breaking at 400 or so at the end of the taper in the bury, as opposed to the stated breaking strength of Lash-It at 500. I too will try to make better tapers, and also make more accurate sized eyes, etc.

As some point, I will pull the larger lines and see if the testing with the big line is proportional to the little ones.

But again, the main thing I was interested was whether the multiple diamond knots would break before the rest of the assembly. The soft halyard with luggage tag loop with a single diamond knot is well tested, but I could not find anything written up about using multiple diamond knots, nor could I get anyone to venture an opinion on it.

I will always do the right thing, but only after trying everything else ;-)

Anton

PS: many thanks to allene for putting all that great info up on the L-36 site, it has been very interesting and useful to me.