A concern about the Arborist Splice

[RonReese]

I talked to Samson about their Yellow Jacket rope [Spliceable (eye, 1 end) ] and they referred me to Sherrilltree. It seems that Samson makes Yellow Jacket rope as a proprietary product for Sherrilltree. Sooo, I called SherrillTree.

Purportedly, the issue lies in the relationship of the cover and core. The rope is uniform throughout and can be spliced at either and both ends, BUT it shouldn't be! The reason given was that milking of the rope could cause a problem for the spliced end. I have to be honest, I think the answer raises more questions than it answers. For example, I asked what stops the milking with one eye splice? That seems reasonable to me. They said a knot would stop it - what knot? I.e. if one end of the rope is connected to an anchor point via a knot, will it not still milk toward the splice? Well, yes it would; just as much in fact as it would if it were connected via an eye splice. I asked what keeps the rope from milking with one eye splice? Well it goes off the end of the rope. Does that process never stop? Will the cover continue to milk time after time?

Anybody?

[NickfromWI]

The milking does stop, usually after the first few long descents. When I get a new climbing line, I purposely just climb on it up a tall tree and descend on it 4 or 5 times to just get it over with. Some people whine a lot about the milking and consider it a sign of bad rope building. It doesn't bother me any.

If a person wants an eye on BOTH ends of a climbing line, I wil splice one side, climb on it a few times, milk the foot or two of cover off, then splice up the other end. If the person is nearby, I'll give it to them to climb on for a few weeks, then splice it after that.

If there's one splice, you've never really milking TOWARD the splice, so you aren't risking making that one looser.

love
nick

[RonReese]

Originally Posted by NickfromWI

The milking does stop, usually after the first few long descents. When I get a new climbing line, I purposely just climb on it up a tall tree and descend on it 4 or 5 times to just get it over with. Some people whine a lot about the milking and consider it a sign of bad rope building. It doesn't bother me any.

If a person wants an eye on BOTH ends of a climbing line, I wil splice one side, climb on it a few times, milk the foot or two of cover off, then splice up the other end. If the person is nearby, I'll give it to them to climb on for a few weeks, then splice it after that.

If there's one splice, you've never really milking TOWARD the splice, so you aren't risking making that one looser.

love
nick

Nick,
That makes sense and that's why I wondered why some ropes are listed as spliceable one end only. Looks to me like the process you just described makes splices in both ends feasible. But the guy I talked to at SherrillTree, seemed pretty confident that the problem with the one end only ropes is that some how the core and cover could slip/milk - I don't know, sure didn't make any sense to me.

I'll probably call some other rope manufacturers (Yale and New England) and see what they say about their ropes that are purportedly spliceable only on one end.

I can't see why one couldn't do exactly what you described and have safe splices.