A concern about the Arborist Splice

[RonReese]

Iím new to braided rope splicing, but I have done 6 eye splices in Velocity rope following Samson Ropeís instructions. They work and look good. After watching Brionís splicing video, I now know how to make them better ñ a special thanks to Brion for taking time to make a video on splicing.

Getting to my concern, I made my first eye splice in ArborMaster 1/2î rope. ArborMaster is a braided cover with a core of twisted strands. I watched Brion Tossís video where he spliced an eye in New Englandís Safety Blue rope. Safety Blue looks like it has the same or at least similar construction as ArborMaster.

To make a long story a little shorter, by the nature of the arborist splice, the core and the cover overlap inside the cover well down the rope away from the eye. Thatís what concerns me - the overlap. The overlap of the cover and core, inside the cover, seems to me, produces a weak spot in the rope. At the overlap, I presume part of the strength at the overlap is supposed to come from the overlapping core and cover strands and hence, presumably the overlapped strands have nearly the same strength as the non-spliced rope. At least thatís what weíve been told ñ a splice approaches the full strength of the rope.

But if the overlapped strands can slip at all, load is transferred to the cover. I suppose there is the Chinese finger trap action of the core at the overlap, but even with that if there is ìthinningî of the core due to a slightly insufficient overlap there will be a reduced cross sectional area and it seems like that would produce a significant reduction in strength.

Thoughts?????

Thanks,
Ron