Difficulty splicing Sterling Atlas 1/2 inch

[GabeInSC]

Well this rope has me on the ropes, so to speak. Brand new spool of 1/2" Sterling Atlas, neon green, and I am having one heckuva time splicing an eye. I've spliced ropes from Samson, Notch, Teufelberger, and Yale without so much as a hiccup but with the Sterling I've tried tubular fids, wire fids, the Toss wand, and a lot of patience but am unable to reinsert the core into the cover(Step 6 in the Samson Class I eye splice). Things get all jammed up and just can't seem to fit 2 core diameters in the tight cover. Anybody out there have a useful tip or similar experience? I tried searching here but came up with nothing.

 

[Dan Cobb]

I tried searching here but came up with nothing.

Try searching the Whiskey Whiskey Whiskey thread.

It won't help with the splice, but you won't care about it.

(Sorry, I'm not a splicer. Maybe a bit of a bad amateur comic. Perhaps one of the several experts here will chime in.)

 

[dspacio]

I abandoned that rope for splicing. Catalog lists it as Not Spliceable. I discovered that after the fact. Probably stopped at the same step you did.

 

[GabeInSC]

It's a bit confusing to read on Wesspur that the Atlas is NOT spliceable but the Sterling website claims it is yet they only offer sewn eyes. I guess I have to lean to towards not spliceable. Oh well, guess it's time to learn how to sew!

 

[RyanCafferky]

If you think new Atlas is bad, you should try used Atlas! One thing that I do sometimes is to taper the core before pulling it through. Doesn’t always work but it might in this case. Also, I’ve only hand spliced the 9/16” and the 5/8” Atlas so you might be up against something that is a bit more of a bear.

Certain diameters of certain rigging lines can be much harder than other sizes to splice. Tuefelberger 14mm was a size that I wasn’t able to splice. But I have spliced the 12mm multiple times. I think that some ropes just seem to have more room around the core than others.

 

[dspacio]

One thing that I do sometimes is to taper the core before pulling it through.

That's a good reminder. I do this now as standard practice but picked it up after that failed splice in question. May have been the one that scared me into shape, hah.

 

[Mike Islander]

Samson recommends soaking used rope several minutes before splicing. Maybe this helps with some new rope types?

I spliced that damn MFP dock line for my first splice. Unbelievably sticky under pressure. Going to try it again wet.

 

[Brocky]

If you’re burying a full diameter core for a short distance past the eye, there are two and a half diameters for the eight strands before the beginning of the cover taper.
My theory is that the short core bury is only to keep it from shifting in the eye, and maybe to add volume for some double braids with a looser braided cover for better chinese finger trap affect. Maybe the Atlas doesn’t need the full core buried right after the eye. Samson’s previous instructions had the core reduced by half at this point making it easier to bury. It seems the cover is the main part keeping the eye from pulling out, with it making a sort of brummel crossover.
A method I tried is to treat it as more of a Class II splice, with the same bury lengths. Mark the A and B points and extract the core a few strands from A towards end of tail. Skip a couple of strands and pass the core through the cover and then the cover through the core to lock them together, then bury core tail in the cover tail. Bury this combined tail in the core and milk the cover back over as usual. The one I had tested only lost seven percent of its break strength. This method makes it easier to do gradual tapers and no problems with snagged strands.

 

[GabeInSC]

@Brocky Is this something you came up with or is this a known technique? Just wondering.

 

[Brocky]

An original idea of mine, this method seems like it would lock the core and cover together better than standard method and still have the same bury lengths.

 

[Brocky]

After thinking more on it, it is 3 core diameters just below the throat for a short distance, the cover equals a core diameter on the standard splice.