Save my hands!

Boomslang

Boomslang

Been here much more than a while
Location
The ether
After spending a good chunk of the weekend splicing (mostly double braid) my hands are pretty sore and I have a couple of blisters to show. The time where most of the damage occurs is milking the cover back over the core to finish the splice. After doing a couple of ropes in a row I have to give my hands a break and let them cool down. I've tried leather gloves but they don't offer enough grip and with the rubber palmed ones I end up with bits of rubber embedded in the rope. Are there any tips, tricks, or tools the more experienced splicers could share...or am I just being a baby ;)
 
Monkeylove gave some good advice. Use some tech cord in a loop, or even old hitch cord with a biner, and tie some sort of friction hitch near your anchoring knot. Also a caribiner clipped into the eye you're splicing with a sling girthed on it will give more pulling power (especially on tight eyes) As your prusik gets close enough, grab the sling at the end and keep constant tension on it, or a hearty snap, while pulling the prusik.
 
I think I've tried that before and found it worked for most of the process but when it got down to the final couple of inches it either bit down too hard and didn't budge or just slid right off the end.
 
Yeah the prusik really only works until you start hitting the thicker splice area. But if you keep tension on that end it'll bury better. And when it seems like movement in the bury has stopped, start the prusik over again really tight, so it bites hard during the whole pull. When you can get ahold of the end, give it some snaps. That'll usually get you past the snag so things start moving better again.

I knocked off a good chunk of skin on my finger once and this process has helped keep that from happening again. Never tried it but taping your fingers might help too.
 
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Oh I know, have the experts at ABR do it for you.

I always have cuts, blisters, and bruises when I try splicing...but I have nothing to show for it at the end. I'm a failure... especially with double braid.
 
I love double braid. Sometimes it takes a few attempts, but I don't give up and my splices almost always turn out nicely....after some cursing, grunting, straining, and the occasional chunk of peeled skin.
 
If there are no inner snags and things are still tough I'll anchor the rope (stopper knot end) to the ceiling and hang off the prusik in my saddle or bossun seat and drop the prusik towards the splice. Tougher ones I'll use an electric chain fall, but beware the added horse power and speed can cause internal heating and glazing, even melting if going too fast, but that's the last resort. If multiple passes are needed to fully bury the splice, be sure to change the side the prusik hangs, 'cuz you'll make one tough banana if you don't. And as other posters have mentioned to keep pressure on the eye itself helps greatly.
 
Boomslang said:
I love double braid. Sometimes it takes a few attempts, but I don't give up and my splices almost always turn out nicely....after some cursing, grunting, straining, and the occasional chunk of peeled skin.
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Boomslang, I was just being smarty, I am sure YOU are a competent splicer and were only looking for tricks to save your hands. As you can probably gather from my initial post...I am not someone that has any tricks up his sleeves. Oh except this one, if you curse at the rope right before you do the final bury...or during, it won't help save your hands. It actually won't help anything.

I do like professional splices though... some day I'll master this art, but till then I'll just live through others as they perfect their skill.
 
Ah, the joys of splicing. Yup.....it sucks sometimes doesn't it?

Saddle burying with a prusik is a great trick, as is a come along in extreme circumstances, but I've always been wary of using such devices as I feel like if you have screwed something up, you may not be able to tell being that you have a machine doing the pulling. I've heard of folks using lube to help out too. Maybe someone here would be kind enough to share what to use. I've heard dawn or KY, but I can neither tell you if it is safe to use them, or if it helps.
 
Do you know how to sweat the rope?

Have you got a pulley setup?

Do you use a mallet?

These are basic answers to never have sore hands, if you know the techniques then the current methods are outdated, no one likes me much, and they banned me recently, but if you want straight answers....just ask. :)
 
Boomslang said:
After spending a good chunk of the weekend splicing (mostly double braid) my hands are pretty sore and I have a couple of blisters to show. The time where most of the damage occurs is milking the cover back over the core to finish the splice. After doing a couple of ropes in a row I have to give my hands a break and let them cool down. I've tried leather gloves but they don't offer enough grip and with the rubber palmed ones I end up with bits of rubber embedded in the rope. Are there any tips, tricks, or tools the more experienced splicers could share...or am I just being a baby ;)
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Slang, I must have gone through the worst case of blisters about 5 times before I learned the technique from a master. He tried to teach me from day 1, but somehow the concept didn't sink in. Some rope is more difficult than others due to material, and what not. A poly/ poly double braid will be more difficult than a poly/nylon double braid, which is more difficult than an ester/ester, etc...

When you do the final bury, all you have to do is milk slack towards the eye and make sure you don't lose it while you tug on the eye. I used to try to massage the slack all the way to the eye, but that actually makes you lose it.

Another trick I have that really helps is to pull the slack as close to the beginning of the taper, then hold it there and turn so my back is to the bench. This way, I can hold the slack and lean into the eye a little while you bend the throat back and forth. This helps reduce strain on your body as the slack is massaged up the throat due to the flexing back and forth. Then, while still holding the slack, turn back around and give the eye a few more tugs.

This stuff is hard to explain, but you can do this work without gloves OR blisters. Good luck and keep posting about it.
 
One of the best tricks for saving your hands is tightly lockstitching the crossover before running home the final bury home. If the crossover is held tight it keeps the cover tail which is tapered inside the core from bunching up as it is forced into the cover and past the core. Combine this with wearing a saddle to use your body weight to complete the final bury and your hands will be less beat up.
 
With all the grief I've gone through to make the final core bury, I can say that I have never had an issue running the splice home except for the very first one I did. Having the crossover as close to the remaining diameter as possible is crucial as is holding tension on the eye.
 
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