Tenex with Core?

TreeLogic · Jan 31, 2014

I found an old hank of yellow hollow-braid, Tenex, or something. 3/8" I think. It may have been something I bought for tying VTs before I got into splicing.
It looks like it has an extra strand running down the core though.

Any thoughts? Safe to make prusiks if I pull the core? I don't think it's ladder cord because it doesn't have that ridiculous plasticky feel to it.

MooseHead · Jan 31, 2014

Can you post a pic? 3/8" tenex is dirt cheap. If you aren't sure I would just buy some new stuff.

TreeLogic · Jan 31, 2014

Pic

itterada · Jan 31, 2014

As with the reinforced Ice Tail, reinforced tenex is produced to allow for better sewing. The core is only there to keep the rope rounded, and is not related to the ropes strength whatsoever. If you remove it, you will have normal 3/8" tenex and can splice it as such.

TreeLogic · Jan 31, 2014

Thanks. Looks like tenex though, right?

MooseHead · Jan 31, 2014

Tenex would have been my first guess after seeing it.

itterada · Jan 31, 2014

Should look identical to regular tenex, but with a small white braided core running through it. The picture you posted looks to be tenex, ya.

TreeLogic · Jan 31, 2014

Yes. A white strand is what I pulled from the core. White with spots of yellow dye here and there.
So that's reinforced tenex and the strand just keeps it from flattening out. Thanks.

NickfromWI · Feb 2, 2014

Yalex > Tenex

TreeLogic · Feb 2, 2014

Thanks Nick, I'll check out the Yalex.

So looking further I've noticed my Tenex (I think) has single strands, whereas the 3/8 tenex-tec has double strands. Is that the difference between regular tenex and tenex-tec? Or should I be worried?

Thanks again.

itterada · Feb 3, 2014

The TEC in tenex tec stands for Twin (or two) End Carrier, which means theres two ends for every main strand. The idea is that it allows for more surface conformance than single end carrier tenex. They splice and behave very similarly from everything I've seen, though, so I wouldn't be worried at all. That is the only distinction between Tenex Tec and 1end Tenex.

Marden · Feb 3, 2014

Another interesting difference is Tenex is listed in the Prusik Cord section of the Samson Rope catalog whereas Tenex TEC is listed in the Rigging section.

RopeMan · Apr 2, 2014

Tenex has one strand per weave and Tenex TEC has two strands per pick. (What itterada said sorry note to self read first, post later)

TreeLogic · Apr 2, 2014

itterada said:
The TEC in tenex tec stands for Twin (or two) End Carrier, which means theres two ends for every main strand. The idea is that it allows for more surface conformance than single end carrier tenex. They splice and behave very similarly from everything I've seen, though, so I wouldn't be worried at all. That is the only distinction between Tenex Tec and 1end Tenex.

Ian, thanks for your reply above. Do you work at Baileys or Wespur or another arborist supply? For some reason I thought I saw that somewhere.

I wanted to ask why it's called two "end" carrier. What part of the cord is "end" referring to? The end of each strand?
Hope that makes sense. It always puzzled me when I read that.

itterada · Apr 17, 2014

Hey TreeLogic,

Sorry for the super belayed response. It's my understanding that the end refers to the end of each strand in the sense that two/twins ends will mean that you have two separate but parallel running strands per carrier.

Oh- and yes, I work for WesSpur (unless what I just said is wrong, in which case I totally work for one of our competitors! haha)

John_Hartenburg · Apr 23, 2014

I have seen guys do this. One of our customers took some Ice Tail, spliced it up and ran a shoelace or something in the core. Seemed to keep it a little more round, it worked.

Anyway, off the reel, Tenex doesn't have a core, but on a prusik cord, you might have a guy that throws one in there.