No More Rope Splicing!
- Thread starter Klenchblaize
- Start date
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Like a lot of things, it's a personal decision where the line is drawn. You could argue that
anything made by someone else is cheating, as is anything made with anything made by
someone else. Everyone should walk into the forest naked and start banging those rocks
together.
I'm quite happy to use technology if it makes my life easier, that's why I bought a DD
hammock instead of making one out of nettle string. I'll use technology for speed reasons
(a tarp and hammock is quicker to set up than building a shelter and gathering enough
bedding to replace my Pertex/down sleeping bag) - and, maybe bizzarely, because they
help protect the countryside (imagine the damage and the look of the countryside if
everyone built shelters every night)
I wouldn't use this ropelocker thing, though - but that's because a knot is quicker, safer,
and cheaper, and not because the ropelocker thing is not 'bushcrafty'.
But that is just the line i drew.
Yes, I've seen a lot of shelter building debris in the woods I walk in.
Unfortunately I've also seen a lot of trees being cut for the building too.
Unfortunately I've also seen a lot of trees being cut for the building too.
Thanks for that, no mail order, and I am as far away from any of their stores as you can get. They do have one in Edinburgh, that I might get near this year, so might try then. They make the stuff in Romania, but the only place I can find to buy it is a website in America for one of its other many uses.
Also big in China.
You can get it in England but is wholesale, and expensive. They make it from scratch so you can imagine.
Would love to see some of that fake sisal. Horrible stuff.
I said....
Which sort of tells you were I stand, on the matter. Any product that replaces a skill, is not Bushcraft, to my way of thinking. Some of them still make it into my kit because I am not dying for this point of view. Also some of them are there to practice until I do not need them, or freely acknowledging that I will not gain that skill.
I can tech draw just. Any other from of art, and you are on your own. My arguement, and I would argue the whole point of this site, is to gain, or retain knowledge that is lost because of new technology, or changes in the way we live.
I am pro-technology, I like my PDA with my Bushcraft stuff on it. I like that I can now take a lot less camera equipment with me. I would not use a canvas bag, or stuff like that. If I won the lottery my kit would change a bit, because there are updated items that I like the look of.
On the other hand just because it is the latest, and greatest does not mean it would make the cut.
I have been at this for 25+ years now, there have always been idiots out there with cans of Stella left everywhere. It always amazes me when you come across litter in the middle of nowhere.
I went to the APF forestry exhibition last September (I am into tree climbing) and picked up some freebie forestry magazines. One includes a Manufacturer’s Update.
The key parts are:
“Yale cordage operates a strict inspection process to ensure all their splices comply with stringent CE requirements and meets EN standards for UK arborists climbing ropes.
Yale Cordage does not currently have any riggers within the UK licensed to splice their climbing lines and would like anyone purchasing Yale ropes or splices to ensure ropes or split tail lanyards they are purchasing carry the Yale Cordage identification lables…
Yale Cordage has a strict training and inspection process to guarantee all the in house Yale factory riggers are fully qualified to carry out the splicing process to ensure the products meet the highest safety standards required for the industry.
The M.A.X. (Machine Assisted XTC) splice used on Yale XTC ropes is almost entirely worked by hand before being finished off with a machine. Over 1,500 pounds of pull power is used to bury the nine inches of finely tapered fibre back down the standing portion of the climbing line to produce the safest splices in the industry.”
It is easy for someone to say “Well they would say that wouldn’t they?”
But so far as I am concerned, I think the position is - have a go at splicing SO LONG AS you are not going to have your life depending on it.
The key parts are:
“Yale cordage operates a strict inspection process to ensure all their splices comply with stringent CE requirements and meets EN standards for UK arborists climbing ropes.
Yale Cordage does not currently have any riggers within the UK licensed to splice their climbing lines and would like anyone purchasing Yale ropes or splices to ensure ropes or split tail lanyards they are purchasing carry the Yale Cordage identification lables…
Yale Cordage has a strict training and inspection process to guarantee all the in house Yale factory riggers are fully qualified to carry out the splicing process to ensure the products meet the highest safety standards required for the industry.
The M.A.X. (Machine Assisted XTC) splice used on Yale XTC ropes is almost entirely worked by hand before being finished off with a machine. Over 1,500 pounds of pull power is used to bury the nine inches of finely tapered fibre back down the standing portion of the climbing line to produce the safest splices in the industry.”
It is easy for someone to say “Well they would say that wouldn’t they?”
But so far as I am concerned, I think the position is - have a go at splicing SO LONG AS you are not going to have your life depending on it.
It's advice like that that stops the progress of natural selection.
Left to it's own devices, nature would produce babies that were *born* able to splice
kernmantle. Either that, or they'd all suffer from vertigo.
knots every time
would the plastic take a heavy knock ( being stood on accidently ) and survive a knot will
if you know how to tie a loop you can improvise most fastenings
would the plastic take a heavy knock ( being stood on accidently ) and survive a knot will
if you know how to tie a loop you can improvise most fastenings
Like a house, for example
A house is only a permanent tent, and a tent is only an easy-to-carry debris shelter.
My personal view it that bushcraft is knowing how to cope without these things if you
are put in a position where you have to, not forcing yourself to start from scratch every time.
There's no need to walk into the woods naked every time just to prove you can survive.
As for the ropelocker, it might have its place. In the right colours and if you don't have
much experience of ropework, it might be OK on the kind of rope barriers that
commissionaires unhook to let you through rather than have loose ends.
