I have two thoughts on the constant diameter 12 strand splice. I think the way I did it on my trial piece is viable although cuts the strength in half. This is probably acceptable for something like the halyard I was building where the line is sized for very low stretch and is at least twice as strong as it needs to be. One would have some abrupt cuts that whipping could cover.
Short of that, I think one could make the splice very long and basically weave each strand from one side into the other with a long enough overlap that the load is transferred and strength is maintained.
But reweaving the line would be incredibly difficult so if I wanted to make the halyard constant diameter I would just remove half strands from each section for 60 to 72 diameters and do a end for end splice and realize that I lost at least half the strength. But as there are no rope clutches in my application and the mast can take 1/2 inch line, I am good with a standard end for end splice.
Just a note. I was expecting the splice to end up being 7/16 based on the volume of the two 5/16 lines. But the outer braid is not tight so there are lots of gaps between the strands. So instead of the outer braid taking up 1x its volume, it takes up 1.6 times. I could understand 1.2 times as that is the amount of change in length of the outer braid. That drove me nuts for some time until I noticed all the air. Maybe with load and over time the strands will flatten and the diameter will shrink.
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