Eye Splice Help

[Rhumb Runner]

Had no problems splicing dock lines over the years... Been having a terrible time trying to do some eyes in some 1/4" line I got for some adjustable genoa cars. Took me over an hour to safely work my awl into the core. Can't seem to open the cover enough to get the core out. Really mangled the core and cover on my first try. Don't want to loose any more line with to many more attempts. Here's a picture of the line so you can see how tightly it's woven.

https://flic.kr/p/SsCdHC

Any advice is appreciated...