Splicing Question-What is this line?

[Quickstep192]

I recently bought line that is defying my efforts to splice an eye in it. I bought it at a local marine supply as MarlowBraid. When I began to follow the splicing instructions for MarlowBraid, I realized that MarlowBraid has a laid core and this line does not.

The core of my line is a very loosely woven 12 braid. The cover IS like MarlowBraid. It's a very tightly woven 24 braid. So, if anyone can help identify this line and what type of splice to do, I'd really appreciate it.

A picture of the line and core side by side can be seen at

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/A...06/t_=40232206


PS, I tried a standard core-cover/cover-core eye splice with no luck. Any help is greatly appreciated. Any more failed attempts and the line won't be long enough to serve it's intended purpose (a halyard)

[jeffh]

The line you're looking at/pictured is Marlowbarid MB12. It's a latter day version of the original Marlow Braid which had the hawser laid core.

It does splice like a convential double braid but one should leave a tad bit more room (ie extract a bit more core) as the 24 strand tweedy cover does not have as much give as a line such as Sta-Set or XLS. Also the core is a little less well made up than those types of line (thus it requires a little "gentler" handling), which must be the trade off for beefing up the cover.

good luck,
jeff

[Quickstep192]

Jeff,

Thanks for the reply. I'll have another go at splicing an eye. I printed Brion's splicing instructions. It's interesting to me that he puts the core into the cover first, whereas my instructions from New England Ropes put the cover into the core first. The latter makes it difficult to manage the tapered cover when doing the subsequent operations. I'm eager to try Brian's method. Also, pulling out tracers to seize the crossover and finish the splice is ingenious.

[Brian Duff]

I think we all put the core into the cover and down the bury first. the cover is so short that keeping it buried in the core while you do the rest is not practical