Swaging questions

I have to interject here - I rigged here in San Francisco with a major boatyard, with a well respected rig shop, for several years - and - we NEVER dipped, sealed, or slathered anything on the wire before swaging - or afterwards. In regards to the "protection" of the inside of the swage with goo - after swaging there isn't really much of an "inside" to protect - if you cut apart a swage there shouldn't be much more than solid metal - maybe trace lines of the wire strands, but it's not like there are channels in there that are going to rust out on you. We also avoided and had our customers avoid putting anything on their standing rigging, swages, wire and all, becuase application of anything hastens the onset of stainless deterioration, which occurs in the absence of oxygen. In my humble experience, the best care for sawges was regular rinsing with fresh water and careful examination throughout the seasons - and a realistic expectation of how long it should all last. This is the opposite of galvanized mild steel, which you would want to wrap up and seal away in tar, yes. I think the best protection for stainless steel, though, is fresh water - lots of it.