strength in small AmSteel grommets

[Brion Toss]

Originally Posted by Bott

Picture a length of line in front of you for grommet making, label each half A and B for the relative ends and the joining portion of the spice... Just make sure that end "A" passes through the body of the "B" end, and that the end of "B" passes through the body of "A", no? Maybe I need to play with it some more to see any errors in logic there.

Hello,
It's true that the Brummel will be locked by the method you describe; the problem is it will only be locked of the load comes on the ends. Try it. If you pull the ends away from each other, the Brummel will lock right up. But if you pull on the standing parts (in this case, the sides of the grommet adjacent to the Brummel) it slides right apart.
This topology was a real puzzle for me, and one of the happiest breakthroughs of my little existence. The solution is in Book 5, and involves unbraiding and rebraiding one of the tails. With a short grommet, the locked Brummel is crucial, as the tails just don't add a reassuring amount of friction.
You are right on about having the tails overlap, with the ideal being complementary tapers, for constant diameter.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss