StaLok and Norseman blues

[Gordon Dove]

Well Thank You one and all. I spent a few days researching and searching before my original post, but the responses here have given me much more assistance.

I did my other two StaLoks myself, and whilst still not easy, they were possible without recourse to violence; the tip about superglue that Seawolf relayed made a massive difference, and probably a bit more practice helped a bit as well.

Ian, I unlaid using a small screwdriver, the local rigger, pliers and a single twist. I'm pretty sure my unlaying didn't do any harm as the wire would relay without the cone to it's original position without too much trouble.

Robbie.g, the cones are 8mm/5/16ths, so they must be better for one than the other. I did check the size a few times. StaLok helpfully etch it on the side of the cone. The fit is not loose, but certainly not tight.

Brion, thank you also for a very comprehensive post. My wire is right lay as you intuited, I guess that is why experiences vary so much.
The wire that the local guy did is an aft lower ( I have a cutter rig, two spreaders; uppers, intermediates, fore and aft lowers, twin (evil ) backstay, running backstays and fore and inner fore stays), so I'll get it checked at the first place I get too where I can rely on the riggers, and carry spare wire and terminals in the mean time. I guess it wouldn't harm to give it a quick extra stretch (25% UBS) when I'm tuning and give it an extra dose of frequent inspection.

Thank you once again for all the kind advice. Time for more fixing things in exotics places