Break Test Extravaganza(s)

[Brion Toss]

Hi all,
Ever since the encouraging results of the tests of my improved soft shackle design, I've been working towards getting ready for a new round. The idea is that more samples will confirm the previous results, and that I will also be able to try out some variations that might improve things still further. But it would be really, really great if samples could be prepared by someone besides me, or supervised by me. That way we could get an idea of how strong we can expect this configuration to be in the real world.
So here's an invitation: make up as many of those shackles as you can, and send them in. Just tell me the brand of rope, the diameter, and (optionally) who you are. You can find instructions on how to make it here: http://l-36.com/high_strength_soft_shackle.php.
The good people at TreeStuff (https://www.facebook.com/pages/TreeS...5015?ref=br_rs), will break them for free, and we will post the results here and on Facebook.
More on this as things develop.
Next, I am hoping to get contributions for another series of tests, this time of wire rope eyesplices and seizings. Make up your best, and send them in. You can splice or seize both ends of a piece, but feel free to splice just one end, and we will have a swage put onto the other. Make the pieces at least 8ft. long. In addition to that, send in a similar length piece of the same material, from the same spool. We will put swages on both ends of that piece and break it separately, to get a benchmark of the actual wire strength, not just the rated strength. I'll pick up the cost of breaking these pieces, if they are too big for TreeStuff's machine. More on this later, too.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss