How to put an eye in solid braid line yourself.

[gstours]

  As a novice to boating, camping, and farming I had a few good people who share their knowledge with me and helped me improve my situation whatever it was......So I thought of passing on a thing I have learned about the solid braid line......
    Firstly I,m not an authority so don't knock my flaws!    I have liked to use solid braid nylon rope a lot because it doesn't twist as much, if at all for anchor ropes, or for tying a fish alongside the boat as the three strand lines do..... Cost is about the same as for 3 strand nylon line.......Butt.
     It seems like the double braid is popular, but more expensive, and takes special tools and more skill to braid eyes in or splice,  at least for me.    So here is an easy way for you to try.   OK?

This is a snap installed to a piece of solid braid line that I use fir Halibut Leashes when they are stored alongside the boat when fishing for day trips.   I make these about 4-6 ft long and put the loop of one end over the snap and snap itself to the boat for a very secure quick tye off....

start out with the line laying out for approx what the leash might be as shown.

   Here I,m using about 7-8inches of line for the braiding.

  The line will usually be 12 or 16 strands of twisted yarns(plaits), and these need to be unraveled the 7-8 in. and then laid out for bundling.

   This is how I hold the bundles that are divided equally with masking tape.  Twist each bundle tape then isolate. untill they look like this.

  This is the tool I have developed that works the best for me.  Forceps, I call them,  smaller ones shown work the best for 3/8 inch line.

Insert thru the line where you want the other side of the loop (eye) to be.

push tool in until the hinge pin is in the center of the line so it will open.

grab the first pc that lines up the best with the line to avoid twisting and pull it thru.   then count down away from the eye 6-8 segment , 3/4 inch or so,that are on top and do the reverse side pulling it tight as you go.

continue this way alternating the passages for 4-5+ times or until you run out of tail....pull each one snug as you go. I have never had a failure using 4 tucks with each tail, generally 3 tucks are considered ok for 3 strand twisted lines from the literature i,ve read, although  its no cost to add more?

alternate each taped tail approx 90 degrees, every 3/4 inch back down the line as before until all 4 are used up.
generally the last tail will feel tighter as you as stuffing the line back into the factory braid and there is almost room for it to swallow!

When you have 4 tails criss crossed you should have something like this.

trim the ends after tightening until tight and smooth somewhat.  Leave about 1/2 inch minimum for the melting end.

heat the ends with a flame until melted, it might flame, but that's ok if left long enough for that.
the end will melt nicely, then fuse it down to itself by rolling it down firmly and quickly on a prepared wet w water surface. this will fuse it to itself but not stick
to the rolled surface if wet slightly.

Heat shrink tubing can dress up the splice are if desired.  These were made using horse rope as I call it for heavy duty Halibuts.
   These don't untwist, are supple, inexpensive and can be custom made for what ever you desire.  I have found that the 16 plait lines generally are easier toward the final part than the 12 plait.  It seems like they are softer.  Hard Lay is Hard to do anything with other than coil it.  for that it rocks.      Thats just me.......
     If you have questions or comments just pm me.  thats ok. 

[Tightlines667]

Looks good.

Your tutorial makes that look easy.

I recently converted a 150' heavy (5/8") double braided tow line into 10 spliced docklines.  I used a set of rigging needles and a technique similar to a loop splice in holocore braid.  It took alot of force and persistance to get the job done.  Beat the heck outra my hands too, despite using gloves.  I used X-Flox heat shrink tubing to dress them up as well.  I wouldn't recommend doing the splicing on heavier stuff (just buy premade), but the technique works great on more typical sized braided core ropes.

Thanks for sharing!

[gstours]

Yes you did good. as so many things in life have made us lazy, I hoped to rekindle a spark of the need being filled by the user... I should have put "rope" in the title, as i posted it in the mostly fishing line rigging/splice topic area as well?   
  I made these out of scrap pcs as well for some of my fshing buddys for "stocking stuffers"  as they can be made with any eye,snap,length, color, configuration.
The pictures and text needs improving of course,  Butt its a start to show/learn, and thanks for the reply.

[Dominick]

thanks Gary.  I used to splice back in my truck driving days.  I forgot a whole bunch of tricks my grandfather taught me.  Dominick

[Bill B]

Very cool Gary.....I always wondered if this could be done....but considering the size of your halibut I'm surprised you use such small line....would think you'd be using 1 1/2" line..

Could this be done to large solid braid fishing line?  Maybe with a needle instead of forceps?


Bill

[Dominick]

Gary the photos disappeared.  Did you move them on photobucket?  Dominick

[Reel 224]

I thought I was going nuts when I didn't see a thing and everybody was commenting how the photos were so good  . I can't see a thing

Joe

[bluefish69]

Gary the photos disappeared.  Did you move them on photobucket?  Dominick

Gary I am having the same problem

Mike