The final tool, which you should be familiar with as well, is a sewing needle. Several times during this splice you will need to tape your working end securely to the tubular fid so you can slide the rope back through itself without snagging.

This fid has specific marks on it used to measure certain parts of the rope in a handful of the steps. You will also need a tubular fid these come in many sizes so make sure you choose the correct diameter. It is used to carefully separate the strands of the jacket before digging inside to pry out the core. This type of fid is made of metal that comes to a point with a plastic handle. To extract the core from the jacket, one of the first steps, you will need a Swedish fid or a large spike of some sort. I suppose now it’s worth mentioning that all double braid ropes are made using synthetic materials. The sharper the better, some of the synthetic fibers can be a little stubborn. You are undoubtedly familiar with the first tools: a tape measure and scissors. This process is very difficult to relay through text so I will be including some instructional links down below. For the rest of the splice, the strands follow an under-over pattern down the rope until you have no more length left to tuck. The rope should now have a quasi-squid appearance with a round head and 3 evenly spaced tentacles dangling. Repeat this step around the rest of the rope inserting your two remaining strands. Open up a single point in the rope by twisting it the opposite way and feed one of your strands through the opening. Pick a spot farther in to start weaving the rope back into itself, how far down you go will determine your eye size. At this point, if you need to capture a piece of hardware, such as a mounting bracket or dog leash snap, now is the time to feed the rope through it. Wrap a decent amount of tape at the tips of your strands this will save you so much time and headache. The end of the rope is untwisted until each of the 3 strands is just over a foot in length. 3-Strand splicing looks quite a bit more intimidating than it really is.

Eye splice instruction with braided rope, .3-Strand, 8-Strand, and double braid ropes are the only lines that can be spliced properly.

Hyatt Verrill, Knots, Splices and Rope Work from Project Gutenberg

David Steel, Explanation of the terms used in rigging (1794), The Maritime History Virtual Archives.

^ William Falconer, Universal Dictionary of the Marine (London: Thomas Cadell, 1780), 1243.

^ Neil Montgomery, Single Rope Techniques (Natl Speleological Society, June 1982), p.

Splicing Bell Ropes Illustrated (first ed.).

West Coast taper (or Fisherman's taper) is effected by extra-tucks of entire strands, such that the second strand is woven one more time than the first and the third is woven an additional time after the second.

This is only practical with laid-lines – those made up of numerous strands laid side by side.

Standard tapers progressively remove a portion of each remaining strand – one-third at a time is typical, resulting in a taper of two additional tucks beyond the splice – thus making each successive tuck produce a narrower splice.

There are two main types of tapering, the standard and the 'West Coast Taper'. Splices are often tapered to make the thicker splice blend into the rest of the line. The short splice retains more of the rope strength than any knots that join rope ends.

short splice – Also a splice used to join the ends of two ropes, but the short splice is more similar to the technique used in other splices and results in the spliced part being about twice as thick as the non spliced part, and has greater strength than the long splice.

The long splice allows the spliced rope to still fit through the same pulleys, which is necessary in some applications. It does this by replacing two of the strands of each rope end with those from the other, and cutting off some of the extra strands that result. The long splice, unlike most splice types, results in a splice that is only very slightly thicker than the rope without the splice, but sacrifices some of the strength of the short splice.

long splice – A splice used to join two rope ends forming one rope the length of the total of the two ropes.

horseshoe splice – A cut splice where the two sides of the loop are of unequal length.

figure-eight 'splice' knot – A splice-like bend knot used for joining two ropes.

chain splice – Attached the working end of a rope to a chain.

ring splice – Attached the working end of a rope to a ring or clew.

eye splice – A splice where the working end is spliced into the working part forming a loop.

Rope eye splice kit