How to Splice a Rope

Reader Contribution by James N. Boblenz
Published on June 17, 2009
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Frugality was a way of life on the farm in our grandparents’ day.

Farmers did not have an unlimited source of income. They struggled to make ends meet. They lived by the old New England maxim: “Use it up, wear it out; make it do, or do without.”

For example, the farmer who broke a 150-foot length of 3/4- or 1-inch diameter rope while hoisting hay into his haymow could hardly afford to buy a new rope. Instead, he had to splice the rope. For him, that might not have been hard to do. But today, try to find someone who can splice a rope. That is another rope trick that has not been passed down through the generations.

The farmer mentioned above would need to make a so-called “short splice.” The short splice will be as strong as the original rope, but it will make a slight increase in the diameter of the rope. It can be used only in places where this increase in diameter will not seriously affect the operation of the rope. In most cases, that was not a problem with the hoisting hay rope as it traveled through the series of pulleys and sheaves as it does its work.

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