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Amsteel Bridge Buries

wvfarrier

Active Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2018
Messages
148
Location
West (by GOD) Virginia
So, i had no interest in doing the buries that G2 Outdoors showed in his video, but i want to use Amsteel for my bridge without knots. I contacted a fella on ebay who sells dogbones, whoopie slings and such things made from Amsteel. He made me 2 bridges from Amsteel 1/4". This is the message he sent me:

"You have probably seen the YouTube video by G2 Outdoors about Tree Saddle Bridge Basics; at least that's what I watched, among watching, and reading from different sources on the web, to have a better understanding of what you needed for your tree saddle. In the video he used 8" buries behind the locked brummels, and he stated that they worked well, as I'm sure they did. He also did not taper the ends before burying them, which will also work for this application. My guess would be that the locked brummels by themselves will hold over a ton of weight when using the 1/4" AmSteel to construct them.
At any rate, I've increased the buries to 10" each, and I've properly tapered the ends. The taper you can feel as the buries transitions to the short midsection single strand of dog bone style bridge."

seller: cak5005


Now before you all have a meltdown about my safety, i fully intend to test these thoroughly at ground level before betting my life on them. I may use the in combo with my current bridge a couple times before going with just them. Anyway, just sharing an option for ya'll
 
I think the bury for 1/4" amsteel is 2 fid lengths in a locked brummel, with is around 10.5 inches and that bury needs to be tapered. AFAIK the locked brummel is not meant to load bearing without the bury. So that said, sounds like what he made for you is pretty close to the recommended?
 
Well crap now I have to make another bridge!

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Erring on the side of caution, I did a long bury after the locked Brummel splice. Animated knots states that with amsteel bury equivalent to 72 times the diameter of the rope be used. 18 inches for 1/4” amsteel blue. Figured it was “over kill”, but don’t want to chance it on the load bearing device. The second splice will be locked stitched per manufacturer recommendation. Any experienced “splicers” please chime in with your perspectives on this.
 
Ya now i am wondering if I have to redue my three stick ropes with something longer than 4” bury. Seems like a lot of rope to waste.


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I just sent an email to Samson rope regarding splicing specific to AmSteel Blue to clarify a few questions that I had. Hopefully they will respond soon.
 
Ive got an 8”-9” buried splice bridge that G2 made for me at saddlepalooza. I’ve swung from that thing like a swing several times trimming trees :)


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@IkemanTX I'm sure yours is perfectly fine. My inquiry to Samson is more about establishing confidence in my splicing ability and equipment. If I don't trust my equipment I won't use it.
 
I don't think I could go more than about 10 inches on my bridge since my preferred bridge length is about 24 inches.

Curious what Samson will recommend.

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I got a response from Samson this morning. Got some good info. I’m on the road right now but will share what I learned once I get home tonight.


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Here are the two that were made for me plus a shackle made from the same 1/4" Amsteel
I tried it out today. I attached using the shackle (just to try not for regular use) on one side and a carabiner on the other. worked great. I spent 15 minutes about 4' off the ground and then about an hour shooting from 20'. Everything worked as it should. I definitely prefer the amsteel over the 11mm static rope i was using.


Screenshot_20180831-141953_Gallery.jpg
 
Ok. Here is what the Samson Rope representative had to say regarding AmSteel Blue:

If making a whoopie sling the locked Brummel splice buried with 2 fids and an angle cut end can be done; however, the splice loses 20-30% of it's strength in that configuration. Their recommendation if using in a dogbone configuration: "If you are splicing a sling with two normal eye splices then it is best to use a 3 fid bury (same as 12-strand class II eye splice) in which I would recommend using our standard taper method of gradually removing 6 strands (1s and 1z pairing x 3) with a secondary taper (cutting 3 strands gradually)." See attached images.

As for as lock stitching is concerned, DO NOT use Zing-It or Lash-It. "We recommended to not use Lashit rope for lock-stitching. Dyneema or high grade fiber should not be used for lock-stitching as the lock-stitching does not add strength to the rope and serves the purpose of holding the splice in-tact before first load and prevent the splice from being pulled apart. If you use higher grade material like Dyneema, it could lead to potential issues once the rope is loaded and may even start cutting into itself if not lock-stitched properly. We recommend a polyester/nylon twine. I usually recommend a twine size that matches or is a little bit smaller than the width of a single strand on the actual rope itself."

He also sent me sizing chart for the lock stitch twine sizing. 1/4" should use #18 twine & 1/2" use #42 twine. See attached pdf.

Hope this helps anyone that was curious.
 

Attachments

  • Samson Taper A.png
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  • Samson Taper B.png
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  • Splicing- Lockstitch and Whipping Sizing Chart Guidelines.pdf
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Ok. Here is what the Samson Rope representative had to say regarding AmSteel Blue:

If making a whoopie sling the locked Brummel splice buried with 2 fids and an angle cut end can be done; however, the splice loses 70-80% of it's strength in that configuration. Their recommendation if using in a dogbone configuration: "If you are splicing a sling with two normal eye splices then it is best to use a 3 fid bury (same as 12-strand class II eye splice) in which I would recommend using our standard taper method of gradually removing 6 strands (1s and 1z pairing x 3) with a secondary taper (cutting 3 strands gradually)." See attached images.

As for as lock stitching is concerned, DO NOT use Zing-It or Lash-It. "We recommended to not use Lashit rope for lock-stitching. Dyneema or high grade fiber should not be used for lock-stitching as the lock-stitching does not add strength to the rope and serves the purpose of holding the splice in-tact before first load and prevent the splice from being pulled apart. If you use higher grade material like Dyneema, it could lead to potential issues once the rope is loaded and may even start cutting into itself if not lock-stitched properly. We recommend a polyester/nylon twine. I usually recommend a twine size that matches or is a little bit smaller than the width of a single strand on the actual rope itself."

He also sent me sizing chart for the lock stitch twine sizing. 1/4" should use #18 twine & 1/2" use #42 twine. See attached pdf.

Hope this helps anyone that was curious.

Great info


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So, im new to all this....based on what i just read, im losing 70-80% of my amsteel strength the way these were done?
I'm not sure how yours were constructed. If your buried end is 2 fids with an angle cut end....then YES. If there was some other method used then I don't know. 1/4" AmSteel Blue has average strength of 8,600 lbs and minimum strength of 7,700 lbs. So 70-80% of that would be 6,020-6880 lbs and 5,390-6,160 lbs respectively.
 
I'm not sure how yours were constructed. If your buried end is 2 fids with an angle cut end....then YES. If there was some other method used then I don't know. 1/4" AmSteel Blue has average strength of 8,600 lbs and minimum strength of 7,700 lbs. So 70-80% of that would be 6,020-6880 lbs and 5,390-6,160 lbs respectively.

Losing 70-80% should mean a final strength of 20-30% of original 8600lbs total would be 1,720-2580lbs

A final strength of 70-80% would be a 20-30% loss


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