Hand sewn eyes on cordage

[bfriendly]

Ok so before anyone grills me for asking, I haven’t done it yet. But I am wanting to use some hitches where I need sewn ends….y’all know them. I saw a video where a guy was hand sewing cordage with I believe he called it 80# waxed twine? It didn’t have a hundred or more wraps, but it wasn’t gonna go anywhere. I’ll buy sewn ends before buying a machine but just thought of tinkering with the idea. If you hand sewed an eye on say 6mm cord you planned on using for a friction hitch, what would you use?

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

I

Ok so before anyone grills me for asking, I haven’t done it yet. But I am wanting to use some hitches where I need sewn ends….y’all know them. I saw a video where a guy was hand sewing cordage with I believe he called it 80# waxed twine? It didn’t have a hundred or more wraps, but it wasn’t gonna go anywhere. I’ll buy sewn ends before buying a machine but just thought of tinkering with the idea. If you hand sewed an eye on say 6mm cord you planned on using for a friction hitch, what would you use?

It’s called a Viking splice. It takes a long time and was used for centuries in the maritime industry. I have done it in the past. I used waxed polyester twine from West Marine. It’s like 50 lbs break strength. Stitching the first side wasn’t that bad but getting the needle and thread through the second side after the first side was tight, was hard. I had to use a palm style thimble like sail makers use to push it through. I never personally break strength tested it but I trusted my lift to it because it was ridiculously strong. I am not recommending you do it BUT if you do, make sure that you get an even number of passes on each side and also try to keep your spacing close to the same distances apart. The biggest thing would be making sure all threads are evenly tensioned because when sewn splices break, they usually start at the stitch furthest away from the eye. This can only be accomplished if all threads are tensioned evenly. It never hurts to lash the ends either and use a heat shrink with the glue inside on it when you’re done to protect the thread.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

This is what I used:

Sites-WestMarine-Site

West Marine

www.westmarine.com

I used #8 on larger rope and #4 on smaller cordage. Just remember the strength of the eye will essentially be the breaking strength of the thread times the number of passes times 1.5 if you’re looping it around.
and again I am not suggesting you do this. It’s at your own risk but believe me long term it’s less hassle to just buy some presewn products from Sterling or Bluewater

 

[bfriendly]

Whipping! That’s what he called it. The way he did it was using a board for a base and pushed down on the needle to poke it through. A sewn eye would be nice and neat, but I wonder if this is a better alternative….just saw this picture in another thread.

So I see this option too, but why not tie a Michoacán and close it in a bend?

 

[gcr0003]

Whipping! That’s what he called it. The way he did it was using a board for a base and pushed down on the needle to poke it through. A sewn eye would be nice and neat, but I wonder if this is a better alternative….just saw this picture in another thread.
View attachment 63157View attachment 63157
So I see this option too, but why not tie a Michoacán and close it in a bend?

It allows you to untie the hitch from the rope easily. It also cinches down on the carabiner which mitigate the carabiner moving around (i.e. twisting and maybe being improperly loaded). I’m sure there are other reason to go this route but these are just a few. I would leave tag ends a little long if you were to go this route but this method is tried and true. I’ve used it with 5.5 mm chord for two years without issue.

If you decided to go the sewer route just buy or get someone to do it with a machine. What’s your time worth to you? Take multiple hours to learn to do it yourself and still not know it’s break strength or pay someone 15 bucks to do it on a machine that is to a standard and is break tested/and or rated.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

Whipping! That’s what he called it. The way he did it was using a board for a base and pushed down on the needle to poke it through. A sewn eye would be nice and neat, but I wonder if this is a better alternative….just saw this picture in another thread.
View attachment 63157View attachment 63157
So I see this option too, but why not tie a Michoacán and close it in a bend?

A knot is easier to tie than trying to Viking splice. The other issue with the board method is you need a thick strong needle too because standard needles will bend and break after a few hard pushes like that. So the knot would definitely be easier for you to do

 

[bfriendly]

Ok, to heck with sewing ends for now. I may buy some at some point or even sew some if I’m really bored. But after a refresher course on tying the Michoacán, I’m gonna do this instead……I think I forgot I could just close it in a bend. I got too much in my head!

 

[Bango Skank]

Documenting my hand-sewn eye process

I'm documenting the sewing process for an eye I'm working on. Sewing the eye on NE Ropes Tachyon. For this eye I'm pre-tensioning the join with clamps to increase the friction on the finished eye. Sewn eye documentation I'll add more photos to the set as the eye is finished. Materials...

www.treebuzz.com

Some heavy reading here, but worth checking out.