We’ll be taking a different approach to our Knot of the Week Series for the next three weeks, as we bring you a few articles on creating your own Fast Rope for Climbing.
Fast Rope Insertion & Extraction Systems (FRIES) provide safe and efficient methods for inserting and evacuating personnel to and from specific targets. Fast Ropes come a few different ways, which is with an eye splice or a metal ring for hook up to the davits found on some helicopters.
They’re also available with and without the loops for extraction. As this KOTW is for creating a climbing rope, we’ll be creating a Fast Rope with an eye splice and without extraction loops.
Today we’ll be getting into how you create the 4-Strand Round Braid that’s used to braid a Fast Rope, followed by instructions in the coming two weeks on eye splicing the Fast Rope, and either back splicing or whipping the bottom end. [Read More…]
Today on our Knot of the Week, we’re going to continue our Fast Rope construction with a demonstration of a 4-Strand Eye Splice.
On a previous KOTW we’ve shown how to create a 3-Strand Eye Splice, and while this may appear similar these are two very different techniques.
The Eye Splice is the strongest and safest method of terminating a Fast Rope (4-Strand Round Braid). It develops approximately 85% of the breaking strength of the line, which as we’ve mentioned is right around 28,000+ lbf (pound force) or 129 Kn (kilonewtons) with the 4 pairs of 7/16″ Blue Water Assaultline Static Rope used in construction.
An Eye Splice also enables the rope to be girth hitched onto a beam to climb. Traditionally in Military Fast Ropes, the eye splice is used to attach to the davits found on some helicopters. [Read More…]
Making a Fast Rope for Climbing has certainly been a fun project to undertake for our Knot of the Week!
Today we’ll be demonstrating the last steps in completing your rope, which are whipping and fusing the bitter end. Whipping and Fusing are traditionally methods to prevent a rope from unraveling and to stop fraying. We’re essentially using these techniques in the same way on our Fast Rope, to strengthen and protect the end.
The reason we chose to terminate the Fast Rope in this fashion is that in reading the Mil-Spec for Fast Rope construction, it distinctly mentions that “The free end shall be seared and whipped.” Seared is just another word for fused and fusing is actually the proper terminology. [Read More…]
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