Hail and Howdy, fellow kinkers of cordage!
Recently, a
dire warning drifted by without much ado or fanfare. The basic lesson to learn from that would be:
The
Tucked Splice (what CWA calls the "Marline Splice") can kill you, if you use it wrong.
Well, I guess that's true of anything, but this is a "bad splice"...
Or is it?
Recently, I was
fortunate to find myself at
Bowens Island Restaurant, and amongst the flotsam and jetsam used there for "atmosphere", I couldn't help notice a Monkey's Fist in some prickly Manila-looking cordage. Someone had made a dandy MF, but with a wee tail about a foot long, ending in a textbook Tucked/Marline/Compression Splice! Having read the above-referenced
warning, I had to ask...
The hoary old proprietor (PABPRES' ugly brother, I sweartagawd) didn't shine to chit-chat, what with the incoming queue stretching out onto the marsh, but I did manage to tease a syllable or two out of him over his knottery. Quoth he:
"Yeah, sometimes you have an eye on the end & this makes it easy to take on & off! What're you drinking, beer? Tea? C'mon, man!!"
And thus was Jimbo Enlightened!!
NO, he won't be bothered by having to wrangle a long heaving line! He'll grab whatever's at hand & get to work (almost) instantly! (
swoons effusively)
So my point is, even a "bad" knot, splice, or other confabulation of cordage can be "good", if used properly, with care and consideration.
Sometimes a death-dealing splice can be used to save lives.
Crazy ol' world, idn't it?
Jimbo