Page 28 - Pocket guide to knots & splices
P. 28
Equipment
smell of it, hence being referred to as a loop tool for pulling small strands
“tar” or “Jack tar.” A marlinespike is a through fancy knots.
steel spike, anything from six to nearly There are occasions when a heavy
twenty-four inches long, used to make needle is needed. Ideally this should be
splices, work knots tight, and undo a sailmaker’s needle, which has a trian¬
knots. A similar tool, only a little fatter gular section to its end, making a hole
and made from some form of hard¬ slightly larger than the eye so that the
wood, is called a “fid” and is used in twine will pull through with ease.
much the same way. Sometimes the fid These needles need something to push
would have been made from whale¬ them through. The correct tool is
bone, while a farmer might use a cow called a sailmaker’s palm, a kind of
horn. A steel spike with a wooden strap that fits over the hand with a
handle is called a “pricker.” metal plate built in to push the needle.
The marlinespike most often found One other useful tool is adhesive tape
in a yacht chandlers today has a flat¬ ideally in a dispenser of some type.
tened handle with a slot in it for This is useful in a temporary way to
undoing shackles. Today, there is a tool stop a rope end from coming unlaid,
known as a Swedish fid that has a and can be formed into a point to assist
wooden handle and a hollow steel tucking.
blade, which allows a strand of rope to Old-time sailors would have
he passed through the hole formed by personalized their tools with decora¬
Pocket Guide to Knots & Splices
the blade. If you can get hold of one, tive knots and carvings, maybe fixed a
the Swedish fid makes work consider¬ lanyard to some of them so they would
ably easier. A marlinespike can be not get lost, and kept them in a canvas
made from a six-inch nail, a pricker bag called a “ditty” bag. There is no
from a screwdriver, and a fid carved reason why you should not do the same
from any suitable piece of hardwood. with the tools of today.
A knife and/or scissors are always
needed to cut and trim rope. A pair of
pliers can sometimes be of help to pull Above Right: Tools from the past.
a short end tight. A piece of bent stiff
wire, ideally piano wire, will make a Bottom Right: Modern tools.
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