Splicing kite lines for beginners

[Faxie]

No problems with those hooks over here. They can break off if you're not careful though.

[cleepa]

I used copper wire to make a lineset. It bends back onto itself nicely without breaking, but is plenty stiff to push or pull through as you are making your splices. I rounded off the ends of the wire to prevent it catching on strands.

As others have said, definitely spend some time practicing before you make anything you plan to use. It's not hard, but if you're doing something like the brummel with a bury, there are several steps you have to get right. Learning how to make everything consistent, especially the taper, is important.

[Pascale]

For quick and easy splices learn the Brummel splice. Learn both types (fixed and loose end). For accurate splicing the simple bury and sew is best.

Can you make the Brummel splice with a guitar chord instead of the fid?

[OzBungy]

Yes. Or a bent piece of wire will do the job.

BTW A chord is a set of notes played together. A guitar string is a piece of wire.

[PD Gorby 67]

I purchased the D-splicer for splicing 3 and 4 mm dyneema.

For Kite lines, I have used a piece of coax cable. The wire inside the coax cable is quite thin, and easy to work with. Easy to find around the house, just pull a length out of the white casing.

You can fold it over on itself, and it works just like the D-splicer.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

[Matteo V]

Those hook things are garbage. The gate o the hook catches in the fibres of kite line and make a mess.

For thin kite lines a guitar string is best. For thicker lines the D-splicer is excellent. https://d-splicer.com/

The D splicer scissors are also very good. They make cutting the line neatly very easy. https://d-splicer.com/d-16-scissors-2/

The soft fid video explains how I do 7/64th Amsteel sheaths with the 200lb Magibraid Dacron line. Nice to have a visual explanation to reference. And I want those shears too.

[Pascale]

BTW A chord is a set of notes played together. A guitar string is a piece of wire.

Yeah, sorry, I was translating from French (corde).

[lovethepirk]

Can you make the Brummel splice with a guitar chord instead of the fid?

Yes. You don't need a fid. You will want a pen/pencil/something similar, preferably with a sharp but rounded end to nicely slide thru the dyneema so each side has roughly equal strands. Obviously a pencil is not working with a 1.5mm thick dyneema flying line tho....You don't have to be perfect, but the thicker the dyneema the easier you can separate the strands perfectly. A nice center hole thru the dyneema is what you are looking for to feed the end of the dyneema thru, however you do this is fine.

I bought the below hollow stainless steel knitting needles for $15 and they cover any size dyneema you are working with. I use a mix of them and some really small diameter violin string I somehow acquired. The problem with using fids is with the small diameters we work with it is hard to get the end of the dyneema into the fid. I end up running my fid thru the dyeema to widen it and straighten it and then the violin string goes thru perfect.

If I was anyone just doing splicing 1x per year I would just use guitar string...so easy.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FT ... UTF8&psc=1