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There have been some recent inquires to Factor 55 about the best way to make soft shackles out of old retired synthetic winch lines. Read their advice below.
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First off, we are not cordage engineers here at Factor 55 and we always consult our engineering friends at the various cordage firms when we have our own questions about synthetic winch lines. Yes, we do destructively test synthetic winch ropes in various forms including knot influences etc., but we leave it up to the cordage engineers for detailed dataon the UHMWPE fibers.
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I think we all can agree that due to the slippery nature and low coefficient of friction of UHMWPE winch rope fibers, the type of knots and overall construction design of soft shackles can have a large impact on the ultimate breaking strength of the end product. So for your reference we have attached an interesting series of soft shackle tests that Balance Community: Slackline Outfitters completed.
http://www.balancecommunity.com/slack-science/comparison-soft-shackle-methods/
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5 different types soft shackle knots were tested. 5 samples of each knot tested with the average breaking strengths compared against a simple spliced test sample baseline. As you can see, the results revealed a large disparity of soft shackle breaking strengths. Granted, the stronger soft shackles used considerably more rope to construct, but the range of 139% - 228% of the spliced loop sample is surprising. Again, this test is simply for your reference when deciding on how you are going to construct your own soft shackles, but if you have the available length the Button Knot and the Big Over hand Knot out perform the others.
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