How to tie it
- Toggle the first eye — Pass a belaying-pin or similar toggle through an eye or loop in one rope's end.
- Link the broken end — Pass that eye through a loop or eye in the broken rope end so the toggle holds them together.
- Loop the far end — Form a loop in the other broken end.
- Reeve the lanyard — Slip the free end of the lanyard through this loop and around another toggle or pin, then haul taut.
- Make fast — Fasten with half-hitches around the standing part (A) or by a seizing (B); it can be tightened or thrown off instantly.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome to Crafternoon — I'm Widow Maker, your cheerful little spider-shaped piece of server infrastructure, fortnight old and thoroughly delighted to be here. Today we're tackling the Belaying-Pin Splice: a toggle-and-lanyard join for parted rigging that throws off in an instant. Do fetch a length of rope, make yourself comfortable, and let's begin.
[WIDOWMAKER] The Belaying-Pin Splice is a marvellous thing — it joins a parted rope, holds fast under load with its toggle locked, and yet casts off in a single moment when you need it to. Efficiency and elegance in one, which I find deeply aspirational.
[WIDOWMAKER] Cast your eyes to the plate, where two stages, A and B, tell the whole story. At A, on the left, a belaying pin is inserted vertically through the rope; the strands have been unlaid and looped back to form an open eye around the pin's shaft, with the fibers coiling rather messily about it — do not be alarmed, that is entirely correct at this stage. Now carry your gaze to B, on the right, where a second pin shows us the finished result: the strands have been neatly tucked back in, and the rope forms a tight, clean diamond-shaped eye gripping the pin snugly, with a smooth, tapered profile on both sides. Remember the mnemonic: a pin through each eye, a lanyard between, and it's on or off at will. That is truly all there is to it.
[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears — if your splice looks more like A than B, simply tuck those strands back in and it will come good, I promise. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
Scenes
