by GreenLake » Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:08 pm
JF,
your procedure ends up with the whipping twine forming two interlocked U's underneath the whipping, with no exposed ends. If the whipping it tight, that should normally be enough to prevent the ends from coming free. If the line is very slippery, there is the potential risk that the entire whipping slides off.
You could certainly try to reduce this risk by stitching. Off the top, here's one suggestion: Thread your twine through a needled and pull about the length needed for your first bight through. Go around the line, and push through at 90 degrees again. Remove the needle and form your bight as before. Continue whipping. At the end, you can either just complete the whipping as before (that would leave you with one set of stitches near the standing end, or you can cut off the twine, thread it, and do two stitches at the end of the whipping, before burying the tail. Now you have two sets, one on each side of the whipping, that should prevent the whipping from sliding off.
Rather than trough-stitching it might be enough to catch the whipping twine under a few strands of the braid. I think you'd still need a needle, but you may be able to lift one of the braids far enough with a spike to fit the twine under it. Some people seem to do the whipping in the other direction (starting at the free end of the line) -- not sure what to think of that.
For three-strand ropes, the procedure is a bit different; because these have grooves, and the strands can be lifted apart a bit, you start by tucking your starting end under one of the strands (leaving a long tail, not formed into a bight). You do the whipping, then tuck under the end again under a strand, leaving a tail. Next, you wrap the tails around the whipping, using a groove to pass under the whipping. Do that three times (once for each groove). Then knot the tails and pull the knot into the rope (above the whipping, that is, towards the standing end of the line).
Some modern ropes really work well with heat sealing the end, while others either don't seal well, or separate into core and cover. (Stitching a whipping would eliminate that separation more positively than friction from pressure).
I must say that I've been content mostly with using a combination of heat sealing, tape and heat shrink (the latter really wants to be glued in place -- superglue). For tape, electrical tape works best, because it can be pre-stretched when wrapping, but I've had masking tape survive on lines for years (applied at the store then cutting the line in the middle of the tape wrap, with a serrated knife, or even better, a hot knife). I have done some whippings with the stitching at one end, as described above.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~