Soft Shackles

[GvilleDave]

I made some 60" long soft shackles that I used to make a loop to run through an end channel hammock suspension. I did not run the bury the full length, just far enough that the end of the bury was pinched in the larks head connection at the cinch buckle. If you don't have a way to pinch the end of the bury then you will probably have to make the bury full length. You could maybe try to stitch through the layers near the end to prevent the end of the bury from sliding out. Also in a standard soft shackle the end of the burty and the end of the backslpice end up right next to each other and are buried in the stopper knot. In a longer soft shackle like this where the bury does not go full length you should remove a few strands of the amsteel to create a taper at the end of the bury.

[hiker_DC]

I mean.. the original has the knot tied over the end of the bury. So if you make it longer, you'd need a longer bury as well so it too could be under the knot. This of course means that you need double the extra length. So you want it 4" longer, that's 8" of line. Do I have this correct?

That's how I do it.

[shumway]

I've been thinking hard about an alternate method. I may try it tonight. I'll make sure to take some pictures when I get a chance to give it a whirl.

[nacra533]

You don't have to bury any of it for most of them. In the Colgate Marine version, the bury is part of the function, in all the others, it's just for looks and maybe some ease of use.

Here's the simplest version for illustration.

[SpaceCadet]

You don't have to bury any of it for most of them. In the Colgate Marine version, the bury is part of the function, in all the others, it's just for looks and maybe some ease of use.

Here's the simplest version for illustration.

That actually looks like it might be easier to close the loop on the knot than having to milk the bury.

[Apollo2112]

You don't have to bury any of it for most of them. In the Colgate Marine version, the bury is part of the function, in all the others, it's just for looks and maybe some ease of use.

Here's the simplest version for illustration.

That's exactly how I made mine.

[shumway]

I did a test last night on my modified version. The point of this was to make a longer than normal soft shackle without having to double up the total line length. This may be pointless if you're only going a couple inches longer, but for a big loop, like say 24" total length, this would save a lot of line.

This method is a hybrid of Opie's tutorials on soft shackles and soft shackle prussiks.

My camera's battery was dead when I made this so no pics yet. If anyone is interested I'll make another along with pics.

The gist of it is like this:
I started with a bout 24" of 7/64 Amsteel. I used about 10" at the lock end for my buries. Yep.. multiple buries. First I did a 4" bury to act as the lock/release. Pulled the end through the standing part until the loop almost closed and about 6" remained. Then I did a brummel to lock things together. Pull working part through standing part, then standing part through working part. Then I tapered and buried the remaining tail, much as you would do for an eye splice. The brummel ensures the final bury won't pull out while leaving the locking portion free to slide.
The other end can be as far away as you like with this. It's now a single thickness of Amsteel to the knot end. The knot end gets a backsplice and a blood knot just like the original.

I have no idea what the strength of this will be. I know it will be much weaker than the original soft shackle or a nacrabiner since there's only a single thickness of Amsteel for the lock to grip, instead of double like the others. I think you might be able to make this stronger by using a longer back splice. Make it long enough that the stopper is tied in the backspliced portion and the lock actually is still able to grab the backsplice. That would strengthen the weakest part of this, which I think is the knot.

[Knotty]

You don't have to bury any of it for most of them. In the Colgate Marine version, the bury is part of the function, in all the others, it's just for looks and maybe some ease of use.

Here's the simplest version for illustration.

That version is quick and easy to make. I have a number of them, but they are also kind of difficult to open. A plus is that they can easily be made in the field. Just put a point on a twig for use as a fid to open up a hole and pass the end of the line through to form the loop.