LongJohn
Senior Member
I'm a river guy. My ground tackle needs are not extravagant. I use 15' of 8mm chain spliced to 5/8" nylon 8 plait (unknown brand - but getting soft). I will replace the 8 plait because I like the way it lays in the locker, and keep the chain. But I NEVER want to splice 8 plait again. What a PITA! So I began to look for alternate methods to connect the two media. Nobody talks about it, like it is forbidden. I'm something of a rule breaker. I cut off a few feet of the wrong end of my 8 plait to play with. I bought a 1/4" and a 5/16" proof coil lap link from the hardware store. For each, I pierced the 8 plait with a spike and followed it with the lap link. For the 5/16 link, I wrapped the 8 plait with SS tie wire, in the other I left open. Then saturated both with Super Glue. I closed the lap link to a chain wrapped around a tree. I tied a bowline in the 8 plait and dropped it over my trailer hitch. Applied tension to failure. See pic for results. The 8 plait broke at the bowline with the 5/16 link. The 1/4 link simply spread. In both cases, the super-glued 8 plait held. Just sayin'.