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More acid rope testing 31-May-2012 At 1:09:26 PM Olbert

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On 31/05/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 31/05/2012 Olbert wrote:
>>
>>What is the 'bowline' effect? Is it the effect of reducing the breaking
>>strength of a rope because of the bowline knot? If so, is there a corrasponding
>>'figure 8' effect?
>>
>Yep and yep. Apparently the rope making a sharper turn inside the knot
>leads to lower breaking strength. Also, I think the choking effect of one
>bit of the knot on the rope coming in has something to do with it. There's
>a chart somewhere, I think bowlines are the worst (somewhere around 60%
>of the strength of the rope), figure 8 is among the least worst (high 70's%?).
>
>Doesn't really matter too much, no one breaks ropes (except the dude who
>inspired this thread, of course)...........and fancy bowlines are a bit
>of a shorthand for "I've climbed in europe, you know. This is how Ramon
>and Paxti tie in"

Thought as much. I knew that knots reduced the strength of the thing being knotted but I didn't realise that it reduced the strength of ropes to ~13kN.

Also, I had a good chat with Arnaud Petit when I was in Spain and now he ties his bowline like me.