Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Unravel both ends of the line for a few inches for a sailor's short splice. A line is commonly made of three strands, so for each end of line, you will end up with three strands facing each other, like fingers about to shake hands. Marry the unraveled ends so that the strands are alternated, then secure one set of ends tightly using a fine yarn or tape. The lay of a line is the direction in which the strands twist to form the line.
Take any one of the unsecured strands and using a tool called a spike, tuck it under a strand of the other line against the lay. A spike is a long, needle-pointed tool that has a jack-knife handle. It can also be found on some versions of a Swiss Army knife. Repeat the procedure with all three unsecured strands, pulling each tight to the laid strands on the standing part of the line. The standing part refers to the main length of line.
Continue the splice, passing each strand over and under a strand in the laid part of the line, pulling each strand tight as you go until they snug close into the laid strands of the standing part of the line, working always against the lay. Taper the splice by leaving out first one, then two strand ends. When one side of the splice is finished, cut off the yarn or tape and follow the same procedure for the second three strands.
Trim off the six strand ends and roll the splice between your hands to snug the whole thing into shape. The process for making a long splice is similar but requires each end of line to be unraveled for considerable distance so that when it is spliced together it does not increase the thickness of the line. An eye splice uses just one piece of line spliced into itself so that the result is a loop at the end of the line, which might then be attached to the second line using a bowline knot.