Test Equipment and Environment:

1 spool Izorline XXX Super Co-Polymer 40# Test.

1 Ghetto Tensile Tester, consisting of:

100#

It's been a while since the last installment of "The Ghetto Tensile Tester".

I've been practicing the palomar, doubled line uni knot, and the doubled San Diego Jam knots to get a comparison between the various terminal connection type knots.

It was suprisingly difficult to get consistent results from any of them without a LOT of tying practice. I'm still not happy enough with my uni or SD knots to do a sample run yet, but I think I've gotten the palomar down pretty well.

The palomar is a dead simple knot, but tying it EXACTLY the right way mattered a lot. A 1/2 turn here or a 1/2 turn there and you end up with very different outcomes. Also, when cinching the knot tight, you'll notice the palomar forms what looks like 3 coils around a doubled standing line. The final looped end I brought over the hook would sometimes end up cinching down as the top coil, other times the bottom coil.
After many tests, it seemed the best formed knots, with the most consistently strong results, were from those where the final looped end formed the bottom coil.

Here's the #'s for the Palomar Knot:

41.5 39 39 37 36.5 36 42 38.5 40.5 40
/x = 39
S = 2.055

= about 94.2% original line strength +/- 4.96%

Not too bad!

Once you get it down, the Palomar is very simple to tie, very strong, and makes a very compact knot. It does appear to have some limitations with larger test lines though. 40# line is probably as high as you want to go with this knot before it starts to have trouble holding itself tightly together.

locobro,
I looked around for an existing link to the figure 8 method of the surgeon's loop, but couldn't find one. I'll make a drawing or take some pictures of the knot when I can get a system together to make my own knot illustrations.

Tree Doc,
Please be patient, the uni's coming! Just a little more practice first...

Anyone ever try a perfection not

what about left-handed people ? Any new info for us lefty's ?

cool

It would be interesting to see how the spiders hitch and bimini twist rate in terms of forming a loop. I have always used the spiders hitch for my dropper loops...

Just a thought.

This is good stuff but it reminds me of a speed freak i once new.
Just go wet a line.

You can also use a longliner's knot to attach as many snood lines as you want for droppers, just be sure that you make the weight your weak link. eg. 60#izor mainline with 40# - 60# snood lines to hooks with cheap swivel for weight or granny knot b/4 weight