Constrictor knots and mean green rubber

[sharkey]

The bridal inserts are made using 2mm Dyneema & a figure 8 knot.

 

[Mr. X]

Thanks Sharky. I just noticed the knot you use to tie the wishbone to the loops, looks more secure than most. Like a cross between a double sheet-bend and a reef knot (aka square knot).

I see Bill uses the classic sheet-bend. I know they must be secure but for some reason I have never trusted them. So, for example, I tie my muzzle bungee to my mono spearline* using a double sheet-bend, which I discovered recently is somewhat harder to untie and re-tie while in the sea than a single sheet-bend, ahem.

* I used to find the heavy duty bungee clips by RA hard/painful to open and close at sea. When I switched to a lighter set-up, I found the Beuchat muzzle bungee clip very flimsy and it rusted away in a year or two . Clips also rattle against the barrel and can mark carbon barrels. I try to keep things simple and my spearguns super-lightweight (as Omersub made them that way), so replacing the noisy, heavy/flimsy clip with a simple, light, free, quick tie/release knot (sheet-bend) was an easy choice. BTW I now use Omer or Salvimar rubber-bone bungees or a piece bungee cord (thanks Foxfish), again cheap, simple, streamline, lightweight . BTW Spaghetti said that Italian spearos often use old inner-tube rubber

 

[Andrew the fish]

BTW I often wonder if Rob Allen pear -shaped beads would work better upside down: that way the tapered end should make them easier to insert and the broad end should make it harder to pull out and easier to tighter the constrictor. Anybody tried it?

yes I did try that, not with Rob Allen's but other similar shape beads. It did work fine, no one pulled out yet, but I am wondering about rubber service life around the constrictor tie-up. Radius might be a little too short for rubber to bend around blunt-nose end of the bead. Rubber looks scarily discolored from overstretching at the tie-up when I load the gun.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

This is a little bit off the subject but I had a puzzling experience yesterday. I was using my Abbelan 120 but the visibility was limited so I decided that I might as well use my Abellan 110 and have the greater ease of handling. So I went back to the boat and changed guns and then was unable to load the bands on the 110. It wasn’t just difficult- I couldn’t do it. I had no trouble loading the 120 and the bands are cut to the same stretch ratio. Today I removed the bands and verified the length. Then I thought I might have used 15mm rubber by accident but I used calipers and verified that it was 14.3mm rubber, same as on the 120.

Now what? I guess I have no choice but to make new bands a bit longer but I wonder how much longer. This has never happened to me before.

 

[Captladner]

I appreciate your imput, just recently bought some blue rubber not sure what it’s qualities are. The green is not what I was led to believe. Black Rob Allen is probably what I’ll stick with before it’s all said and done.