I just cut a 20ft prusik cord into 3 segments of equal length in order to make myself some split tails. I've read that the easiest way to 'seal' the ends of the new ropes is with a flame, however, I'm having trouble getting the rope ends to melt enough to seal them. Does anybody have any recommendations, for example, some type of epoxy or some other method?

Thanks!

What kind of prusik cord? Some types are very heat resistant and the melting bit won't work too well. When working with Bee Line, which we were using in Panama, I like to smear a bit of epoxy or crazy glue over the tip and around the end then cover that with a bit of heat activated shrink-tubing.

By the way....welcome to the forum!

It's 5/16'' Ice Tail prusik cord. It is supposed to be very heat resistant -- I think I'll try to use some epoxy with shrink tubing around the end. Thanks for the reply!

I think the heat shrink is a great idea.

I used a wrap of plastic tape around the Ice Tail, before cutting, then paint on some liquid rope whipping on the tape and end to bond everything together. So far, so good.

Have fun!
Bob

Icetail is made of a blend of technora and polyester. The technora doesn't melt. At around 800*F it goes straight to char, as you may have noticed.

You will have to use tape, glue, epoxy, heat tubing, or my favorite, a proper sailmakers whipping. Here's a half-decent step by step I made a while ago. I think one of them is wrong so if you're doing it and find a prob, let me know and I'll fix it!

http://goo.gl/EizfM

love
nick

ps- once you know how long you want your split tails to be, it's time to splice it!