Eye-splicing lines...

[Bill Mc]

Avoid buying Fids and purchase a splicing wand and the instructional video by Brion Toss found at briontoss.com

Fair winds,
Bill

[Parley]

I just replaced my halyards with all line halyards. Doing so required splices on my new lines. I used spectra core line. This is "core dependant" line, or as Samson calls it, "Class II" line. I purchased the samson fids and followed their instructions for Class II line (downloaded from website). I have not done any splicing except for 3 strand twisted line way back in boy scout days. I now have beautiful new halyards with eye splice on one end, and back splice on the bitter end. I finished both off with color coded whipping. Don't forget to lock stitch your splices. It's easy, Go for it!

Oh, one more tip: If you are using core dependant line and rope clutches, you will want to lock stitch the area of line that will be "caught" by the rope clutch. This will keep the core from slipping while the cover is "caught" by the clutch.