The following review, from SGM’s Arboriculture Business Manager, Andy Hancock, appraises the Stein eye-to-eye accessory cord, a new innovation in arboriculture equipment.
New to the market is a range of really nice eye-to-eye accessory cord which has been specifically designed to be used for tying technical hitches such as the Distel, Valdotain Tresse or Michoacan.
Its length is set at 75cm which, following extensive experimentation by a number of experienced arborists, was agreed to be the optimum eye to eye length to ensure correct and positive action of the hitch when used on ropes from 11 to 13mm diameter.
This is a breath of fresh air to the arboricultural industry which has, until now, had to be satisfied with self-tied accessory cord cut to length with a clumsy fisherman’s knot each side of the pulley cheeks or an eye-to-eye cord which was not correctly certified for this purpose.
The cordage choices are (from left to right) Yale Silverstreak in either ‘Hot’ or ‘Cool’ colours and Yale Beeline – all are 10mm diameter to remain compliant with the recommendations in AFAG 401 (para 33).
For anyone familiar with the Yale cordage range, it’ll come as no surprise that they are good to look at, good to handle, easy to tie, easy to dress and are of a very high quality; the stitching is protected by a shrink-wrap cover and each one has a unique identification to help when it comes to LOLER-time.
I haven’t had the chance to test one to destruction but I have used a ‘Hot’ version on my XTC Spearmint for tree work and on my Imori for demonstrations and it’s been tested by over a dozen other climbers to date without any signs of real deterioration so it’s standing up just as well as the Sirius I was using before and handles just as well as narrow diameter cord.
Time will tell but I’m impressed so far – I’ll keep you informed.
Andy Hancock, Business Manager, SGM Contracts LLP
