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Cutting through stainless steel rope and rigging wire



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What is the issue?
Many people carry at least one spare length of the heaviest / longest rigging stay aboard plus a pair of swageless terminations or compression terminals. These terminate stainless steel rigging cables with simple hand tools and because they are so easy to assemble, the terminals are ideal to use in temporary jury-rigging situations.

However, the problem many people face is cutting the hard stainless steel rigging wire to size. In the best of circumstances, it is very difficult to cut multistranded stainless steel rope let alone heavy rigging in such a fashion that it is even and the strands of cable do not become unlaid in the process.

Why address this?
Useless there is a reliable method to cut multistranded stainless steel rope and rigging to size the terminators may not be implemented.

How to address this?
Use a block of wood, as illustrated below, as an improvised mitre box to guide a hacksaw to make a precise cut whilst holding the stainless steel strands firmly in place.

Cutting through stainless steel rigging wire
Drawing: Tony Gibson


Drill a hole in the block of wood that is the same diameter as the cable and insert it into the block. Then align the cut point to be in the middle of the wood. Snap a vice grip on the waste end of the wire to hold the cable in place. Take a fine tooth standard hacksaw with a brand new blade and saw through both the wood and wire. This should result in a clean cut without the wires being unlaid.

With thanks to:
Michael Harpur, Yacht Obsession.
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