Ice block while diving

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I like spliced eyes, nice and clean. You can't knot poly very well anyway. If it was me, I'd wip the splice with mason line to lock it in.

A proper splice is likely to be stronger then a knot. Swaged wire rope breaks in the middle much of the time. Knots with small internal diameters are weaker then those with large internal diameters. A figure-8 is something like 80% of the tensile strength. I don't want to get the book out but a double bowline is close, maybe a bit more. This accounts for why water knots (aka overhand) are so weak and figure-8 on a doubled bite are so strong.

The rope I ordered is hollow braid and I'll sew and wip the eyes after I splice it to prevent creep.

I thought the question about the block of ice was a draw. It's not cold death to push it under and it's not a waste of energy to pull it out. It's a choice. Most prefer to take it out.