FIG. 35. FIG. 36. FIG. 37.
A splice that you can very easily learn for yourselves, however, is the Eye-splice. First make yourself a marling-spike—if you have not the genuine article by whittling down to a point a piece of hard wood. I have found that the half of a clothes-pin, so treated, answered the purpose exceedingly well. Then take a piece of good three-strand rope, unwind the strands, and place them as you see a, b, c, in [Fig. 33]. Open the strand d and pass a through it, as in [Fig. 34]; then open e and pass b over d and under e, as in [Fig. 35]. Turn the eye over, [Fig. 36], open f and pass c through it, as in [Fig. 37], and pull the strands tight. Now pass a over the strand next it, under the next one, and so on with the others. Proceed in the same way until the splice is about an inch long. Then stretch the eye (holding by the rope) to tighten everything, and cut the ends close. If you will make a neat Eye-splice all by yourself and take it to the old sailor aforementioned, he will be sure to think it worth while to teach you all he knows, and he will be likely to tell you many things about knots, hitches and splices which are of necessity omitted here.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] I do not explain again how to use a chalk line and a splitting-saw, for you ought to thoroughly understand that if you have read the other papers and made the sawhorse and workbench yourself.
[B] Where accuracy is required always allow one eighth inch for waste in sawing; draw line and saw on the line and plane off any thickness over and above the measure required.
[C] Always remember to square and plane edges before measuring from them.
[D] The operator should bear in mind that old saying, “A pint’s a pound, the world around,” then he will remember that it contains sixteen fluid ounces, four ounces to the gill, &c.
[E] Many preparations are advertised for sticking the prints to the cards, but common starch paste is about as good as anything. Mix the starch in cold water, very thin, and then boil it, constantly stirring it to break up lumps, and remove from the fire soon as it reaches the boiling point. The prints should be wet and pasted on while quite moist, rubbing them down beneath a sheet of blotting-paper from the centre to the margin, in order to expel all air, that would otherwise cause lumps or wrinkles.