Many people, however, still find the tool useful for other duties. There isn’t a high degree of utility for this accessory on most small, single-person watercraft. These devices are usually tightened down beyond what can be accomplished with bare hands, so the key is applied and used to open it. Shackles are a D-shaped clip used to attach various parts of the rigging together. The shackle key is just that, a key for unlocking shackles. Shackle Key The shackely key is a must to break open a problematic shackel on deck. Most of the work a modern marlinspike encounters is going to be on a relatively thin nylon line, making huge spikes unnecessary. Kayaks and canoes usually work with a 1/4-inch line. Half-inch is common for duck boats and other flat-bottom craft. Today most people use much thinner lines, usually 1-inch or so, on recreational vessels. Heavy rope, 5 inches or thicker, was common for mooring lines and these massive marlinspikes could move even the largest lines. Historically these tools were not small, some even exceeding 20-plus inches. This less-than-glamorous job is of the highest importance on any vessel from canoes to warships and the lack of it can cause serious issues. It is like a large needle of sorts, meant to work in between tightly tied ropes in order to loosen knots. The marlinspike is a linework tool and it is quite simple in terms of how it’s used. Marlinspike Need to loosen a mooring line? The marlinspike is your tool. The lack of a defined tip reduced the chances of injury as it couldn’t really be used to stab or otherwise harm by thrusting. The cleaver-like abilities of this profile, when combined with a thick spine, allows it to chop through thick line as well as be pounded through with a mallet if need be. The blade shape was perfected over time and was considered the best way to cut heavy lines. Long before this profile was in fashion for EDC knives, the sheepsfoot profile was used for cutting rigging. Sheepsfoot Blade A sturdy sheepsfoot blade tackles cutting and chopping tasks with easy, while protecting the user from perforating him or herself. Let’s take a look at some of the tools likely found on a modern rigging knife. As times changed, it was combined with similar tools that were also at one point their own thing. The earliest examples were of course dedicated to their task. The rigging knife has, like the penknife, been a multitool of sorts for generations. In its place, a smaller folding version became the norm. In turn, as line material changed from Manila and natural materials to nylon, large-blade rigging knives went the way of the tri mast. But, as time has gone on, the need for chopping through lines thicker than your arm has declined for most nautical enthusiasts. You are almost always better served by a heavy fixed-blade knife than by a small, delicate folder. The knife has not changed much in hundreds of years, a testament to how it was perfected before it became miniaturized and able to fit in a pocket. The simplicity of these tools has given them long life, and as a result, the knives are available in modern versions suited to our uses today. Together with the equally common marlinspike, it could be used to manage lines by cutting, splicing, and freeing knots. There is not a particularly well-documented history on the use of these knives, but by the Age of Exploration, the tool was quite common aboard virtually every vessel.īear bones, the rigging knife was designed to cut line. Rigging knives are a particular type of cutting tool developed in conjunction with sailing ships. Battened down the hatches, we’re going full-speed ahead talking about the sailor’s rigging knife!
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