Re-slinging rigid stem cams, am I gonna die?...

So I recently got a hold of 4 rigid stem friends, and the slings needed some TLC. I got these guys for 5 bucks a pop, and the cams themselves are in very decent shape. That being said the dirt bag in me really does not want to spend more money on re-slinging the cams than I paid for them.

Basically, what I am wondering is if its considered acceptable (and fundamentally safe) to just take some 5.5 titan spectra cord and tie a double fisherman and call it good? In the attached picture i used some cord I found lying around my house, but it just shows the idea of what I'm talking about. If anyone has some ideas on the best way to re-sling cams like this i'd love to hear them (excluding the obvious option of sending them out to a shop)

Thanks

Youll be fine

use a triple fishermans with spectra

Slinging friends with cordage was the original way they were used.

I'm still here, so I can attest that it works. Early stoppers, hexes, and tube chocks used cordage safely for many years.

I've used supertape with a ring bend knot, but these tend to come untied so you have to constantly check them.

You should consider whether spectra is the best cord to use. Kevlar was the strongest and really popular when it first came out, but then it was discovered that it would weaken rapidly when fatigued by continued bending, as in tying knots.

I'd just do a little research and put the largest cord that will fit the size hole in the stem.

Here's an interesting web page with images of how "it used to be done." Many of the early "hard" free climbs were led on this type of gear."

needlesports.com/NeedleSpor…

YER GANNA DIE!!

Hey Arlo, thanks a million for the input and links, I really appreciate it.

I'm not sure of any other cordage that's surpassed Titan cord for slinging rigid friends. You'll be fine, just make sure to use a triple (not double) fisherman and leave plenty of tail - at least 3". Also, replace it more frequently than you would think to with regular accessory cord.

9/16" supertape or 12mm ultratape (nylon/spectra blend) is probably a bit better and would last longer, but would require that you send them out for bar tacking.

Robbie Brown wrote:YER GANNA DIE!!

Yeah, but it doesn't matter how many cams you'll sling, you'll die only once!

You'll be fine. $5 a pop is a great deal. I'm pretty sure the first RSFs I bought years ago came without any cordage at all. We'd typically sling them with tape and a ring bend.

I still have a set of RSFs that I now use as duplicates for my C4s. They are all slung with Maxim Tech cord as "Gunks Tie Offs" with triple fisherman's knots. I use longer cordage than what is usually shown because I use only the Gunks tie off - nothing on the end of the stem.

WC Gunks Tie Off

WC Forged Friends Hints

As far as Kevlar vs Spectra vs Technora, here's something I wrote over on RC. com Tech Cords

D.Buffum wrote:Why not just girth hitch an 8mm Mammut sling to the cam? Would the hitch weaken the sling too much?

A Basket Hitch might be better. I've done that with TCUs.
dmmclimbing.com/knowledge/i…

Looks like you have a # 1 ridged stemmed friend among the mix be prepared to get it stuck, the shaft and the cam sizes when closed are very close easy to over cam then no room to work the cam loose. I have found more # 1 ridged friends stuck than anything else.

+1 for the "Gunks Tie off"

wivanoff wrote: A Basket Hitch might be better.

This is how I've reslung my old rigid friends. I also slipped a tube of 1" webbing over the sling to protect it from abrasion, as I first saw it done here:
kakibusok.plus.com/Equipmen…
Here's what that looks like on one of my cams:





The caveat here is that you must never ever clip into just one loop of the sling. For this reason, I have a policy of never removing that biner, and I make sure anyone else using my gear is aware of the unconventional setup. This isn't always ideal, but I'm happy with it.

Hard Landin' Brandon wrote: I also slipped a tube of 1" webbing over the sling to protect it from abrasion.....The caveat here is that you must never ever clip into just one loop of the sling.

Good idea.

Similar thing here. I added a bit of my blue and yellow plastic ID tape to keep the loops together as shown on the yellow sling. Prevents clipping only one loop.
The red vs yellow is kind of a before/after taping.

Locker wrote:Those open slings probably cost more than a resling would cost.

That's probably true, Locker. I just happened to have some laying around unused.

There's also the idea that some places won't resling gear that they deem to be too old.

Locker wrote:Those open slings probably cost more than a resling would cost.

True. The cost is comparable, so the OP isn't saving much if any money this way. In my case, I didn't want to miss any climbing while my cams were in the mail, so I started looking around the house for ways to resling. I suppose it has also been convenient to be able to remove all the soft goods when cleaning the cams.

I still use rigid and old "flexible" friends, and also have a bunch of earlier gen C4 camalots that needed reslinging.

Mountain Tools did a first class job reslinging all of them, and it was cheap and quick.

mtntools.com/cat/rclimb/cam…

I think you're referring to your knot as a double fisherman and there's a post suggesting you use the triple fisherman. The triple fisherman doesn't technically exist (you can wind it around as many times as you want and call it a quadruple fisherman, etc., whatever, but there's only a single and double for arguments sake) so I think you need to beef up your "double" by making it a "triple" and call that shit good.

Arlo F Niederer wrote:Slinging friends with cordage was the original way they were used.

They were originally sold unslung, but everyone I ever saw just used 1" webbing. The only folks I ever saw use cord were folks from the Gunks, and they threaded it through the holes halfway down the stem for horizontal placements (but still used webbing at the bottom of the stem).

Back on topic though, you'll be fine. Half of my cams are still rigid friends and I'm still here. As long as you're smart with your placements, they won't get stuck any more frequently than your newer ones.

I still have original solid stem Friends that are slung with 1 inch tubular webbing, tied in water knots. Works fine, saved lives and held falls for the 80's so why not today?

My original larger nuts and Hex's were all slung with cord versus sewn slings and I never had any issues with them in the 80's and I'm still here!

I just slung six of my old black diamonds with some of those mammut extendos I call turd slings