Beginner Friendly Splicing - How To Splice 3 Stranded Rope Together

Easy step by step instructions for splicing two ropes together using a short splice in this detailed knot tying video tutorial.

Splicing is a way of interweaving rope and is the strongest way to join two ropes, retaining 80 to 95 percent of rope strength. Splicing used to be a basic part of nautical, sailing and boating knowledge which is fading since you can buy marine ropes, dock lines and anchor lines pre-spliced,. Same goes with rigging and climbing ropes. You can DIY (do it yourself) and have the splice just as strong.

Three strand splicing can be done in nylon, poly, hemp, sisal, or cotton ropes, as long as there are three strands. Once you have finished the splicing procedure the three loose strands should be neatly braided into the standing part of the rope, with the ends heat sealed. If you want to get fancy you can whip the ends of the individual strands with common whipping and the whole splice can be whipped or tapered to finish.

If you are having trouble opening the strands a rope tool called a fid can be used.

Related Knots:

End Splice

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Splicing three strand rope is easier than you think. learn how in my most popular video.
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[webb-cast]

Excellent video! For the Americans doing this splice, labeling the strands with red, white and blue tape makes this splice even easier. You'll never have to wonder what strand is next. Thanks again for the fantastic tutorial.

[Alf_]

the ONLY splicing video that explains how to figure out how much length you need to give for your required number of tucks. thank you!

[Luiniliel]

Great and easy to follow. Used it for the sisal rope I needed on my cat scratcher where I wanted to avoid staples or glue undoing right in the middle of the stand. 👍

[highanddryful]

A very clear and thouraly illustrated tutorial, thank you mate for teaching this technique. I weave polypropylene doormats from reclaimed cray pot rope and always either melted two lengths together or put two ends parallel and clamped it with a C clip. Your splicing has created a much desired look to my completed mats. Thank you.

[TheIsraelMendoza]

English is not my mother tongue, so I came here to visualize and internalize the term "splice", because I'm also learning JavaScript. Now, I will never forget what this means, and next time I hear saying this word, this video is what is going to come up in my head... Cheers!

[CaptVideo]

Absolutely wonderful! Exactly what I needed and in perfect detail and good video to see what you did. I spiced a 3/4 inch nylon rope for 30 inches just to be safe. For me the job was harder because the rope had been strained enough to partly fuse the 3 strands to each other where it broke. I had to pry them apart before I could weave the strands together. Thank you!!!

[LifeFourPointZero]

Great video and very clear. It's a nice way to extend a dock line, or repair around a worn section.

[marlenh.]

Super, danke für die einfache und logische Anleitung. Endlich habe ich es verstanden, auch wenn mein Englisch katastrophal ist. 😀

[nrg_junkiii]

Thank you!! Been fishing for years but you explained it so much easier 💯

[kalebhowatt]

Incredible guide thanks a lot very easy to follow along

[donnatilyou]

Thank you sir so very much for the time you have given to create this tutorial.

[jun-junbulusan]

You re the best..very easy to follow, , thnks

[Queer_Nerd_For_Human_Justice]

I went from zero to being able to splice. Thanks!!

[acesrichie]

Cheers pal. Just did my first ever splice. So satisfying ! Very clear instructions, good job.

[stevenmccrickard]

Excellent tutorial, thanks for the content.

[cerberusbonsaiarboricultur]

Thanks a lot for posting, so many of the end-to-end 3-strand videos are silly-long!! I nailed my 1st one, should probably lock-stitch it but I just used elect tape at the ends, wanted to see what kinda 'pull' it has in real life use am expecting to be lock-stitching it soon!
Am back on this vid as that 1st one was 1-of-2 lengths of 3-strand that I wanted to make little anchor-slings out of, I'm using a 'rigging ring' type of eye/thimble and I'm inserting it by 'brummel' type pass-throughs of the rope IE literally just pegged in place by the rope's desire to not un-do itself (a phenomena that acts stronger the more it's pulled!)
Am stoked to have done a different type of splice, had been eye- and back-splicing a bunch of double-braids lately so it's interesting trying something new!! Next up, once I can get an answer/find a specific product, want to get the most-dynamic 12-strand hollow braid rope (like Tenex/Yalex, just not an HMPE/poly product but rather nylon or nylon/poly mix), especially interested in making sliding-splices IE yippies/loopies, whoopies, 'Ultra-sling' type stuff!

[mothermidwife]

Thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 We get 2 tutorials in 1 (construction knot and splicing), and a bonus: a beautiful Aussie(?) accent to listen to ☺️

[fpdnflo]

Спасибо за видео! Видна работа профессионала. Ничего лишнего, всё в точку.

[TheClayone]

Thank you soooo much, fabulous instruction and a great way to save a lead rope!
Good day!

[onoahimahi]

Nice video- thanks for reminding me how to do this. I did it a little differently this time, however. Instead of doing five sets of tucks for each side, I did ten sets of tucks on one side which saved a few steps. The two ropes had the same diameter so the result should be equivalent.