how were pullthroughs made?

[skiprat]

Has anyone out here got any information on how the standard pull through was made?
Were they all spliced by hand (a lot of small sore fingers)
or was there a machine that could automatically splice the eye and inline loop.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

Pullthroughs as well as the spliced rope handles on the ends of hundreds of different types of chests, including the Bren were made by prisoners for pocket money. Two prisons that are known for this were Winchester and Portland. I know this from a former worker at Elliots of Newbury who made Bren chests (they also made Horsa gliders among much other stuff) as they used to receive sacks of handles to fit the chests and the handles were strung together using pullthrough material. I THINK that these prisons also made the gun ropes for 25 pounders

Amazing....... another piece of total Enfield related crap that I'd learned along the way and never thought that I'd ever pass on. It just needed some to ask the question........

[skiprat]

That's a lot of man hours... just think of the amount of pull throughs that have been made... 1 eye splice and two inline splices, with small pieces of hemp rope.

I'm sure with practice and time ( they had nothing better to do) they could rattle them off in short time.. but I don't think they could be made today at a competitive price.. as surplus ones are selling for £5-£10 including weight..

[Flying10uk]

The rope making facility a Chatham Historic Dockyard is an interesting place to visit. It still makes rope with vintage machinery as a commercial enterprise or it did when I visited the place a few years ago and it's customers include the Royal Navy.