How to Make an Eye Splice

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You can save a few bucks by making your own dock lines, but the real win in learning to make an eye splice comes from personal satisfaction, and the ability to tailor line length and loop diameter to your liking. It’s a great off-season project that comes down to “under standing.”

1. Count 16 “crowns” from the end of the line and wrap with masking tape. Unravel the strands up to the tape. Wrap tape around each of the three strands, forming points.

2. Form an eye to the desired size and mark the closing point with a felt-tip marker. Lay the unraveled end next to the standing part of the line. Place the center and left strands over the standing part in preparation to begin. Leave the right strand alone for now.

3. Tuck the center strand under any strand on the standing part. Tuck the left strand under the upper (toward the loop) adjacent strand. Tuck the right strand under the lower adjacent (toward the end) strand from underneath.

4. Continue with four more tucks, always placing each strand over the nearest strand and under the next strand of the standing part of the line — ergo “under standing.” Snug up the tucks as you go to keep it tight and tidy.

5. Trim the excess taped length of each strand and seal with a hot knife, butane or propane torch or a lighter. Be careful of hot ends and dripping nylon. Once the ends have cooled, rub the finished splice between your palms to even it out.

Now that you've mastered the eye splice use our video below to create your own rope-to-chain splice.