Hi all
Can someone enlighten me on the pros and cons of single vs multiples strands wire for rigging ?
Which is best ?
I generally use multi strand.
it is more tolerant to abuse and doesn’t kink as easily as solid wire.
once you kink a single strand, usually in transit or storage, it WILL be weak and usually breaks. generally at the worst possible moment.
Appart from this nasty problem, single strand is easy to use and work with, and more readily sourced from stainless mig wire…
Cheers, Neil.
The best I’ve found is Steelon leader wire, available in the fishing supply section of the outdoor store. It is a stranded, nylon coated, stainless steel material. The nylon coating makes it a little stiffer than uncoated stranded, making it much less susceptible to tangling, but without the kinking problem mentioned by Diversion.
It is available in various breaking strengths; I prefer 45 lb.
–Doug
If you can get stuff from the fishing supply places (Cabela’s, Gander Mountain, etc.) you will probably also see a lesser cost. Once you move to hobby shop it seems prices magically increase for same product.
This phenomenom isn’t restricted to models either - we find cattle and human over the counter medications much less costly than equine as well. Same product, same use, but less cost. For whatever reason, if they market it to horse owners, the cost goes up.
Like many things - due diligence in finding sources of supply will result in costs savings. Also, amazing how some items not intended will work somewhere else.
Thanks for the advices which somehow confirm my own impressions
You can easily make a loop and node using o pair of pliers with single strand while you’ll need some “crush sleeve” with multilple, but multiple strands are more flexible and will ususally fail in a more predictable way.