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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Skipjack's NEW Mariners Fid

Skipjack's new Mariner's fid available in brass and stainless steel.

New to Skipjack- Our high quality metal fids.  Designed having a flattened side to a tapering point, our fids can be used for loosening wire cable but can also equally be used for loosening larger rope knots. Available in solid brass or stainless steel, each comes with a generous width hole to attach a lanyard. The round top is decorated with embossed crossed anchors. Measures 8 1/4" long and 3/4" in diameter at widest (not including top) and weighs 11 ounces (brass and 12 ounces (stainless steel). A great size to handle with tough projects and for working with most line width's used aboard today's yachts.  Makes a great gift for your special mariner!

Close-up view showing flattened point and hole for attaching lanyard.
NOTE: Fids are usually referred to as being made of wood or bone and sometimes whale ivory. Fids for working fibre rope are usually wooden and have a wider taper to open strands sufficiently to permit passing strands through when splicing. Metal fids for wire cable are less widely tapered, as the strands of metal cable are thinner and need less space to tuck when splicing. Marling-spike or marline-spike (as we refer to today as a marlinspike), is always made of metal. Marling-spikes are used for working small stuff, like marline. They can also double as fids for freeing tight knots, opening ring pinned shackles, and for splicing wire cable. When used in this manner they are typically referred to as FIDS and not marling spikes.


Embossed cross anchors on top of fid.
 These exceptional quality fids are now available at Skipjack Nautical Wares. Follow the link here for our brass Mariners fid and the link here for the stainless steel Mariners fid.