Commando/Toggle Rope

A

asemery

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Aug 20, 2012
Messages
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This toggle rope is related to the soft shackle mentioned in the "Making cordage with a braiding disk" thread. I wish I knew more about this particular example I found at a yard sale. The seller only knew it belonged to her grandfather. The rope is a 8' long and 5/8" in diameter. I believe that it is manila. I knew that it was a commando rope from my scouting days in the 1950's.
If you google these terms you will find out a lot about this item. Boy Scouts call it the Buddy Rope and have found many uses for it. Tony
Toggle Rope
Commando Rope

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A toggle rope was part of the standard equipment of British commandos and the Parachute Regiment during World War II. It was 6 feet (1.8 m) long, and had a toggle at one end in a tightly fitting eye splice, with a larger eye at the other end. This enabled them to be fastened together to create an ersatz rope ladder, or to secure around a bundle for hauling, among other uses."

There are too many other uses to mention. Please Google either toggle rope https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=toggle+rope

or commmando rope https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=commando+rope
 
Great info, thanks. I still have the one I made as a scout many moons ago. Though my eye splices are not nearly as good as in the sample above!
 
My one spice left from scouting 40years ago. Made the rope too in the early 1970s at Camp Cherokee in the Ozark foothills outside of Hardy, Arkansas. It sits in a corner curio cabinet in my study.

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Hey Tony, thanks for posting this. Dave Canterbury has a video about toggles and in it he uses a toggle rope for a belt and a few other things.

I had never heard of the toggled rope before and so I searched as many threads as I could from the links you provided - very interesting.

I have an affinity for toggles and toggled knots and had posted a video about a few of them seen here, if you're interested. Scan down that link a bit further and you will see a makeshift Marlinspike (toggled) ladder we made.

There are also quite a few trap triggers that incorporate a toggle, including my favourite, the nail (read toggle) trap trigger.

Best thing of all? They're cheap, in fact, you can even say they grow on trees. :rolleyes:

Doc
 
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Thanks! There is SO much I dont know about knots and such. I probably just know how to tie my shoes and a slip knot. It is a huge blind spot for me. I just never got around to learning about knots and braiding. Any suggestions on a book I could pick up to get myself started?
 
rkmoore said:
Thanks! There is SO much I dont know about knots and such. I probably just know how to tie my shoes and a slip knot. It is a huge blind spot for me. I just never got around to learning about knots and braiding. Any suggestions on a book I could pick up to get myself started?
Click to expand...

While Ashley's Book of Knots is probably the bible of knots, it falls short in encouraging a person starting out (lack of step by step instruction). A couple of books I like for this are: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework: Over 200 Tying Techniques with Step-by-Step Photographs by Geoffrey Budworth and Top Seven Knots and the Use of the Windlass [Kindle Edition] by Mors Kochanski. I would have put links in but didn't want to be accused of deal spotting.

There is also a freebie at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13510/13510-h/13510-h.htm
and a ton of knot tying sites on line.

Good luck with it.

Doc
 
In Boy Scouts we all made one
With the Ash stave we carried we constructed all sorts of pioneering projects
 
My father was a Captain in the Merchant Marine and he told me the rule of thumb for splicing was that if the splice was twice as long as the thickness of the rope, then the splice was consider as strong as the rope, so a one inch rope, a two inch splice and the splice was as strong as the rating of the one inch rope. John
 
^^nice rule of thumb there. I am now going to have to learn how to splice things. I used a toggle the other day to hold a bag together when the zip broke. I just tied the toggle in there though, that is after using my gec to make it.
 
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