[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]Recently I read a thread here that said "Fireline … rated at 8 to l0 lbs. … but in reality it is a lot stronger than the rating."
Claims like that have often intrigued me as to why someone would think that a line is stronger than it's advertised rating. I was in Sportsman's once when a salesman made similar claims that "even though it is rated at 14 lbs., you can't brake it".
I always had doubts about those claims of lines to be stronger than their ratings. So I decided to do some actual strength/brake tests. I took a round dowel and wrapped several wraps of 14 lb Berkley Fireline around the dowel and then took the other end of the line and wrapped it several times around the hook of a fish scale. With the help of the Sportsman's salesman, I slowly began to apply pressure by pulling the dowel away from the scales. Sure enough, the line broke at 14 lbs. … not 13 … not 15 … but at 14. We then tried it with a couple other test strengths and found that they too would break at the advertised strength.
That all makes sense. Why wouldn't a manufacture rate their line higher if it did in fact hold at a higher strength?
Also, those home-grown tests that I did had the line wrapped around round surfases (ideal connections). I think if you were to field test lines using knots rather than several wraps around an ideal round surface, you would probably see that breakage would probably occur at 10 % less than the advertised strength.
However, these braded super lines do cut through brush, twigs, and fingers much better than mono.[/#002850][/size][/font]
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I could be wrong but believe this is covered under warranty issuses. What ever the product might be whether rope , chain, cable, fishing line etc... they will rate it lower than its actual break strength to be able to avoid warranty claims
BTW, simply being wrapped rather than tied, where did the lines break?
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Very interesting Ralph. I have always thought as you said that it "won't break or is heavier than it says". I use Power Pro almost exclusively and it too seems that it is stronger than it says. I'll admit, most of it is 50# test, but it casts like a dream. Thanks for the crude test and results.
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Good post Ralph! I think that I had myself believing that it was rated lower than it really was due to the fact that I've never had a breakoff with it. In contrast, I've had a lot of breakoffs with mono, but then again, it gets little nicks and scratches in it, and it becomes very weakened where the braided line doesn't. Good test!
Randy
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You are not the only one who did this test. When I was back in college we had to design a physics experiment. We used line's actual breaking strength compared to the rated pound test. We did the experiment very similar to what you did to avoid knots which would influence the breaking strength. At the time (1986) we were all Stren users. The strongest line we tested was Trilene XT. It sucks for casting, but for brute strength, this was the strongest. We tested Stren blue, Stren yellow, Trilene XL, Trielene XT, Bagley's Silver Thread, and K-Mart brand line.
In that same experiment we also tested fish hook strength. We used the same style of hooks that we were using for Steelhead and salmon fishing with spawn. They were short shaft regular hooks, without the barbed shank. We tested Eagle Claw, Mustad, Gamatsu, and K-mart brand. Far and away the Mustad hooks were the strongest. Interestingly all hook broke and didn't bend. But with a short shaft I guess I would expect that. At that time we didn't have the "2x" or "3x" strength hooks, these were simple, plain hooks. We tested the hooks by tying 50lb mono to the eyelet and then another piece of 50lb mono to the bend of the hook to which we added weights until the hook failed.
Anyway, we were just a bunch kids trying to make physics fun yet learn something more about fishing.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#002850][/#002850][/font] Also, those home-grown tests that I did had the line wrapped around round surfases (ideal connections). I think if you were to field test lines using knots rather than several wraps around an ideal round surface, you would probably see that breakage would probably occur at 10 % less than the advertised strength.
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[/#002850][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Adevertised test strength does not apply to knots. That is why there are so many different knots claiming to have the best "knot strength". It's two very different issues. A knot will always be the weakest point in your terminal tackle set up.[/size][/black][/font]
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[black][size 3]Since all if not most fishing line makers want to sell as much as they can, they usually seek out professionals to advertise their product. That includes sponsorship and entries in recognized fishing tournaments. If per chance a world or state record were attained by one of their fishing line sponsored anglers, the line could be tested for that specific species record. In order to qualify for that record within the line designation catagory, the line has to meet certain requirements for test strength. The alternative is disqualification for consideration of that species' record.[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Here is an excerpt from the Official IGFA rule book regarding line testing:[/size][/black]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 1]LINE TESTING[/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 1] [left]IGFA tests all line and tippet samples submitted with world record[/left] [left]claims in accordance with the metric line class designations, which vary[/left] [left]slightly from the standard U.S. customary designations. For example,[/left] [left]the U.S. customary equivalent of 4 kilograms is 8.81 pounds. Thus, line[/left] [left]designated by the manufacturer as 8 lb class line may test up to 8.81[/left] [left]pounds (4 kg) to qualify for an 8 lb line class record. The U.S.[/left] [left]customary equivalents in pounds for the metric line classes are as[/left] [left]follows:[/left][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 1] [left]Metric U.S. Equivalent[/left][/size][/font][size 1] [left][font "Times New Roman"]1 kg 2.20 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]2 kg 4.40 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]3 kg 6.61 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]4 kg 8.81 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]6 kg 13.22 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]8 kg 17.63 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]10 kg 22.04 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]15 kg 33.06 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]24 kg 52.91 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]37 kg 81.57 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]60 kg 132.27 lb[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]Line and tippet samples submitted with record claims are uniformly[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]tested in accordance with Government specifications, which have been[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"]modified and supplemented by IGFA."[/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][/font] [/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]Here is the link that this came from[/size][/black] - [/font][url "http://www.igfa.org/BookRule2004.pdf"][font "Times New Roman"][black][size 4]CLICK HERE[/size][/black][/font][/url][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][/font] [/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]This basically breaks down to this. If the line maker wants to be considered as a contributor of the equipment that caught the record fish, then their line has to test at or under the line limit for that line catagory. I.E. - If it is labeled as 8 pound test, it has to have a breaking point of 8.81 pounds or less. Line makers can not afford to misrepresent the breaking strength of thier lines by under or over exageration as to it's official test strength.[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font] [/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][size 3]When hearing about a line that is stronger than the labeled test strength of any fishing line, you can almost be assured that it is just another "line" being offered by a uninformed sales clerk.[/size][/font][/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font] [/left] [left][font "Times New Roman"][size 3]One last point, the test strength of a line is measure for the line as it was fabricated. That does not include the environmental factors that the line is subjected to - i.e. knots, nicks and water absorbtion of the line itself - all of which can affect the line's actual strength. [/size][/font][/left]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]Good point BLM. I used to make sure my leader was of a lower test than my main line so that if I snagged up I could break off without loosing any of my main line. I've done it that way for all my fishing years until this year when the light bulb came on and I realized that the test of my leader didn't mater in that regards because a break off would occur at the knot anyway because the knot is the weakest link.[/#002850][/font][/size]
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Old Coot,
I think you and I were made from the same mold. I have recently been doing similar tests with all kinds of lines--braid, wire, mono, floro, etc. I have beeing doing it the same way as you with a heavy fish scales. I have also been testing knot strength on different knots and have started to keep track of my results to try to find the best knot-line combinations, etc. I have a couple of books on knots and wanted to put some of the knots to the test--like the bimini twist which they all claim retains 100% of the line strenght (which, according to my own test, seems to be true). Anyway, someday when I am done (in like 10 years) I will post my findings if anyone is interested.
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If you read most packs of line it said that it is 20lb but 6lb diamater or some place it will say 10 lb diam. but brakes at 50% stronger...
One of the few lines that puts the true lb test on the spool is Andy line and in 99%of all test done by the IGFA was found to be what the spool said it was....
I hate to be fighting a fish and have the line brake case the line mite be stronger or weaker then what the spool said it was...
And I want 6 lb line not 6 lb diam.....
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