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We get calls from customers who don’t know if they are looking for straps or webbing. The difference is akin to line and rope….

My father used to explain that a line is rope with a job. Dock lines are made from a coil of rope, as are anchor lines, guy lines (for your tent) and lead lines for your horses.

Straps and webbing work the same way. Straps (at least the ones we sell) are made from webbing. We sell bulk webbing should you want to make your own strap(s).

As with everything there are exceptions. Years ago I used to sell “crab line”. What the crabbers were buying were coils of rope but it was still called crab line. Metal banding for securing cargo to a pallet is often called strapping even when sold in bulk.

In my world, once I have done something to a piece of webbing it becomes a strap.

The other day while wasting some time I was wandering through a sporting goods store and what did I run in to? MOLLE

MOLLE was everywhere-

On the side of a Yeti cooler bag,

On a Field & Stream backpack,

and on another Field & Stream product.

MOLLE needs a friend to work well and we have the Talon Hook

an easy, adjustable way to connect 1″ webbing to the loops on your backpack, cooler bag or whatever.

We have Talon Hooks in stock, order some today

Get nylon webbing wet and what does it do? Shrink. Does this matter? It depends on your Coast Guard inspector.

Years ago we used to service inflatable life rafts. For quite some time a US Coast Guard inspector would spend all day at our shop overseeing what we were doing. Generally they knew what we were supposed to do and stayed out of the way unless they saw something questionable (either with the raft or our work).

Seattle was a training port so there were times we would get untrained inspectors. Either they used their time to learn or once in a while we would get someone who wanted to make our life difficult. One day we had one of the latter classification and he checked the rafts out we were working on, regulations in one hand, tape measure in the other. He came across an older raft that had been stowed in a very wet place on the vessel. The inspector went around the raft measuring the distance from the exterior grab line to the floor. When new there is a specification for this distance but on this raft the grab lines were too far off the floor.

The image above shows the black webbing grab lines and how they are supposed to hang down.

The inspector told us that he would not certify the raft until we had moved all the grab lines down so that the distance would comply with the regulations. He did not understand that nylon webbing shrinks when it gets wet, and this raft had been really wet. Also missing from his understanding was the specification was a manufacturing spec, not one for a raft that had been in service. Still he would not accept our reasoning and once again informed us that we must rectify the situation.

Several phone calls later the head of inspections in Washington, D.C. set the new inspector straight. He signed off the raft and we never saw him again.

So if you are designing a strap where the length is critical, consider the environment it will be working in. If you are using nylon webbing and it is going to get wet, allow for shrinkage.

  
Walking in Seattle I noticed that someone had used a few ratchet straps to hold up a tree. I don’t think this would have come to my mind if I had to guy a tree but it sure works. 

We sell stainless steel ratchet buckles and can make them in to your strap of choice. To hold up a tree you don’t need much fancy end hardware, sewn loops will do the trick.