Review: Fishbones - Fishbone gear ties

Having covered the most excellent Piranha (which was their v2 product, but I got those first), I wanted to give the little sibling a trial before showing them to you, to get a better feel for their utility and differences.

These are the Fishbone gear ties (v1). You can see from the picture here that there are in fact three metals offered 1) 6061 T-6 Aluminum 2) 304 Stainless Steel and 3) Titanium. The aluminium and steel versions share the same exact geometry, where as the titanium is a little more "rounded".

The guys from Fisbones were good enough to send me a few of each to play with, but I've mostly focused on the steel ones. Why three options? well, in their own words:

Aluminum:

• Resists corrosion
• High strength to weight ratio
• Can be anodized in different colors
• Non-magnetic
• Nonsparking
• Light weight

Stainless steel:

• Resists corrosion
• Bright appearance
• Normally non-magnetic
• Great fatigue and impact resistance
• Durable

Titanium:

• High strength to weight ratio
• More than twice as strong as aluminum
• Almost half as light a steel
• Non-magnetic
• Excellent corrosion resistance

Measuring in at 14mm by50mm (½" x 2") and 3mm (1/8") thick, the Fishbones are smaller and thinner than their bigger siblings, weighing in at 3g  for aluminium and 9g for steel. When subjected to strain testing (by the makers), the aluminium slightly deforms at 36kg (80lbs) and has major bending at 72kg (160lbs) Note: projected total failure is only (135lbs). The stainless steel Fishbone only took a slight bend at 72kg (160lbs) in initial prototyping. Subsequesnt  That's a fairly impressive static load for a gear tie. Obviously, as with the Pirahna, these are not climbing rated, but for tying down gear, rigging tent flys or washing lines, that is heaps. 

As with the Piranha there are numerous ways to tie and apply the Fishbones. I especially like the detail given by Brent and Eldrick in their Kickstarter proposal in their examples of how to use them.

The geometry of the Fishbone lends itself to tie-downs, with a wrap and tuck type locking, using a Prusik-like friction bind on the paracord, and sharing the load between the ribs of the tool.

The eye-hole, and "gill-slot" give solid "head-forwards" ties, whilst the forwards facing pelvic-fin and ventral ribs before the tail fin give you three separate attachment points. On the dorsal side of the Fishbone, there are four shallow notches, and one deep one, all allowing purchase of your cord, and letting it bind tightly in a variety of configurations.

One of the things I really liked about these, are the clean straight lines, which enabled me to rig them to act as a zipper pull without having to worry about snagging, in such a way that I could also quickly detach them and use them to rig a line, or tie a bundle.

The stainless steel versions acted as a nice plumb-bob when rigged correctly, the nose pointing down, in a clean straight line.

I usually have a couple of lengths of 40cm paracord in my pocket, and idly fiddle with these at meetings and on the train, working out new combinations of ties and looking for new uses. Alas I had oped that the tail would fit into the A/C vents on my train, to enable me to latch myself in when there was no hand-hold but no.

I've found the Fishbones to be very handy little gadgets to have on hand, especially when, as often happens, I have had to bundle something up that I know I will need to unbundle shortly and quickly. Blankets, jackets and jumpers. Tactical Baby's favourite woobie and the like.

I think these will make a good addition to my cord and carriage kit, giving me quick-release tie options, and keep all my things snug and squared away without having to worry about knots binding up and keeping me from my fit when I need it. They make great gifts too!

Unlike the Piranha, the Fishbones didn't interlock neatly, so a 'head to head" clasp wouldn't work. No great loss though, there are plenty of other options.

The guys behind these even posted their original concept built to Instructables so you can have a go at making your own low-strength wire prototype version.

Review: Fishbones - Piranha

Yes, here I am again with another Kickstarter project. I'm actually reporting this one out-of-sequence, as through some kind of fulfillment time warp, this is the second of two projects that Brent and Eldrick Garcia put forwards. The first being their very cute "Fishbones" but I haven't had a chance to properly review those just yet.

These are the "v 2.0" product, the Piranha "Knotless gear tie"

As you might have noticed, I am rather enamored of paracord and so should you be! It's great stuff, but one of its great advantages can also be a disadvantage. It holds great knots! Sometimes trying to pick apart a tightly cinched knot can be very arduous, and Brent and Garcia came up with a very elegant solution with their Fishbone tools.

The Piranha is the result of a number of design stages, and really offers great utility as well as a great aesthetic.
Cut from 3/16th" thick 304 Stainless Steel the Piranha measures 60mm (2 1/4") from lip to tail, and 28mm (1 1/4") from crest to fin. There is also a titanium option, for the mass-conscious.

It fits nicely into  MOLLE channels, with the dorsal fin hooking neatly over, and being held in place with the tail-fin notch. I found that that tail-fin notch was a snug fit for Type 111paracord, which proved to be very useful in snagging and camming the cord into place.

Speaking of camming, it is worth noting the Fishbones teams own warning about these devices

"Note: Not for climbing or load bearing applications where failure would cause damage or injury."

So, with that in mind, lets have a look at some of the fun things that you can do with them.

The stonewashed edges of the steel are smooth and rounded,  having been sharp cut originally, but that significantly bites into the cord, so the current models are rounded to avoid this.

You might worry that the rounded edges would slip and not hold the loops, as seen above, in a top and bottom view of one of my preferred hitches, but they hold fast.

The two hook gaps are sized to interlock, giving you a solid connection of two ends of cord if you prefer.

Splicing two lines together is also a breeze with the Piranha, simply by winding one through the other, friction will hold  the lines together, even once tension had been released. Again, here are top and bottom views of this splice.

This was a really nice way to link two ends of cord together, without adding a knot that would likely bind and bite, making undoing troublesome.

One of the things I liked about the balance of the took, was that the "tail fin" notch allowed a loop to be fitted snugly, and dangled to make a fish hook. I successfully snagged and hauled my Bullock Echo from one of its D-rings through this method. For extra security,  I could have threaded a leader through the keychain opening, but that hole is too small for paracord, unless you are using the inner cord after gutting it.



 I also found that I could set three lines simply by using the dorsal notches which gave me a no-slide anchor from which I feel would give a very adequate hold for a tent guy rope, or any other three way roping you might need.

The versatility, small size and light weight (well, at just over 25g per unit in the 304 stainless steel) means that this is going to find its way into my EDC in no short time. If nothing else, they feel great in the hand or pocket, and gives me a fidget-focus when I need to keep my hands busy.

The hook gap also doubles as a bottle opener, adding some multi functionality that I really appreciate, as well as the other uses that the guys behind the Piranhas have already stated.

One of the awesome things that they offered is a quick summary of some modifications that you could apply to the Piranhas. I'm going to give a couple of these a try (and I'll get back to you with how they turn out ... )

 I also found that I could wrap the Piranha around an already strung line, given sufficient slack, to give a mid-line attachment option. So many options, such versatility. I'm also going to cover their original Fish Bones and the heavy-duty Snapper so stay tuned!