[EricH]

Originally Posted by amesmich

Those exact rules seem to give permission to have the last 4 inches as NOT flexible and being a exception to the requirements of the rope itself thus a ring allowed. I guess its a Q&A thing.

I cannot read the rule that way. The last 4 inches are allowed to have anti-fraying measures added. Having a ring in the last 4 inches would not be an anti-fraying measure.

The way I break it down is:
-entirely of non-metal fibers
-[that are] twisted, tied, woven, or braided together
-except for the last 4 inches of each end, which may be whipped, fused, covered in heat shrink or tape, or dipped in a coating material to prevent fraying.

Basically, you can make a rope out of non-metal fibers, and the whole thing needs to be together using legal methods, but in the last little bit you can add something to keep the whole thing from coming apart.

The real question is, how does a splice count?