Actual deaths involving suicide clips

[krawlings]

+1...For Swedish Snap hook , Google Image keeps pointing me in the direction of a Swedish blondshell standing at a street corner and flimsily dressed...

look under dog sledding spring snaps . you will find them there . the item is used mostly in sledding

 

[Akimbo]

For the sake of people reading this who are unfamiliar with the phrase, here is a photo of a suicide clip:



They go by tons of different names but are characterized by a hook with a “safety” lever held closed by light spring pressure or deflection. I had one on my weightbelt for years and can attest that it has inadvertently clipped on line a number of times. I just reached down in unclipped it, but it was definitely a potential problem that could have escalated into dangerous situation if several other things went wrong at the same time. The only reason I didn’t change it sooner is it was welded in to the D-ring before the belt was built in the early 1970s. I have since replaced it with an open bale swivel $nap shackle.

There are other good hardware solutions. I use Spinnaker Shackles (pricey), Fixed-Eye Panic Snaps (much cheaper) and Swedish Snap Hooks with Panic Button (my favorite, when I can find them, but very expensive). These all beat the crap out of snap bolts, unless you're cool-aid inebriated.

Spinnaker shackles, also known as snap shackles, are expensive but readily available. Do you have links for Fixed-Eye Panic Snaps and Swedish Snap Hooks with Panic Button? I have been looking for what I suspect you call a “Swedish Snap Hooks with Panic Button” with no luck. I only saw them in the North Sea and they had overlapping hooks similar to a trigger snap but were much more secure. Here is what I call a trigger snap:

 

[Cave Diver]

There are other good hardware solutions. I use Spinnaker Shackles (pricey), Fixed-Eye Panic Snaps (much cheaper) and Swedish Snap Hooks with Panic Button (my favorite, when I can find them, but very expensive). These all beat the crap out of snap bolts, unless you're cool-aid inebriated.

That's quite the interesting discussion you got yourself involved in regarding this 5 years ago.

 

[Akimbo]

I wouldnt use spin shackles, if you want to its fine, but being a sailor for 27 years I wouldnt trust them to open for the type of attachment he is talking about, cant say I have experience with your other 2 options but I doubt they are better than what is already out there.

Snap shackles have been the standard for attaching umbilicals to surface supplied divers in lightweight helmets and masks since the 1960s. I don’t recall hearing that one ever failed or accidently released, even though I have seen some divers put release lanyards on them that were about 12" long. It would be melodramatic to say my life has depended on them, but having one accidently release wouldn’t be good.

 

[Akimbo]

That's quite the interesting discussion you got yourself involved in regarding this 5 years ago.

Got links?

 

[Cave Diver]

Got links?

Why bolt-snaps? - DIR Explorers

 

[Thalassamania]

Yeah, the final outcome, as I recall, was the the cool-aid club felt that standardization was more important than using the best item for the task. That was an outlook that I simple can not abide, believing as I do in using the best tool for the job. For example, I could not imagine using a bolt snap to secure an umbilical to my harness. This was my introduction to how Doing It Right had as much to do with conformity to a social norm as it did to sensible diving practices. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

I don't have a photo of a Swedish hook, in fact I lost my last one and need to find some more. They are expensive, about $25 a pop. They look like a Swivel Hook Trigger Snap, but rather than having a "trigger" they have a recessed button at the hinge that releases the jaws, jaws that are sping-loaded in the open position.



Here's a panic snap:


Here's a spinnaker shackle:

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Ignore this, please.

 

[Cave Diver]

Yeah, the final outcome, as I recall, was the the cool-aid club felt that standardization was more important than using the best item for the task.

After reading that entire thread, I thought it was a pretty good discussion. I got the impression that several people thought it was a good solution for the highly specialized type of diving that you were doing, but that it was overkill for their normal diving and included a couple of downfalls that made it substandard for their application.

 

[Akimbo]

Yeah, the final outcome, as I recall, was the the cool-aid club felt that standardization was more important than using the best item for the task…

After reading it, I would have to say: Good summary. I’m not especially fond of bolt snaps either. Just to continue the pictorial, here is a bolt snap:

…I don't have a photo of a Swedish hook, in fact I lost my last one and need to find some more. They are expensive, about $25 a pop. They look like a Swivel Hook Trigger Snap, but rather than having a "trigger" they have a recessed button at the hinge that releases the jaws, jaws that are sping-loaded in the open position…

Swedish hooks sound a lot like the safety hooks I used in Norway except they were steel and large — like 5 tons plus. A small stainless version would be excellent. A lot of fixed and swivel bale snap shackles run $35 and up so $25 isn’t bad. Please let me know if you find them.

I have never used a panic snap, are they available in stainless? This whole naming thing with snap hardware makes me nuts. I Googled: “panic snap” “stainless steel” and came up with links to snap shackles.