Sleeving

From KiteWiki

Usually made of Dacron, this is a woven tube of polyester material that slides over the ends of a kite line to allow it to be attached to the kite and handles without risk of the knot slipping, and to protect the connection from wear.

When you tie a knot in the line when covered with sleeving, it loses virtually no strength at all. If the sleeving is the right diameter, it grips the line along its length under load, and also increases the radius of the bends in the knot so as to not strain the line. That is why we sleeve lines. Stitched sleeving is questionably a little stronger, but the real benefit is that there are no large knots to get bridles caught on, so when you re-sleeve, do it at the handles end of the line.

--Badger 22:04, 12 October 2007 (BST)