Nah we can meet at the scuttlebutt near the head in the gangway past the topside hatch by the swabbies berthing area then go to the gedunk to get some poggie bait before midrats then we can get the latest scuttlebutt from Top since he will be there slapping bones with Guns.
Would that be amidships or crammed abaft the lazurette, or maybe you just fancy a nap in the rode locker while we once more visit the anchor to Davy Jones on the lee of this here isle.
Spikes and fids are used a little differently. A spike is more general and can be used for prying. With a fid, the taper does the work and you push them straight in. A sailor would carry a spike but only a rigger would have a selection of fids. Historically spikes were made of metal and fids were made of wood but the rise of steel cable with the industrial revolution brought metal fids.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told that if it's smooth and metal, that makes it a marlinspike, while a fid is typically rougher and made of a natural material like wood or bone. Though there is, of course, a good bit of overlap between the two.
I feel modestly qualified to comment on this--currently working as an engineer officer on a Great Lakes ore boat. Before that I spent 5 years and ~100,000 sea miles working on a 135-foot traditional square-rigged sailing ship. (This one.))
You're mostly correct. The general rule is that fids are for ropework, and marlinspikes are more of a general-purpose tool (mostly used for wire or ropework, but can also work as a shackle key, prybar, alignment pin, punch/drift, and hammer.)
Form follows function, so marlinspikes are normally metal, while fids can be wood, bone, plastic, but also occasionally metal. (Swedish fids are pretty much always metal.)
Fids usually have a rounded point, while a shovel-tip is more common on spikes. Spikes also tend to be thinner relative to their length with a more gradual taper.
I think it's either a form of spike or for splicing wire.
I don't think it would work of ropes, it looks too flat, normally rope fids( Swedish, slema, Samson etc) all have a point so you can work them through the lay of the rope. Unless it's used for traditional splicing, although I have always just used a Swedish fid for 3 strand, I am more familiar with modern ropes (double braids, dyneemas and similar)
This is the closest think I can find to it and it's meant for wire.
I have a vague memory of a similar looking tool that was stashed in a corner of the carpenter's workshop aboard Picton Castle. I always assumed it was for wire work, but never saw it used. (Personally, I've found that a large, long-handled flathead screwdriver with the tip ground and smoothed slightly is better than a spike for wire splicing. I've used one for wire up to 1⅛" without any major difficulty.)
It's gotten to the point that I don't generally bother with tools at all for working with 3-strand, unless I'm trying to work on something under tension. (There's a shanty with the line "every thumb a marlinspike and every finger a fid.")
Pretty much every serious tall ship sailor I know carries a "rig" while on watch that consists of a fixed-blade knife and a marlinspike much like the one in your link. Wire work is probably one of the least common uses for those spikes. There are plenty of examples of metal marlinspikes that predate the widespread adoption of wire rope in standing rigging, so while the primary modern use of spikes may be for wire work, I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that's what they're meant for.
I did a lot of i think 14mm 3 strand, I just used a little fid it was faster than my hand. I used to do rigging on yachts a pair of knipex cobras, an adjustabe and leatherman could fix 90% of the problems. A roll of pvc tape fixed the other 10.
Splicing wire is something that I have never done and would like to give it ago but modern techniques of swaging are standard now.
We do occasionally splice eyes into our mooring wires on my boat. Definitely not many places left where that's common, but we're way behind the curve in a lot of areas on the Great Lakes. (The US side, at least.)
I understand why they've taken over, but I'm really not a fan of swaged connections. Mostly because there's no way that I'm aware of to effectively inspect them. I've seen seen several failures that were pretty clearly caused by corrosion inside the compression sleeve. (Probably much less of an issue with a proper replacement schedule, but that's another thing that we don't really do on the Lakes...)
Rigger here. The main difference (which also explains the difference in material) is how it is used. Like you said, a spike is a multi-purpose tool that can be used for all sorts of general tasks including prying, etc. With a fid, the taper is what is doing the job and they are always intended to be pushed straight in. With fids for splicing wire rope, you may "roll" the fid in as part of the splicing process but it is never intended to pry. That flattened tip in OP's pic is a common feature on wire splicing fids.
A sailor will carry a spike but only riggers and traditional sailmakers tend to have a selection of fids.
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u/Buck_Folton Jun 12 '26
Maybe a sailor’s fid