Howdy, folks! [:)]
I’m translating a local resin kit manufacturer’s product list and instruction sheets into English, and can’t for the life of me remember what we call the arrangements at the ends of wire tow cables…you know, the looped ends of the cables, or the metal devices that form “loops.” In “Japanese English,” they’re called “tugs,” but somehow that doesn’t ring a bell. I’ve scoured all my armor ref books, but I can’t find that particular item.
Yeah, I know…I do ocassionally find myself struggling to remember even simpler vocabulary than that! The other problem is that most of my ref material is in Japanese, so…
Eyelets? Cleats? Hmmm…Shackles are the U-shaped pieces of metal attached to the eyelets on the vehicle, I think…cleats are for tying up boats, no? Hmm…
The term for the device which forms the eyelet by clamping the cable together is called a swedge, even though the word does not appear in my so-called unabridged dictionary! [}:)]
The closest thing I could find in the dictionary is “cable-bend”, a word I have never used nor heard of. [%-)]
Swedge! That might be a little too specific, as it’s only that sleevelike piece that clamps the cable together, right? What would you call the whole assembly that forms the end of the cable?
We just called it the eye, as in loop that shackle through the eye of the cable. Tow hooks were the J shaped items that attached with the tow hook pin. Shackles were the U shaped items.
For German tow cables:
‘Thimble’ for the metal piece as per Jon’s post; and
‘Loop end or eye’ for the curved cable that is bent around the thimble
‘Sleeve’ is the term for the part that is clamped over the cable to secure the cable around the thimble. see:
Swedge is a new term for me, and a quick search raised no reference to its use as a term for a tow cable component.
For US Army Type solid end tow cables, they were/are called eyes as per Ron’s post and this pic:
Petbat; Swedge is a very obscure word. As I said, it is not even in my unabridged dictionary. It is also spelled swage. It is both a verb for the action of joining the cables together (swedging or more commonly, swagging) and another name for the sleeve which joins them. A Google image search will produce this;
