I bought some 1/2 cable 200 feet for $158 what do you all.

I bought some 1/2 cable 200 feet for $158 what do you all. I posted two pictures of the cable in the help identify. Which snatch block do you all recommend? The tag says 6 X 25 whatever that means. I beleive I made out good on that price. Thanks for any and all help.

My dad had a similar cable. We used it when cutting down trees that were leaning over fences etc. to pull them back with a tractor after cutting them most the normal way. Didn't have a "snatch block" just hooks clamped on each end. Used a ladder to get the cable a little ways up on the tree trunks. Worked well, dad sold it at his auction and regretted it later.

I'm thinking the 6 X 25 refers to 6 wraps of 25 wires each. There are many ways that cable or wire rope are made, usually to a specific purpose. Go to Mcmaster.com and enter wire rope or steel cable, I think that is where I read the referances on this.

McKissak (sp.?) makes an excellent snatch block. I've used mine for 40 years. There are 2 kinds of cable; wire rope, which is stiff, and winch line (soft-laid). Was a good price if it was winch line.

6X25 means they used 25 wires to make one stran and then 6 strans to make the cable.

To tell if you made out well on this cable you will have to run a test for us. Take a cotton rag or old tee shirt in your hand. Now lay the cable in the rag and pull the cable threw your hand. You need to do the whole cable. If at any point the rag sticks to the cable and gets pulled out of your hand the cable is junk. You have just found some broken wires and that is what caught the rag and pulled it out of your hand.
I would really question why anyone would sell this size cable for such a price. I am willing to bet it is old cheery picker cable that has a bad spot so they replaced it.

We talked about snatch blocks in your last post.
I do not feel you are up to buying a block big enough to get full pull on this cable so you will have to decide how much pull you want to exert on the block and buy one that matches.

Lets take a example.........
You want to pull 20,000 lbs. This cable will handle that straight line so that is not a problem. The problem comes in your tractor may not exert this much pull. So you get a single shive snatch block. To pull the same 20,000 lbs your tied off or dead end of the cable will feel 10,000 lbs; your tractor will only need to pull 10,000 lbs but the block will feel the whole 20,000 lbs. So as you can see the snatch block is the factor and needs to be of the best quality.

It gets even more complicated when you have 2 snatch blocks and loop the cable more times. While the tractor will have to pull less with each loop; and the cable can be smaller because each loop carries less weight; The pull is still the full amount on the blocks.