marlin spike

Noun

marlinspike (plural marlinspikes)

1. A tool, consisting of a pointed metal spike, used to manipulate the strands of rope or cable when knotting and splicing.
   • […] the afterguard, of whom they have but a sorry opinion, chiefly landsmen, never going aloft except to reef or furl the mainsail and in no wise competent to handle a marlinspike or turn in a dead-eye, say.1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.