fish hooks

[your_comforting_company]

I always wonder what more I can do with the parts of an animal normally thrown away. the legs are usually discarded but it's a good source for flexible bone to be carved into all sorts of things. The leg skins are very attractive, tho a little difficult to flesh well. The hoofs make excellent sheath tips and buttons for flap closures. leg bone for knives, scrapers, etc...
I have split the toe bones for projectiles before and always have some from skinning and I just had a little time to sit and play. These particular bones have aged in a dry closure in the dark for a while. the marrow-grease tans the bone from the inside out and turns it yellowish, while the environment draws the moisture outward and away, leaving nice flexy soft bone. its easy to carve and work when done this way and doesn't seem to be as brittle.
So I had a fire going, tossed a pot of water on top of the stove, tossed in some toes for a little while, took 'em out and scraped them clean with my old hick. I looked at them for a while, turning them over in my hands, really getting a feel for the shape of the toes. After careful deliberation, a few ideas came across me.

this is the toe-tip.
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fishing line is sinew I twined. I'd guess it a little more than 1/16". should hold a small cat.
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this is half of the middle phalange. did you know deer have 3 bones in their toes too? I saved the largest bone for later. I'll take some pics of the process while doing that one.
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[crashdive123]

Nice work as always.

[Ted]

Your just way too cool bro! Nice work!

[Rick]

If the world ever craps out can I come over and play? You do some fine work. Very nice.

[gryffynklm]

Great pics, glad you're back in the picture.

[hunter63]

Hey, Pic's cool!
Nice job, don't let anything go to waste.

[hunter63]

YCC, I suppose you have seen this site or one like it, if not you seem to be bang on.
http://www.woodcraftwanderings.org/fishing.html
For every one else maybe you get some pointers

[Camp10]

Nice work!

[your_comforting_company]

I snapped a littlehip hawthorn branch on the last weekend of hunting season. the thorns seem a little brittle, but I'm gonna make one of the rose-hooks described there pretty soon. thanks for the link hunter. that gives me some good shape ideas!

[oneraindog]

nice stuff man thanks for showing us.

hey can you tell a little bit more about your method for cleaning the toe bones?

i was gifted with a lower deer leg and im wondering how best to clean it to get at the bones especially the tiny ones in the hoofs. i boiled them for a while but that didnt seem to make it any easier to get the cartilege and tendons off. really tough stuff. just have to work at it?

[your_comforting_company]

sorry it took so long to answer.

to remove the hoofs, boil some water, stick them over in it for about 30 seconds, take them out and twist. they'll just pop off, dew claws too, save these for decorations or rattles.
skin the leg bone down and remove the tendon sheaths carefully, theres a lot of valuable sinew bundles in there. it's layer upon layer of sheaths and tendons. The sheaths make some decent hide glue, btw. scrape off everything you can but the really tough spots just leave.
store the bones in a dry cool place and let them dry completely.. this does something to the bond between the "stuff" and the bone. then when you boil them it comes off like rubber glue with a dull knife or scraper.
an alternative, but rather stinky is to macerate the legs.. make them rot in water.. pretty nasty stuff.. I like the drying/rehydrating method lol.
oh yeah, the needle bones are behind the dew claws if it's a front leg.

heres my composite hook. littlehip hawthorn barb, tied on with sinew and sealed with pine pitch. works on the gorge principle, notice the offset eyehole. barb is just to hold the bait and I'm thinking of modifying it to have a barb on itself. I can't wait to try some of these things when the dogwoods bloom
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[Durtyoleman]

yes I have fished with gorges, homemade hooks and even the old standby...a safety pin, successfully. No i didn't land any whoppers with any of the above but all worked for food. I was a bored kid when I tried the macrame t-pin and safety pins and pulled up bream in a florida ditch, the gorge was a stick from an oak with the tips sharpened to a point in louisiana and it pulled in a small catfish (it was covered in a homemade doughbait) from the muddy Mississippi.
D.O.M.

[oneraindog]

YCC thanks for the info.
to be more clear i had already taken off all the tendons, gotten the sinew and contributed the sheaths to a hide glue pile in class.
i was more concerned with all the small bones from the wrist down.
i jumped the gun and just buried them in the yard. let the earth do some work on them. im not in a hurry so ill check on them in a couple months. or weeks?
i would like to try and get a fine needle out of one of the bones. do you think one of the small foot bones would work after being buried in the ground or will it get pourus? i have the main bone still. made a hide scraper with it. maybe i could just crave off a slice of that to make a needle with?

[your_comforting_company]

if you have any extra leg bones, they'll give you the best long straight piece. break it like you would an awl and use a long shard and grind it down. I don't know about burying the bones, but the toe phalange bones are a bit too fat for needles... more suitable for hooks. the best bones are behind the dew claw. I'll dig up a pic for ya soon.

[panch0]

That is cool, I can imagine an ole boy in prehistoric times catching a five pound bass with one of them. Nice job!

[Rick]

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