Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: fishhook & line and hammer/tommyhawk

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    San Antone for now
    Posts
    5

    Default fishhook & line and hammer/tommyhawk

    It wasn't nothin' too impressive, just some stuff I've seen in books & such. I basically just wanted to see for myself how easy they would be to do.
    A couple months ago, I was in Eagle Pass, TX, & I wanted to try to make a fishhook & line.
    There is a plant/bush/tree here with long 1''-3'' thorns. They even got thorns growing off of the thorns. Anyway, I cut with my small pocketknife, the stem 1'' above a 1'' thorn and cut the stem at the base of the thorn. So I had a L shape. The stem being the leg & the thorn being the foot. The stem & thorn, being green, were easy to bend without breaking. I bent the thorn up towards the stem and wrapped thin strips from a yucca leaf around the bottom to make it stay. So now I had a surprizingly durable V shape. I know it more'n likely would come apart when introduced to water, but it would be okay, I'm sure, if you was to put animal grease or wax on it. (I was just in a reletive's backyard so my choices in supplies were limited. Plus I was only fartin' around anyway.)
    Now for the line, I just took lots & lots of thin strips from the yucca leaf. (The strips actually require some patience and gentleness to coax from the leaf in any useable length.) I just braided them together. A regular ol' three strip braid. (the only kind I know how to do.) and as I got to the end of the strips, I just spliced in new strips. This also made the line stronger because only one strip was being spliced at a time, because the strips are gonna be all different lengths. I ended up with about five feet of surprizingly strong "twine" I guess you could call it. I could've have broken it, but it was a lot stronger than I thought it was gonna be. It would definitely pull a fish up to ya. It also occured to me that a lot of these "twine" lengths could in turn be braided together to make a perfectly good rope.
    I then put the twinw onto the hook by wrapping the yucca leaf strips around the twine & the top of the hook. This, too, would need some kind of waterproofing, but it sure did stick. I know it weren't nothin' to do flips about, but I was pretty impressed with myself.

    The fishhook & line took me I don't know how many hours. But the hammer/tommyhawk only took me about 20 minutes. It ain't the most durable, but it's pretty good for 20 minutes of experimenting. The only tool I used was a small antique hatchet. I cut a 2' long piece of greenwood from the brushpile, about 2'' diameter. (It was hard to make a strait cut that I needed with the hatchet. A saw would've been much better) Anyway, I located a suitable stone. Circular, 5'' around & apprx. 1 1/2'' thick. I put the hatchet blade in the middle of the flat cut & gently hammered on it with another stone. (In this the thing I was concerned about was that the wood would not split down the middle, but off to one side) But it did split down the middle, luckely. I only split as far down as I needed for a opening at the top for the rock. I held open the split with the fat part of the hatchet and put the rock in as I took the hatchet out. I went around to the front & took some young shoots from the willow tree & wrapped 'em around where I thought it would be good to hold the rock in place. The thing looks like a 5 year old did it, but it's still pretty cool. It would be a very effective throwing or hammering weapon. And it took hardly no time or exertion.
    Well if you read all this, I hope it wasn't a waste of your time. Hopefully, it was entertaining in the least. Nice to meet all ya'll.


  2. #2

    Default

    Congradulations on your first attempt, it is good to try new things, you will never know how many times in your life thes attempts you made will base decisions in what you are going to try, or put your hand too.
    Later on if you have to make a stone hammer, you will already know splitting the stick is not the answer for a mounting a stone to make a hammer.
    I will give you a hint, consider a material that is plyable when wet, but shrinks when it dries. Maybe a 3" wide piece of green hide wrapped around the stone head, and handle, tie at the end of the handle. take a thin strip of green hide and start wrapping it around the handle working towards the stone till wrapping is against the stone, tie it off, set the works in the sun to dry and shrink trapping the stone on the end of the handle.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •