Finishing a net handle

[Hovis]

Wagtail,

This is easier than I though it was going to be I simply heated it up until it was almost too hot to handle over a camping stove and rotated the cane, it was then a simple case of bending it over my knee before it cooled.


I'll post a few pics shortly

[Nailbourne]

It depends on how pernickety you want to be, and how straight you want the finished cane. I find that, at the nodes, there can be quite a sharp bend, and the cane in between can be gently curved.

It's worth making up a simple jig to apply pressure in specific places - an upright with a hole in it, and a sliding block as a fulcrum. You can vary the force applied more easily with this, and you don't run the risk of burning your hands or your knees!

[MGs]

I just fixed one end in my workmate vice, heated the bent part with a paint stripping heat gun and bent it back into shape. Keep the gun moving to avoid scorching.

[Wagtail]

Thanks guys. I tried the heating method and all was looking good to start with. I don't know if I applied a bit too much heat, or pressure when bending, but halfway along the bamboo it folded and split Still the good bit will still make a nice bankstick, and really the bamboo needed to be a bit thicker diameter to be right for a landing net handle, so I will look out for another cane

[Nailbourne]

Here's a pic showing shrink tube on a whole cane shaft:

Before fitting the tube, I glued a disc of cork over the open end of the cane, and blacked it with a permanent marker. Placed the piece of shrink-tube on the cane, overlapping the end about 5mm.

Used the oven grill to shrink the tube - haven't got a hot-air blower! Rotated it steadily for a minute or two until the tube had shrunk tight on the cane. The overlap shrinks right around the cork over the end, giving a nice finish. Now needs to be varnished.

Total cost - cane, 15p (garden centre, cut to length and straightened), screw-in ferrule, £3.99, shrink tube, £2.

Incidentally, I'm going to try an old steel shaft from a golf club for a short trout-net handle.

[Kingfisher]

Looks lovely Nailbourne. Where did you get a screw in ferrule if you don't mind me asking?

I once read that you could make these by Aralditing a 3/8 BSF nut into a brass tube.

[Nailbourne]

I bought it (actually, four of them) from Peter Johnson, who bought a lot of Ted Oliver's stuff. He sells on E-bay as 'faldocourt'.

He's more than happy to be named in the new 'Resource Directory', so I'll put his details in when I'm soberer!

As you say, it shouldn't be too hard to fabricate one -Araldite is pretty good, metal to metal, so long as you give it a 'key'. Rather than use a hex nut, might be better to drill and tap a bit of brass rod, cut to length, and glue that into a brass tube. Squires, the model-making suppliers, do tubes and rods that telescope into one another. Depends what metal-working experience you have, and tools available.

The hardest part is to find anyone who can supply 3/8" BSF studding! Best solution I've heard of is to use 10mm threaded rod, and turn it down with a 3/8" BSF die - the pitch is the same.

The things we do for our hobby!

[Nobby]

There is a 3/8ths BSF studding supplier, but only in stainless steel.

[Nailbourne]

Here's another couple of pics of shrink-tube. As mentioned in an earlier posting, I was going to use cork on a short bit of split-cane (an extension to my split-cane landing-net handle), but decided against it. Because the cane has a flat-to-flat diameter of 3/4" at the end, there'd be little cork left. So I used shrink-tube again, in exactly the same way as I did for the whole-cane handle.