Grappling hook

“ The back of the Hook makes a good tack hammer; while the inside of the Hook forms a small but strong nut cracker. The Punch makes holes in harness, wood, &c., which can be enlarged by its sharp corners. ”

“ A particularly effective hook is the barbless hook, which has a sharp piece of wire fixed across the opening of the hook, making it almost impossible for the victim to get away after it has once impaled itself ”

“ It appears that when warding off a blow from a boomerang of any description the defence consists in holding forwards and vertically any stick or shield that comes to hand, and moving it more or less outwards, right or left as the case may be, thus causing the missile on contact to glance to one or the other side. The hook is intended to counteract the movement of defence by catching on the defending stick around which it swings and, with the increased impetus so produced, making sure of striking the one attacked. G Clubs and throwing sticks 4. ”

“ Our tackle box should contain an assortment of sizes however. Snelled hooks are better than ringed hooks and those of blued steel better than black enamel. No matter how inexpensive the rest of the equipment is, be sure that your hooks are of good quality. Keep the points sharp. A tiny bit of oil stone, a file, or a piece of emery cloth are all good for this purpose. It takes a sharp point to penetrate the bony jaw of a fish. Always inspect your hook after you have caught it on a rock or snag. ”

“ In the afternoon I drew a wire nail out of the chest, with which to make a fish-hook. The back of the axe formed a good anvil, and the shank of the hoe, the wooden handle being removed, did fairly well for a hammer. With these tools I fashioned the red-hot nail into hook form, using for tongs a pair of clam shells. I drew the point out sharp, bent the hook, and cut a barb over the edge of the axe. ”

“ The shanks of horse-nails make very good fish hooks. These, when filed down to the proper thickness, must be laid, one by one, in a narrow groove made in a piece of hard wood, and the barb struck up with a chisel or the sloped edge of a knife. One smart, well-directed blow on the instrument usually effects this. The point is now to be filed up sharp, the wire gently heated in the fire, and twisted with pliers—or, in the absence of these, a split stick—into proper hook form, when it is to be subjected to the case-hardening process. ”

“ Sticking a spear through the protruded tongue, or through the arm, is practiced, and so is hook-swinging—running sharp hooks through the small of the back deep enough to bear the man's weight—when he is raised twenty or thirty feet into the air and swung around. ”

“ Over the shafts there are windlasses, with stout ropes, and hooks attached to the ends for winding up buckets of dirt, and also as the only means of descent. Looping the rope over one foot by the hook, straightening your leg, holding on to the rope well above your head, the other leg hanging, you dangle down into darkness, bumping against the sides of the shaft, until the ground below suddenly seems to rise up and hit you, and you find yourself in a heap on the bottom. ”

“ HOW TO CHANGE THE RIGGINGS
When completing one side of a stack and in order to get the tackle to another position on the stack, twist the rope, making it all in one; then leave a little slack to make a snake whip movement towards the top, and you will have the satisfaction of seeing your rigging move around on the top. If the wind is blowing hard, perhaps you will have to do several of the switching movements before getting the hook to start to move. Then take the line around the guy wire and you are ready for the next set. ”

“ Then, getting cautiously over the edge, he seized the hook with both hands, threw his feet over it, thus swinging his body beneath it, and came down the pole and the rope hand over hand, like his agile namesake, amid the thundering plaudits of the multitude.
As soon as he was safely landed, the men at the rope braced themselves for a pull, and with a "Yo, heave, ho!" the whole side of the building was torn off and came over into the street with a deafening crash, while a vast fountain of fire arose from its ruins, and the crowd swayed back as the heat struck upon their faces. ”

“ There seems to have been a defect in the material, which caused the sharp point of the barb to break off, and which weakened the hook itself. This came from an early site where I have gathered many articles myself, and all are clearly prehistoric. The large copper spear figured by me for Dr. Abbott's 'Primitive Industries' came from the same field.
Yet I think the New-York Indians seldom used hooks. All the early references are to fishing with nets and spears; and our Indian village sites are seldom on the shores of deep lakes, almost always by streams, or near the shallow rifts of rivers. ”

“ I say, put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth and out at his gills, and then with a fine needle and Silk sow the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the armed wire of your hook, or tie the frogs leg above the upper joint to the armed wire, and in so doing use him as though you loved him, that is, harme him as little as you may possibly, that he may live the longer. ”

“ It is strange, that when so much of the angler’s pleasure and success depends upon the quality of his hooks, that more attention is not bestowed upon their fabrication. The art of forming, and the process of tempering them, appears simple enough; and that little difficulty is required to attain it, is evident from the fact that many fishermen make their own hooks. For my own part, however, I consider hook-making to be an unnecessary accomplishment for the angler, as the best hooks in the world can be procured without trouble, and at a trifling expense, from O’Shaughnessy of Limerick. ”

“ Finding they could neither make the heads of their lances nor of their arrows without the help of a hammer, they contrived to form the above-mentioned large iron hook into one, by beating it, and widening a hole it happened to have about its middle with the help of one of their largest nails—this received the handle ”

“ On slow wickets of all descriptions the hook-stroke is worth any other three for scoring purposes. Batsmen of the old school very much disliked the hook-stroke on principle. Many very fine batsmen are content merely to stop short straight balls, even on a dead wicket. Such balls, however, may be safely despatched to the boundary almost as easily as they can be stopped. The hook-stroke off short balls from a fast bowler, when the ball is coming straight for the body or head, requires some nerve. Many batsmen are simply content to get out of the way of them. ”

“ Such accessories as landing nets he leaves generally until he is grown up, and manages very well without them. He may, however, provide himself with a clearing ring and line, because he is likely to feel the Pg 70 need for these often. This useful clearing tackle consists of a number of yards of strong cord, to the end of which is fastened a heavy ring of lead or brass. If the hook should get fast in a weed or anything else, this ring is put over the butt of the rod, and allowed to slip down the line to the hook. ”

“ To take him with hook and line: a light rod, six to eight feet of line, a snell of single gut with a 1-0 Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hook and a bit of bright scarlet flannel for bait; this is the rig. To use it, paddle up behind him silently and drop the rag just in front of his nose. He is pretty certain to take it on the instant. Knock him on the head before cutting off his legs. It is unpleasant to see him squirm and hear him cry like a child while you are sawing at his thigh joints.
By far the most effective manner of frogging is by the headlight on dark nights. ”

“ Flatten a piece of 3⁄16-in. wire at the middle, and drill a 3⁄32-in. hole for the bolt. Shape the lower end into a pointed hook, and bend the upper end to form the trip arm. This strikes the notch in the cap of the derrick, releasing the hammer. The rope is wired to the hook as shown. The nipper weight is made of a solid piece of lead, 11⁄4 by 25⁄8 in., by 1 in. high, grooved at the ends to fit the guides. Cut a slot through it, for the hook, as shown in Fig. ”

“ They are generally iron-bound, and have a hook at one end.
A Tail-block is a single block, strapped with an eye-splice, and having a long end left, by which to make the block fast temporarily to the rigging. This tail is usually selvageed, or else the strands are opened and laid up into sennit, as for a gasket.
A Tackle is a purchase formed by reeving a rope through two or more blocks, for the purpose of hoisting.
A Whip is the smallest purchase, and is made by a rope rove through one single block. ”

“ At Limerick, in Ireland, the best of these hooks are manufactured. A hook, whose point stands outwards, ought never to be chosen, as it frequently scratches the fish without laying hold; if the points were somewhat shorter, and the barbs a trifle wider, the hooks of every maker would be improved. When hooks are blunt, a small whetstone will restore their sharpness much better than a file, which always leaves them rough and jagged. ”

“ The dancers flourished their knives, threw long sharp-pointed sticks forward, or drew sticks with hooked ends repeatedly backward and forward. Throwing the sticks forward was symbolic of piercing or warding off the enemy, and drawing them back was symbolic of drawing their own men from danger. The hook at the end of the stick was particularly well adapted to serve the purpose of a life-saving apparatus. The women always pointed their weapons towards the enemy’s country. ”

“ Figure 52 shows the finished hook with a dotted line drawn thru the center, indicating where the pull should come. In Figure 53 is shown a common fault when turning a loose ring at the end of [42] a bar, in not bending the extreme end first. Notice Figure 54, where the end is bent as it should be.
The expert worker in iron is very careful not to hammer mark and destroy the section of a bar. One should remember that bending a ring or iron hook is simply holding the bar on the horn of the anvil and striking the part that protrudes past it. Never strike the bar when it is directly over the horn. ”

“ As soon as you have made it spin, snatch the whip from under the arm, and give it a smart lash at the top, drawing the hand toward you as you strike. If you hit the top fairly, this stroke will make it spin well, and then you can do what you like. A way of fighting whip-tops is for two boys to stand about twenty yards apart, and lash their tops toward each other, so as to make them come in contact. Of course each player tries to knock over his adversary's top with his own. ”

“ The correct attitude for getting across the circle on this hop is crouching. Then, as soon as your left foot touches ground, you bring it swiftly backward, throwing the entire right side of the body forward; and you turn half around, so that the right shoulder will be in the exact direction in which the shot is to be put. After the impetus upward has been given by the legs and body, shoot the arm outward with all the force at your command, the motion being just such a one as you would make with the clinched fist against the sparring-bag. ”

“ FIG. 123.
If one hook of the pair is lifted and it is required to keep the same ends of warp up for the next picks, the hooks being connected round the pulley W, one hook going up as the other comes down will keep the harness cords stationary, and the hooks A and B can be lifted alternately one up, one down, without moving the cord E, which will all the time be keeping the warp ends up. The shed thus obtained is similar to that in a Keighley dobby; the ends, when once they are lifted, stay in that position until they are required to come down. ”

“ But Hocking takes up a piece, which he had laid ready, and, as the bark sheared by the canoe, he shot him, close under her side, in the head, so that he fell down dead instantly.44 One of his fellows, who loved him well, could not hold, but with a musket shot Hocking, who fell down dead, and never spake word. ”

“ This time he wears only the knee-hobbles, which allow him more play. Eight or ten men hold each of the ropes; his keeper sits on his head with a prod; another crew hold the rope attached to his trunk; and six or eight men follow with rattan whips. The men with the whips beat him continually. At first, in the excitement, he does not mind the whipping; then he finds the pain unbearable. The men on the trunk-ropes lead him about from right to left, while the men on the foot-ropes stand ready to trip him if he tries to bolt. ”

“ It is as old as boxing; indeed it is one of the natural movements of human attack. It was the leading blow of the Greeks with the brutal cestus, or armed glove. It is the very blow that a strong, ward, ignorant man would strike, and thereby disable himself—for the round blow, wrongly delivered, is far more terrible to the giver than to the receiver.
Formerly, boxers delivered the round blow almost with a straight-arm swing, some with the rVont knuckles leading, and some with the back, and some again with the thumb knuckle, or with the palm or "heel of the fist." ”

“ The glove can travel only five or six inches, and the body’s weight cannot in that attitude be swung behind the arm. I have seen in clumsy boxing a man knocked clean out by a blow on the back of the head or neck by an ordinary full swing, aimed for the jaw, which the victim has protected by bringing his head forward, but not far enough forward. But a man of Dempsey’s strength can make the short blow a very serious one when frequently repeated: and he repeated it many times on Carpentier.
Next he landed on the Frenchman’s body with both hands. ”