Boat Hook Handle

[oldriverat]

I got me a bronze boat hook for Christmas. It calls for a six foot handle that has to have a degree of taper to make it float properly. I have no lathe. What would be a good way to do it?

[Bob Smalser]

I've coopered especially long ones using the bird's-mouth spar technique...but those need additional weight in the front end to float handle-up, which negates the weight saving.

Square up a length of 8/4 stock...I use WRC because it's light, easy to plane, and I have it on hand.

Make an octagon marker or just lay out the lines for an octagon on all 4 sides.

Plane to an octagon....including the taper to fit the bronze hook's socket.

Plane to 16-sided.

Sand, mount your hook with epoxy and bronze pin and finish.

Done that way, they float handle-up when tossed in the water.

[Caledonia]

Check out WB issue #169. There is an article there on building a wooden hook, which I built for my father last year. While it doesn't exactly help with the issue of floating a brass hook, it does offer a bit on the benefit of having a handle that is rectanular for the purpose of orienting the hook at night/underwater.

[Ian Wright]

Life is not that complicated. Buy a six foot pitchfork handle from your nearest farmers supply.
They come ready tapered and will float handle up just as you wish.

IanW

[Paul Scheuer]

I'd go with square- octa- /decahexa- gon. If there's a trick, it's to get the four flats perfectly flat so you can do an exact layout for the centers and corners of the octa. Likewise when laying out for the sixteen sides.

WB 176 is showing a shop tool for multiples, but you shuold be able to get good results from the shoe-shine-rag method. If there's a trick to that it's don't use an old, beat-up belt sander belt. Cut a new one and limber it up. You'll want to remove wood from 180 degrees using a vetical stroke, until the centerlines on the flats just start to smear. (That's why you marked the centers). Not too fine a grit, you'll do the final smoothing along the length of the handle.

If all this seems mysterious, try a test piece, but don't shortcut the layout steps.

And post pics.

[oldriverat]

Originally posted by Ian Wright:
Life is not that complicated. Buy a six foot pitchfork handle from your nearest farmers supply.
They come ready tapered and will float handle up just as you wish.

IanWMaybe I wasn't all that clear. I intend to buy a six foot ash handle but according to the diagram for the hook, it looks like it will need additional tapering. I was wondering how to do this without a lathe. I think I read somewhere that you can take a belt from a belt sander and turn it inside out and use a drill somehow but I don't remember the particulars. Thanks guys! smile.gif

[NormMessinger]

Son of a gun. I didn't know any better when I put a closet pole in mine. Seems to work okay but then I haven't tested it by throwing it over board.

[Jack Heinlen]

How good's your eye my son? You could just go at it with a spokeshave or block plane then sandpaper. The advantage of the eight siding, sixteen siding for a spar(and it's really necessary starting with square stock) is that it keeps the taper even. If it doesn't need much additional taper, even if your eye's not so hot, you probably won't screw it up.

I don't recall the details of that inside out beltsander belt either, but you should be able to polish this up in the time it would take to rig, assuming you've got a sharp plane.

[Bob Smalser]

I intend to buy a six foot ash handle... By the time somebody in my household drove the 24 miles to the hardware store and back for that ash handle, I'd have one made, mounted and the first coat of finish applied. And if the errand runner were the wife, then two coats of finish. ;)

[ 12-27-2003, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[oldriverat]

Only three or four miles to the store from here Bob. :D

[Meerkat]

Plus, you ain't got his shop setup! ;)

[jwaldin]

My Menonite grandfather taught me this on the farm.
I made new oak handles for a few large antique chiesels. Its easy-lightly tap the boat hook onto the handle. Rough taper the handle just to make a start. Lightly tap off the hook and plane/rasp/sand off the marks left by the hook. Repeat and repeat and repeat always watching that you're taping the hook on straight. In time you will have matched the inside of the hook perfectly to the outside of the handle. It takes a bit of time but you get a perfect result. When you have got the hook to where it fits the handle perfectly use expoxy or some such to secure it. There's probably a hole for a screw in the hook.
Don't attach a lanyard or line to the handle though. Thats how people get drowned.
To know where the hook part of the hook is in the dark put a small bronze roundheaded screw in the side of the handle facing the hook about where you'd be gripping it.

[J. Dillon]

I think Jack has the right idea. Just go at it by eye and hand. Unless you delight in mathmetical precision. Good luck and remember the "eye knows". ;)

JD

[Bob Smalser]

Plus, you ain't got his shop setup! Contractor's saw, jack plane, marking gage and Workmate.

[cbob]

Mike, an 8' mahogany closet pole from the lumber yard, floats ahndle up. Happy New Year, cbob

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I honestly don't think that there is any need to taper the handle beyond the point where the ferrule ends in order to get it to float vertically - mine do. I've got an ordinary 6ft job with a double hook, and a 10ft one that has a single hook and a point on the end for fending off lock and quay walls (only!)

What I would do is mark it at one foot intervals up from the hook. Useful for sounding.

[oldriverat]

Thanks again for the replies. Here's what I was talkin about. I found it on Payson's site.

8. Turn 60 grit sanding belt inside out. Tack inner tube on piece of closet pole with 1/4" rod in it... and go for it! You will be pleased with speed and results.

http://www.instantboats.com/images/oars8150.jpg

[ 12-27-2003, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Memphis Mike ]

[Meerkat]

Bob; Is a Workmate one of those B&D sexed up saw horses?

[Ian McColgin]

This is easy.

First, why the taper? So's the hook will float verticly when you drop it overboard. If you've a little loop at the end, it'll be easy to recover with your other boat hook. And even if not, it's easier to lean oput and grab something that's a couple of feet above the water. If you think you'll drop it at night, defance the nice natural finish with a bit of day-glow orange at the very end.

How to make it.

Start with square stock nicely larger than the socket in the handle. Like almost 2" if you've a 1-1/2" socket. That's if you want the outside of the bronze to flow smoothly to the handle. If you don't mind the bump of the bronze and if you want a lighter handle, start with stock about at the outside diameter of the socket.

Eight side your stock and then form the end to fit in the socket. I also have no lathe. Just whittle.

Pin the hook on temporarily and go down to the creek. Put the hook in the water. It will float on the surface, maybe hook a little down. Use your hand to bring the handle out of the water, closer to a verticle float, and mark where the center of bouyancy is.

That will be the fattest part of the handle. As you plane the eight siding to round, taper from that point both to the hook and to the handle end.

You'll be removing bouyancy at the hook end, helping that end to sink, and removing weight at the other end, allowing it to rise above the water more easily. Even though the centyer of bouyancy will be about 2/3 of the way from the hook to the handle end, it will not move too much in this double taper process.

Test the floating at regular intervals.

Before you're totally done, score (table saw kerf or whatever) a line in the handle starting maybe 2' from the hook and going up to 6" or so from the end. Arrange this line such that it's on the same side of the shaft as the hook. Now you'll know which way to hold it when you're grabbing at your mooring in the dark.

I've strong feelings on a righteous boat hook and handle. There's a guy that makes very nicely finished handles to the pattern used on some luxury yacht of the grand era. Quite nicely finished, but no score on the handle and they won't float verticlly. In my book, that makes them as functional as the aluminum boat hooks. And dysfunctionality makes it ugly to my, despite the superficial beauty that's rather like good makeup over an unhealthy skin.

Do it right and you'll have a thing of joy.

By the way, don't show off too much. I was showing off mine and sent it into a high javeline toss. It plunged, cleaving the water like a diver, and stuck in the muddy bottom. Had to dive for it.

G'luck

[ 12-28-2003, 08:22 AM: Message edited by: Ian McColgin ]

[Stargazer14]

...aint it funny how sumpin' as simple as fittin a tapered hole on a tapered pole can get such a
forum thread to grow so.... :rolleyes:

[Bob Smalser]

Yup...and I'll do ya one on my lunchbreak...but I'da never thought about Ian's sawkerf without reading his post.

Brilliant idea.

[cbob]

During WWII tens of thousands of govt. issue standard boathooks, everything from commercial ships lifeboats (Bailer, bucket, boathook etc.) to admirals gigs, had one or two of these, bronze or galvanized hooks, somewhat blunted points, fitted and pinned to ash handles, having the "kerf" smooth cut with a router rather than a saw, constant cross section, different lengths for different boats. These are still available, with a search, at those places that sell scraped ship surplus, like Waterman Supply. Mine is painted dayglow orange at the holding end tip, otherwise unfinished, as it has been for 60 years. Enjoy. cbob

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Saw kerf idea - very good, will copy. Thanks.

[paladin]

First one....
The part that took the longest wuz to drive to Deale to pick up a 1 x 4 x 8 foot Ash plank at the lumber yard.....on a Friday after coffee with a bunch of wooden boat nuts at Happy Harbor coffee Klub.......
Saturday...ripped the board into 4 pieces and epoxied a squared up 2 x 2 in about 20 minutes...
the following saturday..knocked off the corners and made a rough "round" and then sandpapered the profile as per woodenboat plans...1.5 hours....
Monday...mounted hook after CPES and clear epoxy coat, light sanding, then two coats of varnish..work...about 45 minutes...coffee breaks...24 hours.......
Made a mate the following Saturday......