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Netters
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ...
In article , Pete C wrote: No, not nutters - we have plenty of them. Out of curiosity, how many people make nets? I made a pea net c. 30 years ago, and it is expiring, so I am making a few more. That's partly because I plan to grow quite a lot of climbing vegetables next year. I don't make my own bird nets, as that's too much like hard work! But pea nets, with their wide mesh, are quite easy. I find that quite interesting. Would love to know material used and method. Instructions with pics on some web space would be nice It's easy to show and hard to describe. I learnt from a little booklet ("Knotting and Netting (Graft Handbooks series)" by Leslie Woollard. It's available secondhand, online. But, as others say, there are also Web pages. I don't bother with a square net (as used for tennis), as a simple diamond one is much easier and good enough. I start by tieing the initial loops to a length of dowel using clove hitches and a 4" gauge (i.e. a piece of hardboard 1-2' long and 4" wide) and then use a 6" gauge for the real net. Both gauges are trivial to make, but should have their edges smoothed. I got my current twine from Bridport nets. The best is probably 16z, but I got 2mm because I wasn't sure exactly how heavy 16z is (and still am not). My previous net was 1.2mm, which is too thin. I made my own netting needle, which is double-ended (it holds more), somewhere halfway between the first and the stick shuttle in the second: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL38759.002 http://halcyonyarn.com/weaving_shuttles.html http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL38759.002 The latter is about the same size, too. It's not hard, starting from a thin piece of hardwood. I had to do that because, at the time, you couldn't buy them for love or money (and nor could you buy rope hammocks, which is what I first used it for). Regards, Nick Maclaren. =========================================== I was evacuated to Beer in South Devon during the war and used to watch the old fishermen repairing their nets. Learnt how to do it then but that was a 'few years ago'. I was fascinated by how they pulled it out to keep it tight as it was growing or being prepared. Held out by hooking it over their big toe!! Mike --------------------------------------------------------------- www.friendsofshanklintheatre.co.uk www.hmscollingwoodassociation.com www.rneba.org.uk www.nsrafa.org |