Carving a Net Needle (Alox Farmer)

[pict]

I was recently given a Vic Alox Farmer and it has become my new EDC knife. The Farmer is a very strong knife and has a good assortment of tools for bushcraft or wilderness survival. I thought I'd give it a workout and carve a net needle.

If you have never carved a net needle they are a lot of fun. They involve all sorts of cuts with the knife and several other tools on a SAK. I think it is a much better test of a knife than just making fuzz sticks or a figure four. This afternoon I recorded the process on video and compressed it down to show all the steps and types of cuts in five minutes (including one break to stop the bleeding).

Mac

Carving a Net Needle

 

[tenkara]

That's great! I grew up using net needles for my shrimping cast nets. It's a very handy tool. It would be neat to see your needle used to make a few nets. The process is always interesting.

 

[Shotgun]

I just got a Farmer recently too and I'm liking it much better than my Wave. It just carries a lot nicer both in size and weight. Cool carving project too. It came out nice.

 

[kgd]

Very interesting stuff pict. Glad I'm not the only one injury myself on such a regular basis

 

[Carolina River Rat]

One of the best knife-use vids I've ever seen. That ranks right up there with the guy over on the HI forum fileting a salmon with a khuk. Great vid, Pict.

 

[pict]

I'm pretty good at making cordage so the next natural progression is to learn net making. Once I learn how I'll make a video.

I have an ulterior motive beyond bushcraft. In Brazil part of my duties are maintaining a Sports Center. We have a court totally enclosed with nets and the soccer goals have nets that need replacing often. Behind the goals in the covered court we have huge nets to keep the balls from hitting the metal walls and annoying the neighbors, or flying outside on the other end. When I say I want to learn net making I mean it in a big way, they cost a small fortune to replace and they are made of really inexpensive plastic cord.
I figure a huge roll of that cord would cost a fraction of the actual nets and we have the space to make them. It would also be a skill I could teach these kids that would make them some money.

This is our covered court and you can see how much net we use. The open court behind it is completely enclosed with the same type of netting. Mac

 

[HikingMano]

That video was awesome :thumbup: I must say that was the most relaxing few minutes of my morning.

 

[pict]

That video was awesome :thumbup: I must say that was the most relaxing few minutes of my morning.

Thanks, that's what I was going for. When I put all the clips into moviemaker it was about a half hour of video. I just clipped together each of the different cuts and cut out all the repetition. Glad you enjoyed it. Mac

 

[Guyon]

(including one break to stop the bleeding).

You edited out all the cursing.

 

[hdglock]

Its funny, I just watched that video about 5 minutes before I logged onto the forum today.

Nicely done

 

[pict]

You edited out all the cursing.

Actually I didn't edit out cutting my finger. It happened with the saw cutting down to the first hole. As it broke through it nailed me a good one. Mac

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Hey Mac, didn't see the video (computer loads too slow), but if you want to learn net making, let me recommend Netmaking, Charles Holdgate, Emerson Books Inc., 1972, SBN# 87523-180-2 Quite often it is available for about $10.00 from the used books store.

It was originally written to teach public school teachers, how to teach net making to their students. It teaches the basic netting knot (sheet bend) and progresses through a series of projects of ever increasing difficulty (actually, the word 'difficulty' is overkill in this case ) and with each project, introduces another aspect of net making.

I used this exclusively to learn how to make nets, and it was quite an enjoyable experience. A couple of examples:

Doc

 

[theonew]

Nicely carved, nicely presented, thanks a lot for that :thumbup:

I may have to direct people to that vid when the question of 'What's so great about the farmer?" pops up again

One knifenut question, how would you describe the sharpness of the blade before and after?

 

[pict]

Doc,

Very cool net projects. Thanks for the heads-up on the book. I need to pick up a few good books before I head back to Brazil, that will certainly be one of them.

Theonew,

All I had done to the knife was knock back the factory edge with my fine EZ-Lap stone. I normally use a hard Arkansas and then finish on a strop. It is still plenty sharp. The wood was pine so it was fairly soft. Mac