FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 527 



teenths of an inch; at twenty-eight inches six-sixteenths, 

 and so on till, at the extremity, it is but two-sixteenths or 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter. 



Having marked the plate precisely as shown in the dia- 

 gram (fig. 19), and that very legibly, go to the next tin-smith 

 and have him cut out the piece of marked diagram from 

 the plate, reducing it to the appearance shown at fig. 20. 

 You have in this simple device, a gauge of your rod from 

 butt to point, and one of the chief difficulties is over. As you 

 taper the wood under your hands you can bring it to gauge 

 by passing it into the slit to its proper number. Thus at 

 seventy inches in length it should be one-fourth-inch in 

 diameter, and so on to the end. 



The wood will come to us in square strips. Bore two 

 holes right through the butt-end of each strip, so that 

 when planing, the end can be slipped onto a pin driven into 



^ 



Ob 



Fig. 21. 



the table or bench (see fig. 21. A, pin; B B, holes;. 

 You can then plane from you, and will find it much better 

 than if the upper end were fixed against a stay. In the lat- 

 ter case the wood (especially lance-wood) is apt to bend and 

 get out of line owing to the pressure exerted upon it in push- 

 ing the plane. 



First, plane one side perfectly smooth, then plane the 

 opposite side; next take a right and then a left side, and so 

 plane that a true square is preserved, no matter what taper 

 is arrived at. You want a tapered square for the first joint 

 that at the butt will just go in the gauge at the half-inch 

 mark, and at the other end will fit just short of the forty-two- 



