SOMETHING WORTH LEARNING. 



black ink, forms a good winter stain, and there is also a brown 

 ink wbicli is useful for the same purpose. For the green stain 

 there are Judson's dyes, or green tea, or the water in which a 

 piece of green baize has been boiled. 



Every pike-fisherman should be able to bind on a triangle 

 to a piece of gimp. The process is simple, and, when once 

 acquired, not easily forgotten. First remove the wire from the 

 end of the gimp for ^in., and pull the floss silk, which is thus 

 bared, between the shanks of two hooks of the triangle, as 

 shown in Fig. 18. Then commence the binding at the end of 

 the shank, until the top of the brazing is reached. Lay the end 

 of the tying-silk (A), or thread, along the shank, and, keeping it 

 there, take three more turns with the binding B, C, at each 

 turn passing the three hooks of the triangle through the loop 

 B, C, D ; then pull the end A tight, and the binding is com- 

 plete. It should afterwards be touched with shellac varnish 

 (shellac, six parts; spirits of wine, eight parts; gum benzoin, two 

 parts), and put in a dry place. This varnish is very useful for 

 all kinds of bindings; it dries very quickly, but should never 

 be allowed to touch water until 

 at least twenty- four hours after 

 it is applied. Articles recently 

 varnished should never be put 

 in a damp place. 



I have recently bound on a 

 few triangles with very fine and 

 soft copper wire, first waxing 

 it like silk. It mahes a capital 

 binding, so far as I can see, is 

 as neat as silk, and quite im- 

 pervious to the teeth of pike. 

 I have known the silk binding 

 to be bitten all to pieces in 

 an afternoon's fishing, and a 

 tackle to be thus rendered 



quite useless. A triangle bound on thus to gimp looks much 

 neater than one with an eye at the end of the shank, to which 

 the gimp is looped- 



Fig. 19. Finish off of Whipping 

 IN Middle of Rod. 



