218 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



Provide a piece of brass wire a little smaller than the 

 holes, from which you are to make a pin, and drive it 

 into your planing-board. By placing the holes over the 

 pin you will be able to hold your joint while planing ; 

 and the strain will be a pull, and not a push, as would 

 be the case if your joint was kept in place in the usual 

 manner, by butting the end against a support. Thus 

 your joint will be less likely to crook, or break under the 

 plane. But before beginning to plane, you should pre- 

 pare gauges to caliper the joint from time to time dur- 

 ing the progress of the work. 



Take a thin piece of metal brass is best and file in 

 its edges thirteen square notches, each equal in width to 

 the length of one of the perpendicular lines in your dia- 

 gram, as in Fig. 36. Do this 

 with care, that the sides of each 

 notch be parallel of a depth 

 equal to their width, and of a 

 width exactly equal to the length of the appro- 

 priate line. Then number each notch to corre- 

 spond with its appropriate line ; the widest will 



then be numbered 0, the next 9, the next 18, Fi 37 

 and so on. Also, by drawing a diagram for the 

 purpose, or by using an ordinary square, file up a small 

 square in a piece of brass of about three-quarters of an 

 inch to the side, as in Fig. 37. 



You will have noticed before applying the plane 

 whether the wood you are about to work into a joint is 

 straight or not, and probably have found it crooked. 

 These crooks arise from unequal contraction in season- 

 ing, the tendency being to curve away from the heart 

 of the tree. They incline to be persistent, and to recur 

 after straightening. Therefore, if possible, plane the joint 



