MAKING, REPAIRING AND CARING FOR TACKLE. 209 



on which to work. To hold the square sticks you will need 

 a grooved board fastened on your bench. The groove should 

 be such that a square stick will fit into it when placed corner 

 down, and the easiest way to get this groove is to use two 

 straight-edged strips of hard wood, with the two meeting 

 edges on top planed off to a 45-degree face, so that when 

 placed side by side they make a sharp, bottomed groove for 

 the stick. You will also want a try-square, or what is still 

 better, a bevel-guage. The first step is to square up your 

 ash butt to one inch, the diameter of the handle, then find 

 the center of each end by drawing straight lines across the 

 end from corner to corner and where these lines cross is the 

 center. If you can put the stick in a lathe you can turn this 

 handle to shape with very little work, but if you don't have 

 access to a lathe, take your compass and setting the point in 

 the center of the end of the stick make a .circle that just 

 touches the edge on each flat side. Then draw a line across 

 each corner just touching the circle and so placed that it 

 throws an equal portion on each flat surface, and from end 

 to end draw two perfectly straight lines on each flat side, 

 making these lines strike the ends .of the short lines drawn 

 across the corners. If this is properly done you will have 

 two lines lengthwise on each side of this strip, and each line 

 will be the same distance from the edge. Now place the 

 strip in the grooved board on the bench and carefully plane 

 off each corner the entire length until your plane just cuts 

 these lines. When this is done you have an octagonal 

 shaped stick, and each of the eight sides is of the same 

 width. Then you plane each corner down lightly and you 

 have a stick with sixteen sides, and when these corners are 

 carefully cut down you have an almost round stick. When 

 the corners show very faintly it is best to use the file for 

 cutting as a plane shaving may cut too much. 



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