422 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1918 
Pocket Safety Axe Sling 
T HIS is the way I carry my belt axe. 
A leather strap n" by W is all that 
is necessary. Make a 2^/2 inch slit about 
two inches from the buckle end. Run the 
axe handle through the slit. My patent 
axe makes it necessary to close the guard 
K— - - '/ * t - -^ 
into the handle in order to do this. Then 
slip the long end of the strap under and 
over the waist belt and buckle the strap. 
This forms a swinging loop. 
Jim Ferguson, “Somewhere in N. Y” 
Double Blood-Knot for Salmon Gut 
H ERE is the greatest tip that I have 
ever learnt about salmon fishing, by 
far the most valuable piece of knowledge, 
and one that saved me many salmon and 
many, many pounds in salmon gut. 
Not only is this the neatest knot that 
can be used to connect strands of gut, but 
it is far and away stronger and more dur¬ 
able than any other, and the knot, instead 
of being much weaker than the average 
strand of your cast, is quite as strong as 
any other part of it. 
I understand that the knot is known to 
one or possibly two country tackle-makers 
who jealously preserve their secret. 
My discovery of the method by which 
this knot can be tied with the very great¬ 
est ease by any one was made quite recent¬ 
ly. The only requisite is that the gut must 
be well soaked before you begin it. 
The knot is tied thus:— 
1. Lay the ends of the two strands of 
gut side by side as you wish to tie them 
and about one-eighth of an inch apart, 
holding them with your left hand, the end 
of the left hand strand being nearer to 
your body. 
2. With your right hand take the nearer 
end and wind it three times round the 
other strand (winding over and away 
from you). 
3. Then bend the end back and poke it 
down between the two strands where your 
left thumb was (Fig. A). That is half 
the knot done: the other half consists in 
doing exactly the same thing with the op¬ 
posite half of the knot. 
4. Shift the half knot as it stands into 
your right hand. 
5. Take the loose end and bring it over 
the strand towards you, and so wind three 
times round the link of the gut. 
6. Then bend it back and poke it up¬ 
wards between the two links so as to lie 
beside the other loose end, but pointing the 
opposite way (Fig. B). 
Then, to pull the knot tight, slightly 
moisten the left finger and thumb, and with 
them hold the knot lightly whilst you pull 
the ends firmly and sharply. The knot will 
run up into a complete and translucent roll 
with the ends sticking out at right angles, 
and they can then be cut off short (Fig. C). 
The beginner will find it an advantage, 
when he wishes to pull this knot tight, to 
get a friend to hold the knot for him, with 
a finger and thumb moistened in water, so 
that the tier has both hands free to pull the 
knot tight. But with a very little practice 
no help is needed; you hitch the gut round 
the root of your little finger (or of that 
and the next finger), just as a woman 
holds her-wool in knitting, and that leaves 
your thumb and finger of that hand free 
to hold the knot, and so both to damp it 
and to prevent it slipping. 
In tying the knot one or two things must 
be remembered:— 
1. The two ends must be twisted in op¬ 
posite directions, to get the twist continu¬ 
ous, or else the knot will be spoilt. For 
the knot is nothing more than two strands 
twisted together for six complete turns, 
and then having their loose ends brought 
back to the center and stuck through this 
twist in opposite directions. 
2. The gut must be well soaked, and it is 
better—though not essential—to damp the 
gut at the moment before the knot is pulled 
tight. 
Before cutting off the projecting ends it 
is well to give them a good pull, and until 
you become well practised in tying the knot 
the ends should not be shaved off too 
closely. Soon you will tie it so securely 
that the ends may be cut off as close as a 
knife can shave them. A great advantage 
of this knot is its economy of the gut. 
With this knot, when fishing, you can and 
should retie your cast on the spot, if it 
shows any sign of weakness. You can, if 
necessary, make up a complete new cast of 
single gut—the gut having been soaked, of 
course—in from five to ten minutes. You 
can keep jour change fly on a strand of 
gut and soak that in a tobacco tin or in a 
bit of wet flannel (or in your month or 
inside the stocking over your waders), 
and then cutting off the last link of your 
single gut (with the fly), tie on your new 
link ready tied to its flj'. For any one who 
does not often change his flies, two or 
three flies, each on a good long strand of 
gut, will provide all his changes for the day. 
This most ingenious knot is nothing but 
a double blood-knot. Each strand of the 
gut runs straight through the knot, both 
lying within it side by side and jammed to¬ 
gether by the rolls outside it, so that the 
harder the gut is pulled the more firmly do 
these rolls jam. The great suitability of 
the knot for tying gut is due to the fact 
that each strand of gut does enter the knot 
in this way and go right through it without 
any bend whatever, and to the strain being 
taken by the jamming of these two straight 
pieces together. 
Who was the ingenious person who in¬ 
vented this knot, or who first thought of 
applying the method of the blood-knot to 
tj'ing salmon gut no one knows; but he 
most certainly deserves the perennial grati¬ 
tude of all salmon fishers. 
A. H. Chaytor. England. 
Trap For Turtles 
F IRST take a large candy bucket or a 
small water-tight barrel; if a barrel, 
saw in two halves. Next bore a inch 
bo.it 
'Counter wetgnC 
hole down about one inch from the top and 
do the same thing on the opposite side. 
Next make a lid just large enough so that 
it will slip down the inside of the bucket 
or barrel. Drive an eight-penny nail in 
one edge of the lid and one on the edge 
