KEEPING TRADITIONAL SKILLS ALIVE

[mole catcher 1]

There seems to have been a few posts about longnetting of late but, how many of us know about the amount of work that goes into making a long net? What has happened to all those time honoured skills that were the main stay of a mans income from years ago?

It was this line of thinking that got me started on my last project. In my working life i use many long nets and purse nets,some are quick set and some are trad set. All catch rabbits but some feel better to handle and some, dare i say it are bloody awfull to use on certain ground. It was with this in mind i set out to make myself a trad set net that would be a pleasure to handle, light in weight, and would fullfill the task of catching rabbits. Now im not a novice when it comes to making nets, to my credit i have made shrimp trawls, cod ends for beamers, gill nets and a few hundred purse nets so i knew the amount of work ahead.

 

Firstly i had to choose the type of twine that it was to be made from, size of mesh and the dimensions of the net when finished. I would go for a spun nylon in a weight of 10/9. I have made purse nets from this and fancy it to be the best for my new net, mesh size would be 4inch knot to knot (using a 2 inch mesh gage)The reason i didnt go for a 4 1/8 or even a 4 1/2 mesh was because of the stretch in spun nylon.

 

The dimensions of the finished net would be 100yrd long by 12 mesh deep. Add to the width the 2 salvedge meshs and this would make it 14 mesh deep. Just out of madness i worked out the number of meshs to be 50,400 in total. All those knots would be cast by hand. Thats a total of 3600 rows of 14 meshs.

 

After the body of the net was made i set about adding the salvedge meshs, these are the double stitched edge meshs that have the top and bottom running lines going through them. This is where i would like to say a big thank you to netrigger, for sending me the spool of twine that now makes up the salvedges on my net. After that i added the running lines, these were stitched using a lacing stitch and followed by a whiped finish to aid in there free movement through the end pins.

Once the net was compleat i made up some end pins,gave them a quick paint and then it was finished.

 

So why did i choose to go to such lenghts to make a 100yrd long net when i could have bought a machine made nylon one? Simple realy,ask anyone who has worked a hand made net and they will tell you the quality is so much better and for me, well, it was about keeping the old skills alive

Edited December 31, 2006 by mole catcher

[borderboy 80]

Edited February 2, 2007 by borderboy

[mole catcher 1]

excelent! you must be extremely patient . Very interesting post, is there any reason why the "salvedge meshs" are a different colour?

they are from a slightly lighter weight twine that has been doubled up, colour is just how it came

[ferreterno1 0]

excelent! you must be extremely patient . Very interesting post, is there any reason why the "salvedge meshs" are a different colour?

they are from a slightly lighter weight twine that has been doubled up, colour is just how it came

 

i dont think i have the patience to do that well done!

[mole trapper 1,646]

fair play, thats a hell of a nice looking net, any idea how many hours went into it, only i have just convinced my wife to stop making purse nets and give this a go, only in hemp. Also you said it was a hundred,what bag hundred or fifty.Tell you,

if i made a beauty like that i think i would be afraid to use it.

[netrigger 567]

Cracking post MOLECATCHER,, class net made by a class netsman

[mole catcher 1]

Cracking post MOLECATCHER,, class net made by a class netsman

 

Thats one hell of of an accolade nettrigger, thank you and thanks for all the info of late

 

The net has 100% bagging, so that makes it 200yrd of net :whistle: i stopped counting the hours after about 60

Edited December 31, 2006 by mole catcher

[Phil Lloyd 10,736]

Superb effort ...

You are so right,...after using a genuine 'hand-made' net,..there is no going back....

All the best,.CHALKWARREN...

Edited January 1, 2007 by CHALKWARREN

[MR TEA POT 1,287]

interesting post with good pics as well MC well done

CWARREN that is a cracking pic of the rabbit about to hit the net

[Mitch 0]

Well done mate, Its good too see how it was all done once. You kind of have me inspired to attempt making a longnet. I have stitched a few purse nets, maybey i start with a few 8 yrd stopnets then work my way up.

[whin 463]

good to make hand made nets started makeing them 25 years ago for hares salmon seatrout , made hundreds when i was at her majsties pleasure a few years back hardly touched one since bad memories , but recently made some fox nets etc , cant beat hand made nets for purseing but i prefer my gill nets machine made them hand rigged even tho i fancy a machine that riggs them , when i had a bit more time used to make purse nets poke nets double ended nets all sorts big landing nets for getting seatrout with torch etc alll the best, i make them to use so sometimes a chore for me as im very busy

[mole catcher 1]

bumped to the top for mistnet, SORRY TO ALL WHO HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE

[jultaylor1972 2]

Pleased you bumped it, I enjoyed the thread as I missed it the first time.

[Guest reload]

Hi Have you any pics of how you start your net??

Do you start on a base line?

 

Regards Reload

[Rabbithunter 456]

When making a longnet i just tie a loop of twine and knit off this. It acts as a ring, simply untie it when complete and cut of the excess twine.

 

You could always start on a ring and snip it off when complete.