My first crank...

[diemai]

Concerning employing wood dowels for fixing hook ,-and tow eyes to wooden lures :

Here are some pics(sorry , don't have a printer/scanner) of one of the rare lurebuilding instructions in German angling literature , already almost 15 years old .

It's about a large pike trolling lure of pinewood , the wire suggested here is of brass , 2 mm diameter .

After inserting the "U"-bent wire , its ends are bent sideward inside the bores(With pointed pliers) , then cut flush to flanks and finally secured with that glued-in dowel , wich has a plane on its circumference to accommodate the wire ends .

The woodglue would close up the dowel plane slot entirely !

For my very first lures at that time I have uzilized this method , since there were no such special tackle components available over here and I never knew about possibly mailordering such items from America .

Anyway , it wasn't that hard to do , but later in use I found my lures to be expanding , leaving blemishes sideward at the dowel locations and the coating crackled there:( .

Maybe , the pinewood hasn't set well before getting sold ?

But today I blame this on my lack of experience back then , maybe also my clearcoat was not sufficient , also I did not treat the material with a wood preserver back then !

But I haven't employed this method again , since soon after I learned about getting myself screweyes from the USA .

Off course this method would not work with soft woods like balsa !

Greetz , diemai

Edited June 25, 2008 by diemai
addition of text

[benton B]

Natural, the old school guys on here have been using dowels in balsa baits for a long time. I use to build my baits the same way but I've found that is a extra step that adds nothing to the bait.

Most of line ties and hook hangers are brass cotter pins with 1 end folded down. I've never had a hanger pull out of a bait. I also twist SS wire around a nail to make hangers, none of those have pulled out. Just a little different way of getting the job done.