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A piece of rod out of the junk pile. Mild steel I guess.
Cut a piece to length to experiment. Mapp gas torch works better than propane, runs much hotter. My 'anvil' is a piece of cut-off I-beam from somewhere.
Final result after flattening out the end, a belt sander then a file for the 'spike' end.
Not pretty, but functional, and that's all I want.
I don't often need to untie knots, but that might come in handy when camping or fishing. No picture of it, but I took and threaded a lag bolt into a leftover piece of wood, shaped it on a belt sander, used a grinder to make the end come to a spike, and it has worked for me the couple of times I needed it. Again, I don't often need to untie knots.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
I have an old wooden one (hard, close-grained maple, I believe), 16" long X 1 3/4" diameter at the large end, and gracefully rounded off.. The pointy end is pretty sharp, making it perfect for untying or untangling rope, cord, twine, &c..
Regards
Buck
Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable, that which your life becomes...
Technically, if it's wood or ivory, it's a "fid". (grin)
Once you start researching, there's tons of lore associated with all things nautical. A marlin spike is not named after a marlin, the fish but it's actually the other way around. And it's marlin not marlen, due probably to bad accents or bad diction.
I recall reading that black locust was a preferred wood for belaying pins. In those days they did not believe in one wood for every purpose whether on ships, wagon or anything else.
If anyone is interested in reading a good book about sailing in the days of the whaling ships I recommend Cruise of the Cachalot, by Frank Thomas Bullen. (1899). It is quite readable and at one time, when people still read books, it was on many of the lists of outstanding reading. A good way to purge oneself of that dreary Moby Dick we all had to read in school. It is available as a free download on several sites.
Is black locust any relation to honey locust? We used to have a lot of honey locust where I am from, and one version of that tree had some big thorns. It was a fairly flexible wood.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost