Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

"Terrence J Smith" wrote

Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up
and makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

Sounds like an interesting project. But most of us have no idea what you
are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link so we can look at
it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and advice on something that we
have never seen.

Also, are these shepherds crooks that expensive? Buying one each year may
be a totally sensible expense and a lot less bother.

Here is a link. I haven't tried one of these. The ones I have gotten locally
are about $25 plus shipping. I think it would be fun to make my own anyway.

http://www.nicetoys.com/chbcountrysticks.html

Terry

"Lee Michaels" wrote in message
. ..

"Terrence J Smith" wrote

Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up
and makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

Sounds like an interesting project. But most of us have no idea what you
are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link so we can look
at it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and advice on something that
we have never seen.

Also, are these shepherds crooks that expensive? Buying one each year may
be a totally sensible expense and a lot less bother.

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).

It seems like at least some of the commercial ones use aluminum and/or
fiberglass.

If you want to stick with wood, what about something laminated from
multiple layers and glued together (in a curved press) with epoxy?

Chris

Tue, Oct 3, 2006, 11:03am (Terrence*J*Smith) the
goat boy sayeth:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook.
snip to catch a goat snip Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy
(a laminate)

Personally my choice for catching a goat would probably be just to
shoot it. However. If you want to make your own, out of wood, that
would last, I'd say laminate one.

When I was a kid, for catching chickens we'd use a piece of stiff
wire with a "crook" bent into one end, then snag a leg. The same thing,
but using a stiffer wire, or a stiff wire in the end of a wood pole,
worked for pigs too, snag 'em by a hind leg. Alternately, for pigs,
we'd just grab a hind leg - then hand on ttight. If by chance you want
the pig to back up you put a bucket over its head. If we weren't real
serious about catching pigs we'd sometimes try lassooing them.



JOAT
It's not hard, if you get your mind right.
- Granny Weatherwax

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook.
Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook'
opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make
the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).


It would be rather straight forward to make one using knitted
fiberglass and epoxy.

Lew

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook.
Ones I have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook'
opens up and makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the
bend more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

Have you looked on ebay?



--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Lee Michaels wrote:
But most of us have no idea what you
are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link so we can look at
it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and advice on something that we
have never seen.


Who's we. I'd bet most folks know what a shepherd crook is.

Well, I think it would take a bit of experimentation as far as the
steam bending goes.

Might I suggest you make a crook that you can change out the heads on?
Say something that's double pinned or a good screw thread.

I think in all cases with the steam bending they will open up
eventually because of the stress you're placing on the bend. Snagging
a goat weighing in anywhere from 8 to say 50 lbs. (I'm guessing) will
do that.

A glue-laminated crook might hold up just as long but I think when it
gives up it might give up with a snap rather than just opening a bit.

Another thought would be asking if you had looked into re-enforcing a
crook with a fiberglass and resin wrap?

On Tue, 3 Oct 2006 11:03:49 -0400, "Terrence J Smith"
wrote:

Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

"J T" wrote in message

Personally my choice for catching a goat would
probably be just to shoot it.

Damn, makes me hungry, just thinking about cabrito.

When I was a kid, for catching chickens we'd use
a piece of stiff wire with a "crook" bent into one end,
then snag a leg.

Way too much trouble ... wait til dark, or use a leftover from 4th of
July/New Year's baby giant firecracker ... works OK on chickens, but best
on guinea hens.

/evil mode

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/01/06

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

Why not the old fashioned way? Find a branch with a hook already in it
and cut it off, or failing that, find a branch with a fork in it and
whittle the fork into a smoother curve.

I must be missing something, this seems too obvious,
H

"J T" wrote in message
...
Tue, Oct 3, 2006, 11:03am (Terrence J Smith) the
goat boy sayeth:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook.
snip to catch a goat snip Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy
(a laminate)

Personally my choice for catching a goat would probably be just to
shoot it. However. If you want to make your own, out of wood, that
would last, I'd say laminate one.

When I was a kid, for catching chickens we'd use a piece of stiff
wire with a "crook" bent into one end, then snag a leg. The same thing,
but using a stiffer wire, or a stiff wire in the end of a wood pole,
worked for pigs too, snag 'em by a hind leg. Alternately, for pigs,
we'd just grab a hind leg - then hand on ttight. If by chance you want
the pig to back up you put a bucket over its head. If we weren't real
serious about catching pigs we'd sometimes try lassooing them.

Been there, done that, and failed. I found that you cannot lasso a pig
because its neck is larger than its head, the rope just slide off as it
doesn't have anything to catch on to.

Tue, Oct 3, 2006, 1:20pm (EDT-1) (Swingman) doth sayeth
snip Way too much trouble ... wait til dark,snip

Nah, especially if you want chicken for today's supper. A chicken
will let you get to about 2-3 feet before they start getting real antsy.
Walk slow, use a piece of wire about 3 foot long, and real easy to hook
one around a leg. Then no prob to grab it up. You can do the stump and
hatchet route, or just grab 'em by the neck and crank. Chicken &
dumplin's for supper. Mmmm mmmm good. I can remember gatherings at my
greadgrandparents where we have maybe a dozen chickens caught that way,
then an assembly line plucking and cleaning them.

Of course, if you want to be sporting about it you could always
bait a hook with a bit of corn or something, and use a rod nd reel.
That's usually best if you're poaching a neighbor's chickens tho - they
don't squawk with their neck stretched out. LOL I heard of a guy who
would do that out of his basement window, with chickens in his yard from
next door. The neighbor never did figure out what was happening with
his chickens.



JOAT
It's not hard, if you get your mind right.
- Granny Weatherwax

wrote:
Lee Michaels wrote:
But most of us have no idea what you
are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link so we can look at
it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and advice on something that we
have never seen.


Who's we. I'd bet most folks know what a shepherd crook is.

Maybe he never went to a church Christmas play.

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

On diy, David Marks did a bent laminate lamp project that might be
applicable. There is information on the diy web site about the forms
used and the technique.

Episode WWK-512

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_..._26962,00.html

Terrence J Smith wrote:
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).

Long ago and far away I knew an old man who made walking sticks. He took
a green stick and bent it around and wired it and stuck it in the attic
of his shop. The next year he took it down, and if it was not cracked,
cut and trimmed and finished the stick.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

A Smith & Wesson *ALWAYS* beats 4 Aces.





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"Lee Michaels" writes:

Sounds like an interesting project. But most of us have no idea
what you are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link
so we can look at it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and
advice on something that we have never seen.

Look for a picture of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." :-)

--
Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to this account incurs a fee of
$500 per message, and acknowledges the legality of this contract.

"Bruce Barnett" wrote in message
...
"Lee Michaels" writes:

Sounds like an interesting project. But most of us have no idea
what you are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link
so we can look at it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and
advice on something that we have never seen.

Look for a picture of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." :-)

Yes, I know all the traditional "looks" of shepards staff. But he made
mention of "catching" goats for dinner. Having raised goats, I know that a
great big "crook" commonly associated with this kind of staff would not slow
down the goat at all. That was the comfusion.

I would bet most on here do know what it is.

"Lee Michaels" wrote in message But
most of us have no idea what you
are asking for here. It might be an idea to provide a link so we can look
at
it. After all, it is hard to provide ideas and advice on something that we
have never seen.

Also, are these shepherds crooks that expensive? Buying one each year may
be a totally sensible expense and a lot less bother.

"Terrence J Smith" wrote in message
...
Guys:
This maybe off topic, but I need to make a better shepherds crook. Ones I
have purchased are worthless after about a year as the 'crook' opens up
and
makes it impossible to catch a goat (I raise meat goats).
The purchased variety are made of oak and seem to be steam bent.
My thoughts a
- Steam bend one myself. Would using green wood, maybe ash, make the bend
more permanent?
- Make the bend with thin strips and epoxy (a laminate).


I looked it up in a book for you -John Seymour the Forgotten Arts.

There are various ways of making walking sticks and crooks. Laminating is
not a traditional method and would be comparitively laborious. He mentions
three:

Heat to bend the hook of a walking stick.

Growing ash saplings with weights and formers to make them grow the right
shape.

And particularly for larger crooks - you find a long thin branch growing
from a much thicker one, and cut out from the tree the whole piece, so that
you have a shape a bit like an enormous tobacco pipe. From the 'bowl' of the
pipe you saw and then whittle and carve the hook of the crook.

Ask me if I am not making it clear

Tim w

Wed, Oct 4, 2006, 8:30pm (EDT+4)
(Tim*W) doth burbeleth:
I looked it up in a book snip Laminating is not a traditional method
and would be comparitively laborious. snip
Heat to bend the hook of a walking stick.
Growing ash saplings with weights and formers to make them grow the
right shape.
And particularly for larger crooks - you find a long thin branch growing
from a much thicker one, and cut out from the tree the whole piece, so
that you have a shape a bit like an enormous tobacco pipe. From the
'bowl' of the pipe you saw and then whittle and carve the hook of the
crook.
Ask me if I am not making it clear

Wow. OK, laminating isn't traditional, so? But I don't see it as
laborious, only a bit time consuming.

Using heat sounds like you're going to go thru a lot of sticks
practicing before you get it right.

Growing ash saplings with weights and formers to make them grow the
right shape? Now that laborious, and not only that, very time
consuming.

And lastly: "find a long thin branch growing from a much thicker
one, etc., etc., etc.". I've got a bit over an acre, pretty thick with
trees. I don't see any out there that meets that standard. And even if
one did I'm damned if I'd let anyone chop up one of my trees for it.
Sounds pretty labor intense too.

You'll have to get your answer on how clear you were from the OP.
Me, first choice would be not to have goats; second, make a first class
BBQ cooker; three, shoot the goats; four, have a large BBQ; five,
laminate a crook. I think that's the right order.



JOAT
It's not hard, if you get your mind right.
- Granny Weatherwax