How metal hooks are stropped onto block

[glennb17]

How are the metal hooks, in real practice, stropped onto a block? Is an open grommet run through the eye of the hook and then closed with a short splice or can the eye be open and then wrought closed? Can you braid a hook into a grommet using a single piece of line?

 

Here's a rendering of my hooks (have to CAD something these days, right). They are very close to the real thing except the way the ring closes.

Any tips on getting hooks onto grommets? Actual traditional methods would be very enlightening here.

 

Glenn

 

 

[Bob Cleek]

It really depends upon the historical period you're talking about. That will determine the construction details of the block which will determine the options for attaching a hook to it. Modernly, not infrequently, a shackle is used to connect an eye hook to the frame of an iron-stropped block. For earlier technology, you may find these contemporary treatises helpful.

 

TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf (thenrg.org)

 

The art of rigging (thenrg.org)

 

The Rigging of Ships: in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720 (Dover Maritime): Anderson, R. C.: 0800759279609: Amazon.com: Books

[popeye2sea]

I think there would be two ways to do this, depending on if you were going to be using a metal grommet or not.

 

If using a metal grommet the hooks eye would have to have been formed around the grommet and then the strop of the block would be spliced to fit around the grommet and the block with the seizing then put on between the grommet and the block.

 

If no grommet was to be employed then the strop would be put through the eye of the hook before being spliced together. Then the seizing is put on in order to form the becket (eye).

 

When blocks were stropped with hooks the usual method was to use a grommet in the becket to reduce friction on the rope by the hook.

 

Regards,

[popeye2sea]

24 minutes ago, Bob Cleek said:

It really depends upon the historical period you're talking about. That will determine the construction details of the block which will determine the options for attaching a hook to it. Modernly, not infrequently, a shackle is used to connect an eye hook to the frame of an iron-stropped block. For earlier technology, you may find these contemporary treatises helpful.

 

TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf (thenrg.org)

 

The art of rigging (thenrg.org)

 

The Rigging of Ships: in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720 (Dover Maritime): Anderson, R. C.: 0800759279609: Amazon.com: Books

Those works , unfortunately, do not go into very great detail about iron forge type of work that would be involved in making metal grommets or hooks or how one gets intertwined with the other.  Getting the strop on after that is the part that is done on board or in the rigging loft and is covered in those books.

 

Regards,

[Bob Cleek]

6 hours ago, popeye2sea said:

Those works , unfortunately, do not go into very great detail about iron forge type of work that would be involved in making metal grommets or hooks or how one gets intertwined with the other.  Getting the strop on after that is the part that is done on board or in the rigging loft and is covered in those books.

 

Regards,

That's true. The books cited are for earlier rope-stropped blocks. The ship-smithing is obvious. a rod of suitable length would be formed with a pointed end and then bent to the shape of the hook desired. (The tip of the hook is bent outward from the shaft of the hook to hold the mousing as might be required to keep the hook from coming loose in use.) If used, thimbles would be attached to the hooks when the eye was formed. Thimbles are simply a section of metal tubing flared at either end. Thimbles were frequently made of soft metal such as copper or even lead, as their purpose was to prevent the chafing of the rope eye worked around the thimble. A block would be stropped with a strop large enough that the thimble could be secured to the strop by a throat lashing between the block and the thimble. Later metal stropped blocks would have a metal eye fashioned in the metal strop and a hook attached with a shackle. Blocks with hooks were in the minority, since the only need for a hook on a block would be for a block that needed to be disconnected on a regular basis such as for tackles.

 

As mentioned, there are various options for such construction, but the period will dictate which practices were most common at that time. 

 

 

Here's the "how to" from Ashley's Book of Knots which should answer some of your questions:

 

 

And this from Hervey Garret Smith's The Arts of the Sailor:

 

 

 

Everything you need to know about rigging of any period is in a book somewhere. Each period has its "go-to" reference volumes. You will find it very helpful to acquire whichever reference works are relevant to the period of the model you are building. (Most are available new or used in reprints and occasionally online PDF's.) Asking questions on internet forums may get you pointed in the right direction, but, if you think about it, if you don't know the answer, it's pretty hard to know whether the answer you get from an online "expert" is the correct one, isn't it? 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Bob Cleek

[glennb17]

Thanks a lot guys, great discussion. It certainly gives me something to think about. I think the fullly closed hooks have drawbacks. I'll  have to see how far I can push the molding process. Alternatively, I'm thinking I could fabricate the thimble with a cut and work that way. Either path, I need to figure out how to make things look clean after crimping one of them.

 

Very helpful!

[wefalck]

In any case, in real practice it would not be possible to wrought the ring closed with the rope through (with or without thimble) - the heat would burn your rope. The same applies, when bending the hooks from wire and (silver-)soldering the ring closed. One has to follow full-size practice and splice the becket after leading it through the ring. In small scales, one may need to fake the splice and hide the joint under the seizing.

[archjofo]

@glennb17

Hello Glenn,

I just saw your post today. Even though I may be late, here's my hint.
I have already dealt with the question. I solved it like this based on historical drawings.
LINK (please scroll down)
Maybe that's a little help.

Edited January 8 by archjofo