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Hook sharpener

Adrian is this collecting thing a Powys trait? My missus is the same, we nicknamed her "Auntie Wainwright", our loft is full (don't know what the U value is of black bin bags full of old clothes) so I built a floor above the garage. Its full too. The spare room has no room, when the grandchildren stay we have to re-discover the bed in there.
Love the line "funeral at 11, auction at 2"
 
Have never found critical sharpness essential for barbel as it is for carp.If the point turns over it gets replaced.As for hook files the black handled Jag file reigns supreme for me.
 
What size hooks are we talking here ? I presume large, 10 and upwards in size . Without a hand lense , a small sharpener , and very good light I think you would struggle to sharpen anything smaller .
 
Mike Hodgkiss said:
What size hooks are we talking here ? I presume large, 10 and upwards in size .
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Yes Mike, although 11's and 12's of the Drennan SS Barbel are doable. It's worth having one just to get the rig back out while you're tying a new hooklength imo. If the hook comes in with the point turned over just give it a quick lick with the file and it's ready to go back out while you sort a new rig out - saves wasting fishing time. To be honest i'm quite happy to carry on using a hook that's had the file treatment - no need to change.
 
During my carping days, there was always one or two lads around who would be masters at sharpening hooks...usually with jewellers files. The hooks they could produce would look a bit OTT on first viewing, but providing you protected them on the cast with a lump of dissolving foam, they worked well. One claimed a fish would be hooked if it stared at the thing too hard...and he wasn't too far from the truth :p

Cheers, Dave.
 
The term 'sticky sharp' was something i picked up from carp angling friends - not many hooks on the market can claim that title straight from the packet - Nash Fangs and Korda Kaptors spring to mind, the Fangs using an insert to keep the hooks seperate and the Kaptors being clipped in with a protective cap on the point. All those sold in loose packets are likely to have dulled points simply through knocking together in transit - they are still sharp, but not sticky sharp. Stuart raised the point that critical sharpness is not as essential as it is with carp and he may have a point ( sorry! ) - i got by for years without a hook sharpener, but it's saved me a few quid since and i'm more confident with it - one of those items you never knew you needed, but once you have one it's essential!
 
Andrew Boyne said:
The term 'sticky sharp' was something i picked up from carp angling friends - not many hooks on the market can claim that title straight from the packet - Nash Fangs and Korda Kaptors spring to mind, the Fangs using an insert to keep the hooks seperate and the Kaptors being clipped in with a protective cap on the point. All those sold in loose packets are likely to have dulled points simply through knocking together in transit - they are still sharp, but not sticky sharp. Stuart raised the point that critical sharpness is not as essential as it is with carp and he may have a point ( sorry! ) - i got by for years without a hook sharpener, but it's saved me a few quid since and i'm more confident with it - one of those items you never knew you needed, but once you have one it's essential!
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Exactly Andrew. I use the Korda curve shank barbless Kaptors now a lot of the time, even though it hurts at a fiver a pack...but they are good. The 'sticky sharp' hooks produced by some carpers are in a different league though. I tied a few up once, and my fingers were bleeding all over the show by the time I had finished...the damned things are ruddy vindictive. However, I wouldn't use them in moving water over a gravel/rocky bottom...wouldn't last five minutes.

Cheers, Dave.
 
One of the deadliest patterns i've tried to tie is the Fang Twister - bloody dangerous, should come with a warning! Like you say though Dave, pointless on a rock/gravel river! Get it - pointless? Sorry - again! Where have you been last ten days anyway? - almost sent out a search party!
 
Andrew Boyne said:
One of the deadliest patterns i've tried to tie is the Fang Twister - bloody dangerous, should come with a warning! Like you say though Dave, pointless on a rock/gravel river! Get it - pointless? Sorry - again! Where have you been last ten days anyway? - almost sent out a search party!
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Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Labadee Haiti, Cozumel in Mexico....along with 6000 other poor sods on a stonking great cruise ship :D The cruise was OK (if you like that sort of thing...and my old dutch very much does, bless her cotton socks :p)....but don't get me started on the flights to and from...bleedin nightmare :rolleyes:

Nice to be back though, with the rivers running amok with snow melt, salt, untreated sewage....and assorted bodies :( Not wishing to add my scrawny self to that count, I will refrain until (A) I am acclimatised again, and (2) the rivers look better. A nice WARM flush through would be nice, but we shall see. Off to the lower Itchen for the day in a couple or three weeks...hope to hell that is better by then, 'cos I am looking forward to that. The grayling are trembling as we speak Andrew :)

Cheers, Dave.
 
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Andrew Boyne said:
Very nice, but in future can you please inform us if you're going away! After a week of no posts some of us got worried! :p
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:D:D:D:D

You are a rascal Andrew....why, I hardly post at all nowadays. Mainly because I lose the notes I wrote the night before to remind me where my laptop is :p Mind you, once the neighbours convince me I am in the wrong house again and walk me home, I usually find it :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Best hooks for staying sharp that I've used are the Atomic range.I've never used anything like them before,the abuse they can take over harsh ground and still remain sharp is untrue.Although not sticky sharp out of the packet they're not far off.What is noticeable when I sharpen them when carping is how hard it is to get the file working on them,very hard hooks.
 
Giving it some thought I don't think we should be having to sharpen hooks too often. If the hook is getting the point turned over too easily then this might suggest a lack of hardening.

It is also the case, I believe, that the hardening on a hook is close to the surface and by using some sort of abrasive on the outer surface you will be exposing the softer metal which will not retain its sharpness.

Anyone with greater knowledge care to chip in on this one?

Having been a fly fisher for a number of years where catching rocks/concrete wall on a reservoir dam on the backcast or snagging them on the gunwales of a boat tended to turn over the points led me to seek the hardest hooks on the market. In this respect I always found Drennan and Kamasan the most reliable.
 
Has anyone else ever noticed teflon coated hooks never feel as sharp as uncoated hooks?I always take the coating of the point and they feel so much sharper.
 
Personally I think the whole practice of sharpening hooks harks back to the bad (?) old days when hooks were blunt by today's standards straight out of the packet, and a few strokes with a stone worked wonders. However the hooks I now use (Owner) are sticky sharp out of the packet, and no matter what I do to them with a stone or diamond file if they have taken a knock, I can never get the same point back so I opt for tying on a new one. I also find that sharpness is only really critical on self hooking rigs for "educated" fish and therefore unnecessary for Barbel,
 
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