Cast Net Wideners For A Handmade Cast Net

Putting Wideners in an Old School Cast Net. Why and how to tie wideners. Method for widening a cast net.
A couple of clarifications and corrections:
This net is 1” sq. 2” stretch.
Two rows=One mesh
The net starts with 42 knots resulting in 41 mesh. The tie-in of each side to finish the row results in a total of 42 mesh (not knots) on the starter row.
The net has a total of 14 wideners in each widener row.
As each widener row is made, the wideners should be positioned directly below the widener row above.
To calculate the mesh in a row: number of mesh between wideners X number of wideners + number of wideners. Example (28 mesh x 14 wideners + 14 wideners = 406 Total Row Mesh ) I believe this was stated as 448 in video which was incorrect.
Check out some of my other videos and learn the flying knot. Although a complete net can be knitted with sheet bends, once learned, the flying knot is quicker to tie and promotes less knot slippage than a sheet bend knot.
Check out related videos:
• Cast Net Wideners For ...
• Throwing Handmade Cast...
• How to Tie Old School ...
• How to Hang a Cast Net...
• Using the Flying Knot ...
• Off the Shoulder Cast ...

[@montyrivers1529]

I like to see the Flying Dutchman method in use. I live in south Louisiana and have made a few cast nets myself. The knot you were using on the winder is called a sheet bend. When you go through twice to lock it in it’s a double sheet bend. I make my own hoop nets. I buy the bonded twine by the case and tie nots to build the barrel of the nets then I turn it inside out to where the flues go I’ll tie into the barrel tie it up then I hang it tail up and install the hoops on the outside of the net every 10 mesh. I’ll use double salvage to tie the hoops on. I enjoyed you video. Hand made nets are dying out with our generation. That will be another lost art. 😢

[@BarryJonesSr]

Thank you Monty. You are right, I use a sheet bend to tie the Widener. Depending on what I am doing, I also use a lot of Double Sheet Bends. In particular I use a double sheet bend on the initial loops to start the net. I also double the twine on the first three rows and on the bottom selvage, I either use a larger twine or double the twine I used for the rest of the net. On a Dacron net I am building now, I used 150 lb. Test Dyneema for the bottom selvage and hung the leads to it with # 9 tarred nylon on a braid lead-line. Where I throw, oyster shell can eat the lead-line and bottom of the net in a hurry. The dyneema is strong, but it’s diameter is about the size of #6 nylon. We’ll see how it works out. I use the flying knot or flying dutchman knot as a mesh knot. It tends to be a more secure knot in nylon or any of the newer twines than a sheet bend. When I first started making nets all we had was cotton, usually #9 sea island twine and the sheet bends worked fine with cotton. Especially if you dipped the net with coppertox. The flying knot was faster and did not slip as much once nylon came along.