Production
We have our blank spoons cut by a local metal smith. I know I refer to them as handmade, but I tried cutting by hand with a hacksaw, and eventually, my teeth, but with little success. And so as the German clocksmith uses boards from the local mill to create lavish coo-coo clocks, we also start with a product milled for our purposes. There is clean-up involved on the blanks. Grinding and sanding, hole champhering, and so on.
Then the process of adding the welded solid rings begin. From a stick of stainless TIG wire, we wind that 1/16 inch rod into 5/16 inch diameter rings, much like a spring. These rings are cut with a special mini bolt cutter into what is referred to as a butt-ring. The quality swivels are added to the ring and then the ring ends are bent to form a perfect circle and brazed with silver solder as in the jewelry trade.
Vinyl is applied and then the bending process occurs for the various spoons. The final step is adding an open-eye Siwash to the hook swivel. These hooks are mostly VMC Siwash or Techset hooks, and some Gamakatsu Big River Bait hooks. A hook protector is added, and a handtag completes the process.
