Restringing

[Ron Nossaman]

>I have a rather simple loop maker that I purchased from the late Bob 
>Russell Sr. It is both simple and easy to use. It produces predictable 
>clean coils every time but is not without the possibility of gaffe's if 
>your not paying attention to what you're doing. I'll give a brief 
>description of it's construction. The body of it is from about a 1 1/2" 
>hardwood dowel with a hole drilled through it longitudinally. In that hole 
>is placed a brass sleeve insert through which ultimately the wire will 
>pass on it's way to the looping end. There is another hole drilled through 
>it tangentially(?) which has a key pin ( I think) going all the way 
>through and protruding out each side to act as a handle to turn the dowel 
>around the string passing through it. At the business end is a small tack 
>or nail with a head driven in to one side of the brass sleeve. To use, all 
>one does is to pass the string through the sleeve and out the other side. 
>Using round jawed pliers make a loop in the string. Put the end of the 
>loop against and under the nail head and slowly rotate the tool making the 
>string end rotate around and thus giving you the coils. The only problem I 
>ever have with it is visualizing which direction to rotate the tool for 
>the desired outcome on the string. I like the tail to stop and rotate 
>downwards against the plate. FWIW, I hope this helps someone. If you need 
>a picture just yell.
>
>Greg Newell

I made one similar, years back, with a couple of differences. First, no 
cross handle. Second, the other end has a #7 wood screw driven in and the 
head cut off, and a small screw driven in next to it as a wire guide for 
forming the loop around the #7 screw shank. The wire spring back sizes the 
loop just right for the average hitch pin and you don't have to find a pair 
of pliers in your toolbox as well as the looper. Same size loop every time, 
double loops if you're of a mind, with a minimum amount of wire to have to 
pull to tighten it on the hitch.

Ron N