The Slotted-Handle Crochet Hook: Fingers That Lock Into the Handle

"If the handle is of a round or cylindrical character, it is impossible to keep the hook end thereof properly pointed with respect to the yarn or thread which is being used unless the attention of the eyes be constantly directed to this end." "In other words, the fingers so placed constitute for each other a cushion against which the holding and manipulating pressure is largely exerted."

**Blank.** Cut 16 cm of 5 mm aluminium rod. Hammer the middle 7 cm flat on the anvil to about 2.5 mm thick; it spreads to about 8 mm wide. **Slot.** Drill a 3 mm hole near each end of the flat, 55 mm apart, and saw between them down the middle with the coping saw. File the slot to 3 mm wide, leaving two arms about 2.5 mm wide, and round every edge. **Hook.** 3 cm from the flat, at one end, file a throat about 1.5 mm deep at 45°, copying a bought 5 mm hook. Round the tip and the throat with the needle files and emery cloth until yarn slides without catching. The other end is the head. **Test.** Tie a thread round the hook just below the throat, hold the handle lightly as for crochet, and pull the thread sideways with the spring scale until the hook turns in your fingers; note the force. Do the same with a round bought hook. Then work 10 rows of single crochet with each and time them.

**Samuel S. Sencenbaugh** of Aurora, Kane County, Illinois, assignor to T. Buettner & Co. of Chicago, filed US 1,091,395 on 9 April 1912; it is dated 24 March 1914. (Machine-read copies of the patent spell him "Sengenbaugh"; the scan reads Sencenbaugh.) He made the hook and handle in one piece of metal, the slot running most of the handle's length so the fingers can hold it anywhere along it, and wanted the hook to point in the plane across the two arms. **Honest limits.** Aluminium rod stands in for Sencenbaugh's unnamed metal, and the slot is sawn, not stamped. The notebook treats the round handle's grip as pure friction; its pull, offset and friction are examples. Your pull readings and row times are the result.