Long Netting Terminologies.

[Tiercel 6,986]

As with most subjects when they are new to you, it can be quite daunting trying to come to grips with the terminologies that are used.

I have put together some of the terminologies that are used in long netting and net making and explanations of the terms. Hopefully it will give newcomers and old hands a better understanding of the netting process.

I think we should start by looking at the makeup of a net. A net is made up of connected meshes, and it does not matter if they are hand knitted or machine made on a loom, they are all knitted in rows.


MESH

A mesh is a diamond shape consisting of 4 sides joined by knots. Meshes are created by knitting rows of half meshes beneath existing rows of half meshes.
It takes two rows to make a mesh, think of it this way. When you start a net on a purse net ring or triangle, you use your mesh board to make the first row, this row is half a mesh. When you complete your second row you then have a full mesh on your ring. When you knit the third row you then have a mesh and a half and so on.

I think the confusion arises because people use a mesh board of two inches and think that the two inches of the mesh board is the mesh size.

DROP

The drop is the depth or height of the net, the usual drop is around 60 inches with the meshes stretched tight. However, once you open up the meshes the drop of the net decreases.

Try it for yourself, place a purse net stretched tight on the floor, then grab the net on each side in the middle of the net and open out the meshes the two rings will then get closer together, this is the same effect that opening up the meshes on a long net has on the drop of the net it pulls the head and foot lines closer together, thus reducing the drop in the net.

Slack

This is sometimes erroneously called bag, while the slack does contribute to the bag, it is only part of the bags make up. Slack in a net is measured by the amount of meshes in a given distance.

For example. A 4inch mesh rigged by halves is 90 meshes to 5 yards of net.
90 x 4 inches = 360inches or 10 yards of netting, when placed on 5 yard lines the net becomes half it’s stretched length, hence rigged by halves.

For example. If you have your 5-yard net rigged by halves alongside a net rigged by a third of its stretched length, the net that is rigged by a third will be the deeper of the two as the meshes do not need to be opened as wide to cover the 5 yards.

As can be seen although the drop and slack of a net are different aspects of a net, one affects the other, and combined go together to help create the bag.

BAG or kill

The bag or kill in a net is made up of many factors. From the amount of slack in the net, the depth of a net, how high the net is set, the angle the pegs are set at even the tension in the running lines can affect how much bag is in a net.

Basically, the bag in a net is the distance between the headline and foot line along the depth of the net. Let me try and explain a little better. If you place the headline and foot line together the net that hangs down is the bag. When you move the lines apart it reduces the depth of the bag. So if you had two nets exactly the same one set at two ft height and one set at 18 inches the latter net will naturally have more bag.

Of course if it was only that simple. Good depth of bag alone does not catch rabbits, bag also needs slack, to allow the rabbits to tangle.

It would seem that the more meshes you have the better a net would catch. But, it is a trade off between making the net manageable and still having good catching properties. A net that is over deep can be a nightmare to pick up and shoot. A net that has too many meshes will pick up nearly every bit of rubbish and attract some that was not there in the first place.

 

Hope this helps.

 

TC

 

[smithie 2,443]

slack i refer to as bagging and a drop for me is a place i put the net to catch..

 

above it says

 

When you move the lines apart it reduces the depth of the bag. So if you had two nets exactly the same one set at two ft height and one set at 18 inches the latter net will naturally have more bag.

 

for me this diescribes the belly of the net..

 

i think it varies in different locations and it will also depend who has taught you and the names they used.

[Mr Wilkes 2,979]

.....Smithie how dare you... you also forgot running out a net not shooting it

[smithie 2,443]

all the same original post was very informative

Edited April 29, 2013 by smithie

[Mr Wilkes 2,979]

.... .

[tilfertilfer 706]

nice one