HOMEMADE HARPOON FROM MEXICO

Ever had the desire to go skin diving? That is what I did for the better part of my youth in Mexico.
I have very good friends there and here. I remember one day going to my friends house and he asked me if I wanted a harpoon to fish with. Of coarse I said yes so we started gathering the components to build it with. These are the components needed.

  1. One 2"x4"x 2'
  2. One bucket handle.
  3. One car antenna ( the old style )
  4. One 1/8 x 1"x 8" flat stock iron bar.
  5. A handful of rubber bands.
  6. A car tire inner tube ( old style )
  7. One motor cycle spoke.
  8. One eye bolt and two nuts.
  9. A file.
10. A hammer.
11. A hack saw.
12. An old machete.
13. A hand drill
14. 6' of nylon string

The first thing we done was to cut the board into an pistol shaped design.
Then we drilled a hole for the eye bolt.
We then installed the eye bolt which was longer than the width of the board.
We tapered one end of the flat stock into the shape of a very dull knife edge then bent the flat stock into a gradual S shape with the lower end of the S shape a little less curved and the upper part more pronounced.
Then we cut the inner tube into long strips of rubber aprx. 1/4" wide.
With those, we strapped the flat stock to the handle part of the board.
We cut the car antenna to aprx. 6" long and strapped it to the top and front of the board.
We cut strips of inner tube to aprx. 1" wide and 12" long then folded it in half and with the rubber bands strapped it to the eye bolt on both sides of the board.
We then took the motor cycle spoke and bent it into the omega shape and hooked it onto the folded end of the rubber inner tube on each side of the board and wrapped it with more rubber bands.
Then we began to work on the bucket handle, first we straightened it, then we cut a notch like that of an arrow on the end, then we notched the first notched on the side close to the end and after that aprx. 1" apart a few more notches , that way the omega bar would set into the end notch and the flat stock edge would set into the notches on the side of the bar ( bucket handle ).
Then we took the bar and with the machete and hammer and cut an edge on both sides of the front end of the bar then forced them outward, then we filed down the front into point. then about 4" back from the front we with the file cut a grove for to tie the nylon string onto the bar and the other end we tied it to the eye bolt and waa laa , we were done.  without the string that thing would shoot the harpoon bar aprx. 35' - 45'.  Boy , did we catch a lot of fish.
The bad part about it is that now I have no patience with fishing poles and line.
Give me a harpoon any day. EXCEPT IN WINTER HAHAHA.
Anyways , hope you enjoyed this moment of time.