Nathan Say Posted November 15, 2002 Share Posted November 15, 2002 My great uncle was a blacksmith who made harpoons @ a whaling station in the Queen Charlotte's way back & he says that the most important part of hand/grip strength is that drumstick-lookin part of the palm at the base of the thumb. Coming from a guy who spent ~30yrs working with his hands that sounds right. Didn't Joe Kinney say that was really the key also? I can't remember where I read that. PS my great uncle was there when they caught that Cadborosaurus & whenever someone wants to know about it, they ask him because he's the only one still around. (that .jpg is smaller than the original, the original has people next to that thing) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McMillan Posted November 15, 2002 Share Posted November 15, 2002 Interesting about the lizard/snake thingy...never heard about it until now. Kindof cool having a realitive tell a story about something like that first hand!! Jon@han Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Say Posted November 15, 2002 Author Share Posted November 15, 2002 Yeah but he says the most important thing about hand/grip strength is the thumb, just like Joe Kinney said, that was my point. He knew that ~60yrs ago when he was smithing it up. I'm going to go visit him tomorrow & see if did any heavy lifting or if he knew anyone who did any heavy lifting back then. I bet he did, working @ a whaling station way up north. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sybersnott Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 Nathan, Take a camera and get some pics of his shop... especially the anvil he used. Also ask him if he ever performed any feats of strength whenever he got bored. If he did, ask him WHAT did he do? Can he do any Anvil Lifting (lift by horn or over the top)? Good Luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RobbyTooSlobby Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 Great post. I got into grip strength because of an injury to my thumb. So I am very interested in that theory about the thumb being so important. Very interesting about that "cadborosaurus." How come we never hear about things like this? You'd think you'd hear about when they find a dinosaur/sea serpent in the ocean ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik_F Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 I also believe that the thumb is really really important. It makes the hand work like one unit. Without the thumb the hand is much much weaker. I have heard of an expression somethinh like this: "If you dont train your thumb, you are only training half of your grip!". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woody36 Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 The thumb is also important when hitchhiking, Guy's with no thumbs, usually get left at the side of the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 Nathan, Please ask him about the weights of dock anchors-not ship anchors. MacAskill's 'lift' of an anchor was probably a dock anchor-used to secure the ship to the dock. Ask him if he knows about such poundage. Please. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Say Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 Nathan,Please ask him about the weights of dock anchors-not ship anchors. MacAskill's 'lift' of an anchor was probably a dock anchor-used to secure the ship to the dock. Ask him if he knows about such poundage. Please. Thank you. He said he'd never heard of a dock anchor before. He said there were Kedge anchors, Navy Standard anchors.... etc & a couple others I can't remember. But he did know who MacAskill was though because I said there was a guy from the internet ( ) who wanted to know what kind of anchor the guy would have lifted & he says '...ohhhh Angus MacAskill yeah he was really strong...' I asked him what kind of anchor he would have lifted & he said most likely a Kedge anchor which weighed 1200-1500lbs (I didn't want to argue with him there-if you knew him you'd understand) because as he let it go he stabbed himself in the back with one of the pointy bits & punctured a lung & that's how he died. That's just what he told me, I don't know much about how he died or anything. Hey speaking of strong guys, he worked with a Norwegian guy named Larson who got a huge anvil (>200lbs) tied a lash under the horn & another under the other end, put them together & lifted it with his pinkie, straddle-style. He said the guy didn't look like much & they used to joke about it, but he had big wrists & hands, at least compared with the rest of his arms. Other stuff he told me about: -he worked in Halifax also (probably where he learned about MacAskill) & in the middle of winter one yr there was a blizzard & walking 10m felt like 10km (etc etc) to the shop & then once he got there he had to go around & it was so cold inside (it was just corrugated sheetmetal) you could have had a cup of boiling water & 2ft away a cup of ice. They got the heater/stove so hot that the whole thing + the chimney was bright red & it still wasn't warm enough. (I guess it doesn't get that cold anymore) -he & a friend found a bag of 6 steaks in the shop one day & thought what the #### so they cooked a couple up on the forge & he said it was the best steak he ever had ever. They never found out who they belonged to. -he built his crushing grip by using his tongs nonstop every day & lifting huge hunks of metal with them, just like John Brookfield's plier lifts. If you've got a big drumstick-looking thumb, you've got super strong hands. His aren't doing too good anymore though because of his bad carpal-tunnel business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMMERHEAD Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 -Nathan Great post. I really enjoyed reading about your great uncle. It's always great hearing the stories and adventures of the old crusty guys who were great men before we were children. -HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMMERHEAD Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 -Nathan Great post. I really enjoyed reading about your great uncle. It's always great hearing the stories and adventures of the old crusty guys who were great men before we were children. -HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruffhans Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 there must be something to that fishing stuff! awhile back i was tlking to a guy who said his father worked on a fishing boat and had the strongest hads he had ever seen. he said his father wored on pulling in the nts ALL day long. when his father got home he could not open his hands, so his wife would take some kind of hot oil, (he said) and rub them out. he also said his fathers hands where like leather due to the saltwater! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Say Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 Did he have.... ruffhans? :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Nathan, When I was researching about Angus MacAskill, I spoke to an expert about anchors. He mentioned that the size of anchor attributed to the Angus incident would most likely have been used to anchor a ship when it was at dock, rather than when at sea. He did not use the term dock anchor, I used it to be descriptive. Nonetheless, thanks for asking your great uncle about it. Sounds like an interesting man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruffhans Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 nathen: He did have.....ruffhans! even ruffer than mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McMillan Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Anyone ever see those tv specials about the most dangerous jobs. Ice crab fisherman always seems to rank up in the top. They use their hands so much in such miserable conditions they get what is known as "crabbers claw" and their hand is stuck in a half clench. ??? Great tales Nathan!!! Jon@han Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Say Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 Sounds like an interesting man. That's what everybody says. He's collected so much stuff over the years he could open his own museum or something. (but he's already given a couple things to the Royal BC Museum) He's got a little workshop in his backyard just to play around w/stuff, & covering one wall is a bookshelf filled with old tobacco tins & in every one there's all kinds of stuff in each one, like misc nuts & bolts, whale eardrums, old tools & who knows what else. I used to go through them all when I was little but can't remember what else he's got. Then on the outside, in begind the shop he's got old boat parts, like rusty old props, more tools, stuff that looks like its got no use, etc. His basement has the best stuff though, like every issue of National Geographic since the 30s (or 20s?), loads of scrimshaw (=carved/etched whale's teeth, illegal to do it now of course so probably worth a fortune), ~20 bicycles in various states of disrepair, ~10 lawnmowers, 2 super-old cameras he thinks are junk because they're not new & spiffy.... on & on. He's just kept everything because he doesn't think anyone would want any of it & he's not interested in getting for any money because he's been collecting a pension for the last 35yrs+ & never spent any on anything but groceries & bills so it's not like he needs more. I went to visit him because he just gave me more money than anyone's ever given me before so of course I was totally shocked & had to go say thanks uncle Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom of Iowa2 Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 e-bay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notus Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 I'm beginning to think you're dead on about the importance of the thumb in hand strength. It seems there are relatively few real world grip tasks where the thumb is not involved. On a note of personal observation... take for example giving a strong handshake. I've noticed recently that I have a much stronger handshake if instead of just curling the fingers toward the palm like you would with a gripper, I feel like I'm putting my thumb through the persons hand toward my fingers. Let me interject that someone in another thread recently said that you should match the other person's grip strength and that trying to crush someone's hand is "socially inept". I couldn't agree more. In fact the only reason I started thinking about the whole handshake issue was from receiving several crushed-hand attempts during hand shakes from a string of socially inept people. It's actually been quite comical a couple of times, this one guy looked me straight in the eyes and just squeezed as hard as could... to the point where I could feel the muscles in his forearm start to shake. But handshakes are a big thing in the south, much more so than in California where I grew up. Anyway I've had a much stronger handshake since I've started using my thumb to squeeze too. And I have to admit that it has been fun to give a little crush back to someone with a smile when they decide to get into a ridiculous pissing contest during an otherwise pleasant social custom. Happy crushing, Elias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRBeyers Posted November 19, 2002 Share Posted November 19, 2002 I have to echo the sentiment, great stuff Nathan. The only guy I know who closed the #2 on his first try was my friend Billy. He has never even seen the inside of a gym, but has worked on fishing boats out of Cape May, and Point Pleasant, NJ all of his adult life. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted November 20, 2002 Share Posted November 20, 2002 John Y. Smith of Boston spent many years at sea, and Paschall described Young's hands this way: "We recall how one of our friends looked at his hand in disgust...the inside cords which connected the fingers to the wrist stood out like webbing on the feet of a duck". Young won the 'Strongest Man in New England' title when he was age 60- and that was an open, not age-categorized competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul valpreda Posted November 20, 2002 Share Posted November 20, 2002 Joe, Interesting tidbit. I bet that this description of Young's hands is exactly how your hands look these days, am I correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 Yup, the tendons flare like Zamfir's pan flute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom of Iowa2 Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 the tendons on my arm look like Slim Whitmans adams apple. Do you have the Zamfir collection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 No, I wasn't even sure how to spell Zamfir. But I was confident how to spell pan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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