Tin Squids only they're not tin.

[Husky]

I posted this in my regular haunt in the Hard Bait Forum, but I thought maybe some of you here might find this interesting. It's really old school.

I thought to post this up as it dawned on me that a great many people here have never saw let alone fished a true "Tin Squid".

Back, during the Eisenhower Administration, when I was cutting my teeth by hanging around the Tackle Shops of Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay, Cy from Cys Tackle on W 16th St taught me this: We used to make our own tin squids. They came out of the mold flat. Cy taught me that to have them work properly, they should be bent so that the head and tail are parallel. Tin was quite maliable and allowed for "Field" adjustments.

Now that finding tin is like finding hens teeth, I've resorted to using a lead, zinc, antimony alloy for my "Tins." As I only make personal use sized lots, I made this mold from Bondo. It wasn't practical to have them plated (the alloy dulls and tarnishes and doesn't have that bright patena that tin has) so I was force to improvise. First I had to bend the lures when they were still very warm. I then cleaned away the flash and spue.

Then what I did was spray the lure with spray adhesive and foil it with aluminum foil, first one side then the other. Once the adhesive thoroughly dried I coated it with Devcon 2 ton. Heres how it turned out. The top one was foiled, the bottom isn't yet.

These lures are 4.5" long and weigh about 3.3 oz.

FYI what weighs 1 oz. in lead will weigh only 5/8 oz in Tin.

The SHINE.

The Bend

[Party Crasher]

You should be able to get tin from a local supplier. I buy it in 1 pound bars. This is new tin, not scrap. It stays shiny or can be polised up if it does get a little dull.

[Husky]

You should be able to get tin from a local supplier. I buy it in 1 pound bars. This is new tin, not scrap. It stays shiny or can be polised up if it does get a little dull.

I wore out two yellow pages and one keyboard looking for the stuff, locally. I only want as a much as I can get, ;-)

What does it cost per pound, now?

[Party Crasher]

I get mine from a place called Acro Sales in Menomonee Falls, WI (262-781-8940). They also have a website www.acrosales.com. I found them by getting a business to business yellow pages for my state and looking up "Tin". Right now Tin is at a recent-history all-time high at about $4.95 per pound in these one pound bars. That is for quantities of less than 50 pounds. Then there would be the shipping to get it to you. But, there has to be someone close to you that sells it. I have also bought it from several scrap yards in different forms. Mostly it was some kind of tubing that I had to cut up to fit in the pot. The scrap yard stuff ran around $3 to $3.50 per pound but I sometimes had to wash it. And even then there was something left inside the tube that would smoke and stink when I melted it. But this stuff from Acro Sales is pure tin. It's beautiful stuff. Really shiny. Then if you want, brush some devcon on the finished lure and it stays chrome-like for a long time.