Hand net frame

#The present invention relates to a hand net and, more specifically, to a hand net frame, which has an outer appearance intimate to the nature that does not frighten the fish.

#A regular hand net is comprised of a hand net frame and a net suspended from the hand net frame. In early days, the hand net frame was made of wooden material. However, due to limited natural resources, metal and compound material, for example, fiber reinforced plastics are used instead of wood. These materials have a lightweight and high mechanical strength, however they have numerous drawbacks as outlined hereinafter.

#1. Because regular metal and fiber reinforced plastic materials for hand net frame do not cause a sense of nature and tend to reflect light, the hand net tends to frighten the fish when used by the user to catch the fish.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a hand net frame fastened to a net according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a sectional view in an enlarged scale taken along line 2—2 of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 3 is a sectional view in an enlarged scale taken along line 3—3 of FIG. 1.

#Referring to FIGS. from 1 through 3, a hand net frame 10 of the first preferred embodiment is incorporated with a net 12, forming a hand net 14. The hand net frame 10 comprises a main body 20, a wooden covering layer 28, and a protective layer 29.

#The main body 20 comprises an annular head 22 and a shaft 24 extended outwards from the periphery of the head 22 at one side. The head 22 has string holes 23 for the binding of the strings of the net 12. The head 22 and the shaft 24 have a solid structure formed by rolling up laminated fiber reinforced plastic sheet materials into shape (see FIGS. 2 and 3). In fabrication, two ends of the bonded fiber reinforced plastic sheets of the head 22 are arranged in parallel and bonded together to form the shaft 24. In actual manufacturing process, the main body 20 can be made of fiber reinforced thermoplastic or thermosetting materials. Fiber materials can be selected from epoxy resin-coated carbon fibers, glass fibers, boron fibers, or high strength Kevlar (trade name) fibers.

#The wooden covering layer 28 covers the whole surface of the main body 20. In fabrication, the wooden covering layer 28 is wound round the main body 20 and fixedly adhered to the surface of the main body 20. According to the present preferred embodiment, the thickness of the wooden covering layer 28 is about 0.1 mm. However, it is acceptable to have the thickness of the wooden covering layer 28 within the range of 0.05 mm˜1.0 mm.