The picture on the right is of a knotting hook worn on the left hand. You should make a knotting hook for the hand that you do not hold the knotting tool with.

• 1. Uncoil a foot or more of heavy aluminum wire. Hold your hand with the palm facing the floor. Place the end of the wire between your ring finger and pinkie at the base of the fingers so that the end sticks up slightly beyond the back of your hand and the rest of the wire is below the palm of your hand.

  2. Then, holding the larger portion of the wire, wrap it around your pinkie, moving it first towards the outside of your hand, then upwards, then over the top of your hand, and then down again between your pinkie and ring finger.

  3. Next bend the wire first towards your thumb and then up between the ring finger and the middle finger.

  4. Then bend it over the middle finger and down between the middle finger and the index finger.

  5. Then bend the wire towards the thumb so it extends straight out parallel to the floor. Cut the wire so that there is 2 1/4 inches extending out from your hand.

  6. Make a fist to adjust the bends in the wire to confirm to your hand. Remove the knotting hook from your hand and bend it as necessary so that when you put it back on it will lie close to the base of your fingers.

  7. Use rosary pliers to make a hook like the one shown in the picture. Notice that the wire bends upwards near the hook. Make this bend with pliers. Now make another very slight upward bend 1 cm back from the hook.

Try out the knotting hook. When using the knotting hook, you must push the hook past that strand you intend to pull through the groove in the knotting tool and then pull the hook back in order to hook the strand and pull it through the groove. Video

• • If it is hard to push the hook past the strand of cord you are trying to pull through the groove, try increasing the upward bends near the hook.

  • The hook should slide freely under the coils of the cord. If the hook scrapes against the knotting tool, you may need to shorten the short arm of the hook with wire clippers and or use the pliers to reduce the width of the hook.

• 1. Cut a 7 inch length of fine aluminum wire.

  2. Make a large loop at one end with rosary pliers. First bend the wire around the wide end of the rosary pliers then bend the base of the loop back using the small end of the pliers so that the loop is centered along the axis of the wire.

  3. Straighten the wire by holding the loop with one hand while pulling it between the thumb and index finger of the other hand and bending the wire opposite to any curvature it may have.

  4. Make the hook at the other end of the wire by creating a small 180 degree bend with the tip of the rosary pliers. Then "crush" the hook by squeezing the two arms of the hook together with a pair of needle nose pliers. Make sure it can easily pass through a bead.

  5. If necessary, open the hook slightly by gripping the short arm of the hook with needle nose pliers and pulling it away from the wire.

  6. Give the hook a slight back bend like the ones in the close up picture on the right.

  7. Use wire clippers to shorten, narrow, and sharpen the short arm of the hook by cutting the short arm diagonally from the outside of the hook at the base of the short arm to the inside of the hook at the end of the short arm.

You should make three threading rods. You may want to mark one of the rods by tying a small piece of brightly colored ribbon or yarn to the loop at the end. Use this threading rod for the Our Father beads. The marker will help you tell the difference between the rod holding the Our Father beads and the rod holding the decades. See How To Use The Tools for more information on how the threading rods are used.