Leash Hardware Selection
One of the federal requirements for keeping a hawk is having the proper equipment present during an inspection. Further than that, the leash and clips are a fundamental tool for handling, aid in keeping your hawk under control, and prevents the hawk from hurting himself. You don’t want to loose control of your hawk, or worse, have her escape.
With that said, it’s important to have a sturdy, trusted leash system set up and ready to go as one of your essential tools. Falconers do not believe in occasional equipment failure for a leash. There is zero room for error here, so it’s important to select the proper hardware.
Sampo Swivel, #5-8
This is a must-have piece of equipment for any falconer and no substitute should be accepted. Use the large #8 size for red-tails, ferrugs, and eagles. Choose a smaller size to match your perigrine, praire, or saker falcons. Some folks think that the #8 swivel, which is rated to 500 lbs. strength, is a little overkill for a 3-4 lb. bird. In a world where equipment failure is unacceptable, there is no such thing as overkill. Therefore, a #8 is the most popular for apprentices who choose a red-tail for their first bird. In order to prolong the life of your Sampo, make sure to connect the leash end to the ‘neck’ side of the swivel and the jesses to the ‘barrel’ side. That way, dirt doesn’t enter into the ball-bearing part of the swivel and wear out the ball-bearings with the dirt grinding away at the mechanics.
Clips
There are four main types of clips that most falconers use:
- French Clip
- Snap Shackle
- Carabiner
- Trigger clip
There are positives and negatives to using each type. The ultimate decision is up to the falconer on what type to use, under what circumstances to use, and which type is most comfortable. There is always the debate on the falconer’s knot, but I’ll get to that later.
French Clip
Easy quick-release and very sturdy. May be easily connected with one hand for quick release situations. Great for car hawking and field-release situations. Not recommended for long-term tethering solutions or footy birds. Some hawks have been known to accidentally undo the clip from the jesses by stepping on the clip, thus releasing the pressure. Another side note here is that the French Clip often comes with it’s own swivel. It’s not quite as finely crafted as the Sampo Swivel, so what I did was I took off the attached swivel mechanism on the French Clip and replaced it with a Sampo. Of course, in order to be able to do this, I needed to remove the solid ring from the barrel side of the Sampo and replace it with a split ring. This setup works really well.
Trigger Clasp
I was unable to find many pros or cons about this little gem. Honestly, I haven’t found any cons for using this piece of hardware yet. The trigger clasp is usually found next to dog leashes or the key-ring supplies, it allows for quick release with the ease of one hand. I like to use these on the glove-end of the leash, for easy connection to gloves, belts, and the handle on the Giant Hood.
Snap Shackle
This is a specialist item that comes from a marine supply store. You can find them on the most popular falconry vendor sites, but they are much cheaper in the marine supply store. Highly durable, easy to undo and snap together with one hand.
Carabiners
There are multiple sizes and shapes of carabiners, but the best, and most effective ones come with the screw-gate to dissallow any accidental openings. There are several sizes, shapes, and colors for carabiners and they have multiple handy uses. I would suggest keeping several handy in your falconry kit for hanging things off your vest, connecting leashes to gloves, securing lures for trade-off, and binding things together. Always handy to have around.
Items
In the picture above, I’ve numbered the hardware to demonstrate various sizes and shapes. The grid below the picture is has a scale of one inch.
- #8 Sampo Swivel
- Trigger Clasp
- Snap Shackle
- Small Screw Biner
- Chain Link Screw Biner
- Carabiner (metal link)
- #6 Sampo Swivel Clip
- #2 Swivel Clip
- French Clip
- Various Size Carabiners
- Screw-Gate Carabiner
Conclusion
There are a wide variety of different hardware that can be used to tether your hawk from your glove, to the leash, and then to the jesses. With the wide range of uses, purposes, and strengths, I’m sure that all the configurations would work to some extent. I think the bottom line on selecting the proper setup for you is to choose the one that you are most comfortable using for your falconry needs.
Once you have selected your hardware, you can view the tutorial “How-to” for making a leash for your raptor.