Marco 'The Exe'

[Nailbourne]

I took a punt on E-bay for this, and it has just arrived. I'll stick some pics on in the next couple of days.

It's an 8' 2-piece split-cane rod with 22" cork handle. At first sight, it looked grand - especially as I got it for £25 inc. p&p! No complaints there.

On a second look, there seemed to be anomalies. There only four rings, including tip, and these are the simple porcelain-lined sort normally found on sea rods. All are whipped in black, as are the intermediate tyings. The ferrules are odd. The male is a traditional plain brass one; the female is shiny (steel?) with '15' stamped on it.

On the handle, the reel fittings are a fixed (pinned) pocket low on the rod, and a sliding ring. The fixed pocket, butt cap and shoulder collar are blacked; the sliding ring is bronzed.

The decals are in perfect condition. The varnish, though, can only be described as 'speckly'! Where the shoulder collar meets the cane, there is quite a large gap between.

Now, here's the conundrum - what the hell to do with it? I would guess that, if original, it's one of their early models. But is it original? I've not heard of 'The Exe' - it certainly isn't listed on here. The options are:

1. Leave it as it is.
2. Tidy it up cosmetically.
3. Replace the rings and ferrules and re-varnish.
4. Strip the whole thing back to bare cane (retaining the decals) and re-build.

Oh - the tip is a tad under 4mm dia.

Any thoughts, folks?

[Santiago]

I was the original bidder on that! So glad I did'nt win it. Good luck!

[Nailbourne]

Don't get me wrong, BF - I'm pleased with it! An 8' split-cane blank for £25 - can't be bad. If I go for option 4, it'll be a beautiful rod.

And it balances 7" above the handle.

[The Old Buffer]

Don't get me wrong, BF - I'm pleased with it! An 8' split-cane blank for £25 - can't be bad. If I go for option 4, it'll be a beautiful rod.

And it balances 7" above the handle.

You have really answered your own question. Strip it down to the bones and refurbish it to your hearts delight. I suspect that you will end up with something really special.

[Santiago]

NB I was only kidding! It looked good and worth a punt!

[Loop Erimder]

I'm all for stripping it right back and start again, I have just finished my Dawsons of Bromley after a year just a couple more coats of varnish on the tip section. Also I have stripped down a rod for a rebuild and have just finished the whippings on the butt section with the the butt guide too and looking good

[Paul F]

It sounds like a sheep in wolfs clothing.
strip the wolf off and it will be a cracker for you
go for it, your special 2014 project

[Nailbourne]

OK, then, I'll defer to your opinions - a complete rebuild! And this is what I'll do:

1. New splint-end reinforced suction ferrules.
2. Slim parallel cork handle (I can just stretch this to 23" up to the decals), with mushroom tip and LRH-style butt cap/button. Sliding dural reel rings (or dare I risk the expense and go for a pair of Hardy-style locking sliding fittings?).
3. Full open bridge Agatine-lined rings throughout (salvaged from the Marco Medway I've just re-furbished) with new matching tip ring (wish I could find a 'Corbett'-style one).
4. All whippings and intermediates in green silk (as per Medway).

How does that sound?

For such a powerful rod, it feels very light and balanced.

[The Old Buffer]

Marco rods do tend towards the robust but I must admit to their being up on the top of my favourite list.

I have just acquired an Arun which I will refurb in the new year and was considering whipping colours. Wallys-Cast suggested light green and I will have to give it some consideration.

[Nailbourne]

Firstly, a Happy New Year to you all!

Although I was going to wait until the rod was completed, I'm still awaiting the arrival of the components ordered, so thought I'd report on progress to date.

This is what the rod looked like when it arrived:




I started off by stripping off the rings, tyings and ferrules. Getting the first two off took half an hour, with a further half-hour scraping off the varnish. Despite gentle warming, the ferrules would not budge. Then I notice that they were pinned! Why people do this, I do not know! So, had to cut them off. Used a little padsaw to make a spiral cut from one end and, bit by bit, peeled off the ferrules with a pair of pliers. Filed the pins flush with the cane. Then posted the porcelain-centred rings to a deserving Forum member.
The tip ring was one of those with just two legs for whipping to the rod and, to facilitate this, the cane had been sliced off to accommodate them. Although this probably wouldn’t weaken the tip appreciably, it would look odd with the new tip ring. So I decided to build up these flats with thin slivers of cane and re-profile:



Originally, I’d intended to replace the cork handle completely, but then I thought, “Hold on – the handle’s just dirty and thicker (just over an inch) than I like.” So, I decided to keep the handle and sand it down to 7/8”, adding a couple of new shives at the top for a ‘mushroom’ cap. The tapered butt cap and rubber button are clean, so they’ll stay.
That was all for the first day, so I ordered new ferrules and a tip ring, plus new winch fittings and half a dozen new shives. By the time they arrive, the tip repair should be finished and all the fittings off the handle.
Using the ‘hand lathe’, I spent twenty minutes reducing the bulge at the top of the handle and slipped the pair of reel fittings off (having first covered the decals with two layers of masking tape). Worked down the handle removing the dirt and found, beneath, rather decent cork. True, there are some pits, and the holes where the reel fitting was pinned, But, most of these should vanish when the diameter is reduced.
The tapered shoulder collar’s in good nick, but so badly fitted it’ll have to be removed:



While waiting for the components to arrive, I addressed myself to building up the tip – not something I’d ever tried before. Taking a bit of garden cane, I split it and sanded down two thin tapering wedges, 3” long and about 1mm thick at the tip, tapering to a feather-edge. The two flats on the rod joint were filed flat and the two thin wedges glued in place using Araldite, tied tightly with twine:



While that was curing, I started on a couple of little jobs on the handle. The thread on the rubber button was slightly too long, so a short bit was cut off and the end tidied. Then the shoulder collar. Unable to remove it intact, I resorted to the padsaw and cut a spiral around it – it unpeeled a treat. Removed the bit of cork and the loads of gunk and thread underneath, and scraped back to the cane.

Two jobs this morning. First was the re-shaping of the tip. With the string off, it looked pretty rough (the wedges were made oversize). However, using my ‘sanding flats’, it took little time to shape the tip into a reasonable hexagonal shape. The two strips of cane that were glued on are far paler than the split-cane, but this won’t matter – half will be in the tip ring tube, and the rest will be whipped over. What s important is that the shape is right, and it’s stronger than it was.



The second job was to clean the varnish from around the decals and the signature. It would be easier to leave well alone, but this would leave a darker area just above the handle. I used the back of a Swann-Morton scalpel blade and, very gently, scraped the varnish away from each decal – not difficult as such, but needing care and not the sort of thing to be attempted after a few drams!



So now I'm sitting, twiddling my thumbs on New Year's Day, waiting for the post tomorrow and, I hope, the next few tasks!