The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Evening all, as you may know i have a bit of an obsession with Marco rods and like many of yoi i have wondered what the no’s just above the handle refer to , in the last few weeks i have been restoring my Marco rods , the Exe , the Medway , the Arun and the unknown rod -possibly the Avon .Of these rods they were all in original condition when i recieved them and 3 of them had serial no’s on ,the Avon did not , i have stripped all of them down , eyes - whippings - reel bands-buttons and ferrules leaving just the blank and the cork handles , i have weighed each rod and have taken a cork roughly the same size of 1 shrive and bored an hole in the centre roughly the size of the blank , i jave then counted how many on each of the rods handles and worked out the weight , i have tgen weighed the stripped rods and deducted the weight of the shrives , now if my calculations are correct ( maths is not my strong point ) then the no’s on the Marco rods is actually the weight of the blank , i can’t see why they would do this but the weight is always within a few digits of the no’s on the rods , i have taken the fact that the rods may havve gained or lost moisture over the years
What are your thoughts ? Is it a stupid suggestion and my maths is along way out ?

Richard How did you work out the weight Ounces or Grams ?

These are 2 i have

Marco Avon



Marco Medway De-Luxe

I worked it out in oz , your Medway may have just blown my idea out the window unless you have a very heavy version

My Marco beach rod (Possibly "Nymph"?? The label is damaged), has the number 72 stamped into the aluminium in two places. Is this the serial number? I thought at first it might be a part number, but the two parts are very different.

Many older rods, especially Hardy's had the blanks/sections numbered to show that it was a fitted set. Often like #72.

Not having any Marco rods I cannot comment that it is a weight - but find it doubtful - would more likely be serial numbers

Barbelseeker wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:29 am Many older rods, especially Hardy's had the blanks/sections numbered to show that it was a fitted set. Often like #72.

Not having any Marco rods I cannot comment that it is a weight - but find it doubtful - would more likely be serial numbers

Thanks. I think you're right. Makes sense.

Here is typically a rod (Hardy Carbon) showing the serial rod, and the rod fitted set number below the male spigot of butt section. This number is replicated on the female & male section of the middle section and female section of the top section.

Thanks again. The Marco (beach rod) number 72 is on the male and female ferule parts of the Sea rod, although there could be one on the butt the is obscured by fittings. Going by your rod numbering, I am inclined to think that the "72" may be the final two digits of a longer serial number.
Incidentally, the hand painted serial number on my Marco "Test" rod is on the butt section only.