The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I was just about to pm you and say the new site is up...and the tip has gone up in price to £103 inc. VAT.

I hope you got all you need at a good price.

I see the new site shoes silks, reel bands and butt caps as well as rubber buttons for sale too.....

Whilst awaiting the arrival of the Chapman's order, I've stripped the butt and middle sections, cleaned the cork and button, and removed and cleaned the ferrule from the broken tip section.

The button has turned into a nice cream beneath the muck, so I'll be adopting Beresford's suggestion of a dark blue and cream colour scheme for the whipping.



I'll edge either side of the transfers, which I left masked off during the stripping, with cream whipping.



There are black marks where the old guides were ... but as I'm using the same positions they will be whipped over so not obtrusive.

Wow, that had some dark old varnish on it, didn't it?


And you got the ferrule counter off too....you're well on the way!

When you fix the counter to the new tip do a dry run a few times to make sure you have a good fit, you'll might need to whip some string on the cane to get a good snug fit if it is loose and it keeps the glue from being pushed out.


There's 3 methods to fix a tight counter:

One is to round the cane with a file to accept a small counter.

Two is to glue on six thin fillets to increase the size of the cane to fit a counter

Three is to heat the cane and compress it in a round clamp to accept the counter. Chapmans use this third method as it's quick and doesn't lose any power fibres which filing would do. So far, I've only used the first method, but it has gone OK.

If your new tip already fits into the counter then you have that blessed fourth option...just string and glue...no need to do anything else.

It's quite likely that you'll need to straighten the cane afterwards as ferrules and counters never go on quite true. Sighting down the joined middle and tip sections should show you whats needed and you usually only need heat to about 70 degrees C...just too hot to hold for more than three seconds. However your fingers will draw off a lot of that heat and as the counter may get very hot, you might want to use the middle joint and its ferrule to exert the required effort to tweak the hot cane 'straight'.

Don't shove them together too firmly in case they should jam whilst hot.

If it goes wrong, just do it again until it goes right. It isn't as daunting as it sounds and you might like to give yourself a bit of confidence by practicing with a bamboo bbq skewer and a night-light candle.

You'll find the skewer cane goes 'plastic' and can be bent permanently long before any colour is taken on by the cane. Do a few skewers bend them and then straighten them again and you'll be reminded what a marvellous material bamboo actually is!
It's sort of like re-setable fibreglass!

Thanks for keeping tabs on me, Nobby. It never ceases to delight me what a fund of experience and expertise is so freely given here on the TFF.

I've already been using the old broken tip section firstly as a test for paint stripper and scraping (which I used the back of an old penknife blade to do as I found that if I was tempted to press too hard the blade started to fold which told me to ease off), and secondly as a practice piece for heating and bending.

Blimey! You're way ahead of me.

The thread arrived in this mornings post. It's lighter than it looked in the picture, but I've made a start.



Edited to say ... having started I hated the light blue, and rushed onto the net to order a 1oz spool of Fishhawk Navy Blue. More waiting for the post to arrive !!!!! (I MUST learn the difference between Royal Blue and Navy Blue !!! Doh !!! :think: )

The Navy Blue thread arrived this morning and I'm much happier, so I've made a start.

That does look nice AshbyCut. :thumb:

Thanks, but like my school reports, Mark ... "could do better" ... but it I'm enjoying it !

Very good that hope mine will as good when I start one day