I decided to make my own version, and due to not having any engineering capability I handcrafted a version of this net which I still own. Any further references to the first net refer to this one as documented here.
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Having bought a lathe I decided to resurrect this project. Unfortunately an unplanned visit to A&E meant this was not to be, as any resurrection was of a more personal nature. After a long convalescence which meant no carp fishing I turned my attention to general course fishing where I could fish for a few hours with a light load rather than long sessions with a plethora of tackle so the immediacy of this net was put to one side yet again.
Fast forward to about 3 months ago and I decided to start again. I had already made the spreader block in 2012 from a fantastic set of pictures I acquired. These had most of the components in close up and enabled a good guess to be made of dimensions and materials. The pictures I had were of a B James variant. Now during my search to track down a RW net I had done a lot of research of these nets in general, and although by no means an expert, I have my own thoughts on these. Richard Walker seems to have made these nets in keeping with his general philosophy that things were to be functional. All the pictures of his nets showed a practical hinge assembly, handle etc, with few embellishments or decoration. The spreader block continues to divide opinions as to what its construction material was, some showing a solid wooden block with weight saving holes tooled out and others with aluminium blocks, also tooled out. I think this is an area which will never be fully bottomed out, confusion made even more so by other peoples variations and also due to the fact that the spreader block was free fitting, once the net was broken down these could easily be lost and various replacements fashioned. Indeed I have also seen a block made of clear Perspex and when I queried it with the owner his explanation was simply that he had lost the original one and Perspex was chosen as it was light, easy to cut and file as a DIY project and free. A pic from one of Chris Ball’s Carpworld articles shows a similar set up
Whilst collecting the materials and waiting for a suitable start time it became apparent that others were travelling along a similar path, including a few members on here. Started by Barbulus, picked up by Beresford, a pre made kit project to look at the possibility to produce kit forms of these nets was started. Also at the same time having also spent years pondering these nets, Watermole+ started his net and has already posted his thread on here.
So at present there are three different projects on the go within TFF.
Beresford’s kit project, which is to make kits with the production element outsourced to a professional engineering company for a bulk order. These can then be made up to members own tastes and requirements.
Watermole+’s project which is to make 3 nets of varying designs, the first being an interpretation with artistic licence, greenheart being the wood of choice
My own version which I have decided to make as a 100% replica of the B James version which had a limited run of around 40 nets before being discontinued.
None of these projects are in competition, and indeed all of us have been corresponding with each other, swapping information and ideas. Indeed some of the final measurements that I required, fell into my lap courtesy of this correspondence.
So my net was to be a 100% replica of B James production net. This net is very much a “Plain Jane Net”. It is extremely functional and utilitarian in its appearance. There is no decorative whipping to either the arms or handle’ just a small functional bit to hold the net cord in place.. The spreader block is lightweight but simple wooden construction. The hinge piece is cast in alloy. For his net Dick Walker specified Duralinium and indeed in one of his diagrams he states a high melting temperature for the metal. Why would he specify this for a landing net? A feasable contention put to me was that this was a document meant for B James for casting the hinge piece for mass production. This would be a good way to keep down the costs and speed up the production, as once the mould had been made these could then be knocked out quickly and cheaply. I am happy to stand corrected by anyone who knows different, but it all does seem to slot into place with pictorial evidence. The B James spreader block does indeed seem to be cast alloy.
I am going to detail the build of this net, but not going to delve into machining methods, dimensions etc as these have been done with the usual superb detail by Watermole+ and his wonderful net he produced. So here we go.
First you take one of these.
Then you heat it, bend it, straighten it, hit it with various objects,file off the nodes, spend a long time sanding it until, stain it, varnish it until it looks like this.
Then you make one of these
As mentioned previously it has no embellishments, no decorating grooves, no step down to take whipping, just a plain ferrule. You then stick this on the pole so you have this
Job done.
Then you take some oak, some Tuffnol sheet and some screws, file, plane and sand until you have one of these.
Then you take one of these,
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Saw it in half until you have two of these,
Then you drill and bore out a hole until your ferrule goes in like this.
Then you cut out the slots for the arms, get all your best files out and file for a few days until you get one of these
Again, as mentioned previously this is a cast part replica and once the machining is done its then down to free form shaping using hand and eye co-ordination. Don’t underestimate this process, it’s long, it’s tedious but it produced the “look” I wanted.
You step back and wonder where all the metal has gone!
Then you make two of these
Then you check fit components. Remember this?
You then chuck this in the bin because now you can see it’s the incorrect size.
Then you start again and make another one of these like this
Then you get one of these
Cut 4 pieces, glue them together, plane and file them along both edge and faces until you get two of these
Then you assemble it all together so you have one of these.
These arms are then bound in Brass strips with a brass bush soldered in to provide a sleeve for the pins holding the arms.
Last little job left. You get one of these. You then use the cork to plug the bottom of the handle.
I would recommend that you don’t drink the bottle before attempting this as it can have disastrous effects on your project.
And there we have it. You now have one of these
If I’ve got it right it should be able to stand next to an original and look identical. A couple of years[/img] of use, slime, mud and varnish chips and it will look even better.
This is a modern mesh which is fish friendly and the only type allowed on the waters I fish. It will take a few months use for the loops to bed down as it’s a bit springy when new. I was going to make an older looking net out of 1 inch knotless mesh but as I’ll never use it, and the net is for using not displaying, I didn’t bother. It’s fairly straightforward though and the hardest bit is finding a suitable mesh in the first place.
Thanks for looking
Neil
EDIT: When originally making this net I had the dimensions and a set of pictures to guide me. The brass strips on the arms seemed to have no rivets or whipping so I assumed that these strips were just bonded on with glue, so I reproduced this effect for an authentic look, although this was difficult. I later printed another set of pics as the original ones printed from the images had suffered whilst using them in the workshop. Seeing the new prints from a much better printer and also in the outside daylight it was just about discernable that there were indeed five copper rivets in a zig zag pattern on each arm. I have since corrected my initial mistake and made copper rivets and put these in place on the arms as per the original nets to make the arms stronger and authentic.
Cheers
Neil
