My first cane fly rod, so far so good.

[Cane Newbie]

Hello out there, new here, new to cane rods.

Have put a post up with lots of photos in the Milward sub forum about trying to date and gain information on the Milwards Flycraft 9' i bought.


Have done some cleaning. The reel seat has come up nicely but no hiding serial numbers or other markings found.

The red rubber bung rotates but not undo, i assume it's a push fit. Been cleaning the guide eyes and they all match, some are a little worse for wear but i think on the cusp of useable will need replacing at some point.

Rod has been revarnished, and either varnish or shellac has been used on some of the whippings which are a nice green with black edges, done some fine scraping and dry brushing and aim to clear varnish over several whippings and repair/redo a couple.

The ferrule sockets on the butt and mid section are brass. What appeared to be rust pitting is layers of various varnish/shellac that have been chipped away over time, had a good clean up of 3/4 of the ferrule length, which being brass should dull over time.

Got excited and decided to have a flick about in the garden and a little try out with just line and no reel fitted.
I have a cut in half old double taper sinking line handy.
I tried first with the taper end and was able to hold up several meters of line with ease and was able to whip off the flowers on the magnolia tree.
I then reversed the line so sort of like a crude shooting head or WF with the bulk of the line weight being up. This didn't work so well but after several attempts i was able to bag a few more magnolia flowers and had to slow down my action and let the line load the rod and all catch up with itself.

Line is #8wt and rod didn't explode and the ferrule joints didn't separate or drift apart.

First go with a cane rod, quite likely line a bit heavy, but not as slow an action as i was expecting, maybe my modern rods are a bit slow as aimed at a beginner and using WF lines. Will be trying #7wt next, might have #6wt as well which from what i can tell seems to be a good starting point as the the Flycraft is not marked with a line rating.

Need some varnish next and found some old green silk thread to try and repair/redo some whipping over the weekend.

Then wait for the river to slow down and levels drop and have a go on the water.

IMG_0548.JPG

The top eye whipping has cleaned up nicely and is in good order. The middle and lower guides have cleaned up but going to try and rewhip them next, will do an after photo after my attempts are done.

I was going to use beeswax as a general final clean up and polish. So far this is coming in cheaper than the xxxbon rod i was thinking about, much more engaging and keeping an old one going.

[Catfish.017]

The rubber buttons sometimes degrade inside and lose their grip on the threaded metal part, hence the rotating but not undoing. You could try some release oil or WD40 to hopefully loosen the thread.

[Cane Newbie]

Thank you Catfish for explaining that one.

For now the rubber button is happy where it is, it is degraded and cracking and i assumed it was a push fit or glued in.

I didn't want to poke or pull at it as that will most likely finish it off.

IMG_0544.JPG

[Catfish.017]

Ahah that's a different button to what I envisaged; I doubt that has a metal thread attached as the body of the rubber is too slim. It probably is a push fit by the looks of it?

[Cane Newbie]

When it breaks up and drops out i have a nice collection of cork&wood whisky bottle stoppers to plug up the hole with

[Paul F]

Welcom to the forum.

It needs some work, but being milwards rod, it will be pretty good cane, and that is the key, good cane makes a good rod, I look forward to seeing the finished rod.

Search the rod restoration old post, you will find plenty of good tips, good luck with the restoration

[Barbelseeker]

Look forward to seeing the finished job

[Cane Newbie]

It's a work in progress and the more i look and guessing in it's at least 59 years of age.... it's been revarnished a few times and maybe re-ringed once, but the tip-eyes are matching clear agate, and all the guides match so it might be original guides ? i don't know.

I shall add more photos here as things progress but aiming to keep the works minor and functional.

A dab of varnish here and there, and some re-whippings (maybe 5) and some old beeswax to finish. It looked worse in the dim lighting of the shop and the layers of dirt but seems to be coming out of retirement happily.

[Barbelseeker]

Think if you look at this link, you will find your rod, in this Millward's Catalogue for 1937 - 38, page 3

https://splitcaneinfo.com/wp-content/up ... 937-38.pdf

So potentially could be 70+ years old

[Cane Newbie]

THANK YOU Barbelseeker.....

I have been searching but not found any viewable catalogues, only cover pages or dead links.

I found some text on the vintage cane forum across the pond but it was jumbled up a bit and lacked context, but elements of what i see on your link match that, it also stated it was copied from 1937/38 catalogue.

So from that catalogue i appear to have a Model No 8110 as i don't have an Ebonite reel seat of the top end 8111. I can also make out the ferrules appear to have an "Acorn" style end plugs as well.
I reckon the guides on mine have been replaced at some point, but the Agate rings are original, and original butt stopper was white rubber, but that would be a consumable part anyway so no surprise it's red and i expect a generic replacement part.

I have found mention of Mk II and Mk III Flycrafts with matching decals, so as the decal is missing and subject to seeing a later catalogue then i think it's safe to assume it "could" be and early rod.

To be honest it didn't look that old and i was expecting maybe late 1950's or early 1960's.

Thank you for posting that link, hopefully i have just saved that as a download.