Nobby wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:51 pm Returning to Snape's original post:
I read in my JB Walker catalogue that they claim to have supplied cane to Richard Walker for use in his Mark IV rod.
They made this claim for many years, and I guess that means nobody objected. So whose cane were they supplying? Their own, Southwells???
Why would RW go all the way to Hythe for his cane, when Croydon is so much nearer, though both would offer the same sort of postal service, surely...so why go to JB Walker?
Reading through this old thread has left me a bit confused. The early posts on the thread suggest that B. James was the supplier of RW's early rods and manufacturer of the subsequent rods that became on sale to the public. However, as Gurn posts above; RW wrote to J.B. Walker in September 1952, three days after his record catch and the contents of the letter are as follows:Gurn wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:52 pmI have a JB Walker catalogue in which there is a copy of a letter from RW thanking them for supplying the materials he used to make a rod that caught Clarissa, I think I have reproduced it somewhere on this forum but can't locate it. Will dig the catalogue out if necessary.Nobby wrote:Returning to Snape's original post:
I read in my JB Walker catalogue that they claim to have supplied cane to Richard Walker for use in his Mark IV rod.
They made this claim for many years, and I guess that means nobody objected. So whose cane were they supplying? Their own, Southwells???
Why would RW go all the way to Hythe for his cane, when Croydon is so much nearer, though both would offer the same sort of postal service, surely...so why go to JB Walker?
This letter was used by J.B. Walker as advertising at least up to the 1970's. The letter is formal so I do not think that J.B. Walker was related to RW, but it does indicate that J.B. Walker were part of the design and development process of the Mark 4 Carp Rod and that Ravioli / Clarissa was caught on a rod made from materials supplied by J.B. Walker, not B. James.
Also, Barry Rickards states in his RW biography that that RW was contacted by an angler asking where he could obtain a Mk. 4 rod as at that time only J.B. Walker were supplying them. RW offered the angler one of his own rods without charge which was duly collected just after the death of RW’s first wife. I believe that Ruth Walker died in early 1955. If this is correct it indicates that Mk. 4 Carp Rods were only manufactured or offered as kits by J.B. Walker until at least early 1955 and that they may have been in short supply and / or expensive.
So, unless the great man himself and the good doctor are confused I suggest that the early Mark 4 rods up to at least 1955 were made from materials supplied by J.B. Walker, although that still leaves the question of where J.B. Walker obtained his cane from in the 1950's.