Allcocks - Range of Rods

[PDuffield]

That's a label style I've never seen before, I wonder where that fits in the label chronology.

[PDuffield]

Thankyou pduffield for the info and pictures on the sapper rod,i am now enjoying myself on this site now and the members are very helpfull.
Dave

You're welcome Dave, happy to help. Glad you're enjoying the forum.

[Nobby]

It's generally thought that the gold oval labels are post WW2. The fine line drawings of the various rods in the Guides seem to confirm this. At a guess the first labels had the black 'italic' writing which was replaced by the bold red writing that continued until the tie up with Lee rods in 1965.

I can only presume that Dave's Sapper is pre-war, but it clearly has the gold and red 'livery' we'd expect later on. I too, have never seen such a label...a rare find indeed.

[DaveTheRod]

Hello again,just had a brain wave and went in my workshop,how lucky am i,i have another one,same rod with a perfect logo.

[PDuffield]

I wouldn't mind some of that luck myself Dave. Fantastic to see that logo in such complete condition, thanks for posting it.

[DaveTheRod]

I have got rid of a lot of rods now,at one stage i had 220 cane rods,i collected them over a 15 year period,i still find rods in my stock pile i forgot i had(inluding the sapper with the perfect label)

[The VFC]

Excellent stuff - many thanks for sharing Dave. I wonder how many "named" rods were given that particular label type - The Brownie and Melody perhaps? I do so prefer a name - however inane some of them appear - to a boring old id number.
Jim

[The VFC]

Not a salmon rod for sure,its a bit like a lucky strike 11ft long.if it works here is a picture of the logo.

Sorry Dave - didn't mean to imply yours could be a salmon rod: was merely muddying the "Sapper" waters further!

[DaveTheRod]

I never took it that way and you did not need to say sorry,it is great when the answer dont smack you in the face and you need to do a bit of research to maybe find a answer,but we all know some of the answers will never be answered,
Dave

[Nobby]

Good grief! He's got two of them!!


How extraordinary.

Sometimes names seem only to suit the times in which they were popular. Sapper probably conjures up something along the lines of the American insult of sap, or dope, these days, meaning someone who is a fool as though they had been drugged or struck on the head, but the word sapper actually has military origins. I'd thought it was a slang term for the Pioneer Corps, but I was a bit off-base:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapper


By an extraordinary co-incidence there was a TV programme on about the Sappers of WW1 a couple of nights ago....burrowing beneath German fortifications for many months ( all the more dangerous due to the constant shelling above) to plant bombs so huge that the craters are still there to this day.

It was thought the Front would never be advanced beyond a terrible stalemate without their efforts and bravery.

It might well be that the average Tommy thought them utter heroes and saviours after such a task and the word Sapper meant so much more in those days, and the immediate years afterwards than it does to us now?