Anyone know anything about these rods? Are they using the RW name by licence or something?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HARDY-8-9-FAR ... 500wt_1202
Richard Walker rod
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Weyfarer
Re: Richard Walker rod
They date from early 1980s. Walker worked with the people at Farnborough (using conections he had re his wartime work on radar) to explore the potential of carbon fibre (as a mix with glass) for use in fishing rod construction. This led to collaboration with Hardys to produce the first carbon rods in the UK (aka graphite in the US). That is why the rod you see for auction has the inscriptions "Farnborough" and "Richard Walker".
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Haydn Clarke
Re: Richard Walker rod
Weyfarer wrote: This led to collaboration with Hardys to produce the first carbon rods in the UK (aka graphite in the US). That is why the rod you see for auction has the inscriptions "Farnborough" and "Richard Walker".
And also led to the infamous patent that Hardy took out , more of which can read about here — http://www.anglingheritage.org/article~nid~21.htm — Had RW and Hardy not limited the cabon content to 25% in its patent then they would not have suffered half the financial problems they had and quite possibly would have been bigger than Shimano, Diawa, Sage, Orvis and countless others all together.