The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

its looking nice paul,made in 1952 to celebrate the festival of great britain i understand.

Lovely job, my own restoration by Andrew Davis still has to be fully flexed !
Tight lines
Dave

Beautiful job, well done!

produced in 1952 to celibrate the festival of great britain,compound tapers to mid and tip sections,powerfull rods

Hopefully I can clarify a couple of points.

The Festival of Britain was held during the summer of 1951 (not 1952), and I believe that Robert Sealey of Precision Rods (the trading name of Bernard Sealey & Co.) designed 2 rods to celebrate the event ... the 'Festival,' and the 'Festival Avon.' These were very different rods.

The 'Festival' is the less powerful of the two. An 11ft. rod, it has a whole cane butt section, and two split cane upper sections. I have seen reference to variants which were produced with a) centre and tip sections with straight tapers, b) a centre section with a compound taper and a straight tip taper (I have one of these), c) a straight taper centre section and a compound taper tip, and finally d) one with compound tapers in both the centre and tip sections. Whether these were produced as 'developments' of the original rod over time, or built to customer commission we'll never know ... especially as it appears that Precision Rods never produced a catalogue. The 'Festival' is a sublime tench rod.

The 'Festival Avon' is a much more powerful rod, and is a rare as hen's teeth. It is also 11ft. in length, and also comprises a whole cane butt with split cane centre and tip sections. However, it has a large diameter whole cane butt section, and steep step-down compound tapers in both the centre and tip split cane sections. This was Precision Rods barbel rod, and has the power to handle powerful fish in flowing water.

These rods are often confused, and in the past I have been offered two 'Festivals' by owners believing they had a 'Festival Avon.'

The rod shown in this thread, and that shown in my own thread ( viewtopic.php?f=309&t=18241 ), are 'Festivals.'

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion.

Nice rod Paul, shows the difference that a good refurbishment can make.

Very nice restauration!

Looks fantastic, I have to ask, how did you remove the varnish over the writing?

JW

A little bit gorgeous!

A little bit gorgeous!