Bob Southwell Rodmaker

[Nigel Rainton]

Bob Southwell made a rod, commissioned by an angler from British Colombia, at Peter McVeys workshop over a weekend. From culm to fully built and fitted out. Perhaps it was a long, Friday through Monday weekend? It may well be the rod featured in the film. First hand information, not gossip. What an amazing man.

[Plumtart]

February 2023. I've only just picked up on this posting. What a wonderful find. To think, he had no idea how highly history would regard his work. The natural heir to his oeuvre is obviously Edward Barder, whose methods are very much handed down from Southwell and Oliver. Edward uses a bevelling machine, but essentially it's the same process.

I was staggered at the seeming brutality of his cane handling, but those were the actions of a supreme artisan. The completed original Southwell rods I've owned have not been beautifully finished. By the standards of the time they were OK, but nothing much to write home about when compared to modern rods by Gladstone, Barder, and their like. I wonder whether Southwell handled, whipped and varnished his blanks, or whether he had others to do that work.

[Nigel Rainton]

I think I read somewhere that he gave the completed blanks to a woman (women) to finish before they were sold in his fathers shop. A lot of his blanks were also sold to rod suppliers for completion.

[Plumtart]

Nigel Interesting. Similarly, B.James' early rods were whipped (and I suppose varnished) by frank Murgatt's wife. I was aware that Bob made hundreds of blanks for other finishers, so what surprised me on seeing the film, was just how basic his working methods were. He was working at speed, but to have produced as many rods as he undoubtedly did, is astonishing. It's nor difficult to find imperfections in Southwell rods, but they were, and remain, some of the finest blanks ever to be produced.

Another snippet. Bob made what were described as 'rod tops' in quantity. Replacement rod tips for sale in string. ACT tackle in Sydenham, London, had a stack of them standing in a length of cast iron drainpipe, just inside the door.

[Nigel Rainton]

" It's nor difficult to find imperfections in Southwell rods"

Yes, I have four of his fly rods and the finish is not comparable with Barder. I don't think that we should judge his rods by modern standards.
At least his rods don't have bulging gloops of resin on the whippings !

[Nigel Rainton]

"There is a feature on Bob Southwell in the latest Classic Angling (issue 142)."

Where can I read this ?

[Nigel Rainton]

Rod,

Thank you, I ordered the current issue :-)