Playfair Grant Vibration greenheart rod

[Barbelseeker]

My notes - indicate this:

C Playfair of Aberdeen, 14’ Grants vibration Greenheart spliced salmon rod, 3 piece. In original 4 compartment bag, with room for 2 tips, suggesting that 1 has been lost or broken, complete with splice protectors. ( 1 original, 3 replacements)
Circa 1910

[Sevilla315]

If you decide to sell it, please let me know. I'll pass the information to the group, one did say he was looking for a 14' Playfair. Some pictures and an indication of price would be good, perhaps ping me privately if you prefer, or I can just take a contact email and they can liaise directly.

[Sevilla315]

My notes - indicate this:

C Playfair of Aberdeen, 14’ Grants vibration Greenheart spliced salmon rod, 3 piece. In original 4 compartment bag, with room for 2 tips, suggesting that 1 has been lost or broken, complete with splice protectors. ( 1 original, 3 replacements)
Circa 1910

1910 is very early, what's the serial number? Mine are in the 3000 and 4000 range.

[Barbelseeker]

Serial Number 5046









Shall communicate to you by PM

[Sevilla315]

I think that they may be a bit later than 1910, mine are I believe 30' and 40's.
This website shows that 3301 to 5325 were from 1934 to 1956. http://www.feathersfliesandphantoms.co. ... air_9.html
Playfair were subsequently taken over by Somers which continued to make the Vibrations.

[Barbelseeker]

Thanks for the link, makes interesting reading.

[Sevilla315]

I removed all the guides (after notng their positions) then applied the antique furniture varnish remover and scraped all the old varnish off. It came off very easily, only on for 30 mins then a scraper made quick work of it, probably an hour or so.
Next I'll spend a week or two oiling the sections with teak oil, twice a day 12 hours apart, until it stops soaking in more oil.
After that, it'll be the rewrap with H&H English Pattern DLC snakes with YLI #100 Dark Eggplant. I had thought the wraps were black, but after cutting off the guides I realised it was a purple!

[Barbelseeker]

Great, well done, look forward to seeing the next instalment of this restoration

[Sevilla315]

I've just finished a week of teak oiling the sections and it's now ready for the next stage, tru-oiling the rod sections. It initially didn't soak in much oil, perhaps due to residual varnish, I should have cleaned up with white spirit prior, but I rubbed it back with wet and dry and reoiled it and started soaking it in. After a week it's done so will apply at least 6 coats of truoil, rubbed down with 3000-5000 w&d between each coat.
I must say it looks gorgeous oiled, with the highly grained wood, in different shades from very dark to medium light.
I also took the Moxon 43 yard continuous taper for a spin on the ponds. No greenheart to test on, so took along 2 of my 15' B&Ws, a Hexagraph Falkus and Norway Speycaster.
Surprisingly the Hexagraph wasn't great and also the Norway was superb with the CT silk.
I had only about 70' of head out, but the problem mainly was getting a castable length on still water. Rolling that amount of line out wasn't easy and the sinking silk line had lots of water grip.
The Hexagraph was surprisingly weak at rolling out large amounts of line. The Norway was much better and I had a great session making casts with the silk on this rod.
I will move to moving water gor the next tests (I have a spot on the Thames at Richmond) and I will try the other 2 rods, a classic taper Powerlite and an older Walker powerhouse.
My goal is to extend those 70' Planet Casts to over 100' and eventually up to 120'.

[Sevilla315]

The Moxon CT silk line is a great caster and very well constructed. I'm very grateful to Ian for being interested in our project and making a line so quickly when he already had a full schedule.