Chapmans to close down
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 8:43 am
I've just been told by one of our old members that Chapmans are to close at the end of the year. Brian is retiring and John may continue with a little work from either home or a smaller unit somewhere else.
There's just been the two brothers there for many years now, but back in the Sixties they had 15 employees and sold rods all over the world. Mostly fly rods these days with a good few going to America, but they both have a vast knowledge of coarse rods and have been responsible for saving hundreds and hundreds of rods with broken tip sections...a good few of which were mine!
It always struck me how taught their new tip sections felt against old cane....both the quality of work, modern glues and being new I suppose? The cane strips looked like they'd been cut with a laser....you'll never see a glue line on a Chapman's rod!
But it wasn't just the quality of their work...both brothers were generous with their time and advice too and nothing was too much trouble for them.
I shall always remember visiting them to pick up a new tip section and mentioning that I had to get the ferrule counter off the old one yet....
I'd brought the tip for John to measure for posterity anyway and before you could say "Toot Sweet, Roderney", John had the counter in a flame, a pair of drilled blocks of tropical hardwood in a vice and had popped the counter off and had it in my hand....it was still hot! He took it back, heated the cane of the new section and crushed it in those two blocks of wood, mixed a bit of glue and had the counter on the new tip section almost as quick, then turned up this huge gas ring and wafted the tip high above the ring of fire. A few tweaks and the cane section...a full five and a half feet of it....was as straight as a spear!
A priceless memory.
A long and happy retirement to you both fellers and much joy and contentment in whatever you do next
There's just been the two brothers there for many years now, but back in the Sixties they had 15 employees and sold rods all over the world. Mostly fly rods these days with a good few going to America, but they both have a vast knowledge of coarse rods and have been responsible for saving hundreds and hundreds of rods with broken tip sections...a good few of which were mine!
It always struck me how taught their new tip sections felt against old cane....both the quality of work, modern glues and being new I suppose? The cane strips looked like they'd been cut with a laser....you'll never see a glue line on a Chapman's rod!
But it wasn't just the quality of their work...both brothers were generous with their time and advice too and nothing was too much trouble for them.
I shall always remember visiting them to pick up a new tip section and mentioning that I had to get the ferrule counter off the old one yet....
I'd brought the tip for John to measure for posterity anyway and before you could say "Toot Sweet, Roderney", John had the counter in a flame, a pair of drilled blocks of tropical hardwood in a vice and had popped the counter off and had it in my hand....it was still hot! He took it back, heated the cane of the new section and crushed it in those two blocks of wood, mixed a bit of glue and had the counter on the new tip section almost as quick, then turned up this huge gas ring and wafted the tip high above the ring of fire. A few tweaks and the cane section...a full five and a half feet of it....was as straight as a spear!
A priceless memory.
A long and happy retirement to you both fellers and much joy and contentment in whatever you do next
