The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I have recently acquired another pole for my collection, but this one has no maker's mark. I know it's a long shot but I wonder if anyone on here can offer any input on its likely provenence. It is 17 ft long. The female ferrules on the bottom two sections are internally brass lined. Those on sections 3 and 4 are not lined.



There don't appear to be any shadows to suggest that it has ever been whipped to another pattern although darker varnish around them suggests that the threads were sealed and may suggest replacement whippings. The whippings are very plain compared to my other poles. They are all single whippings, alternately some kind of coarse yellow jasper with a darker thread which may or may not have originally been black,



and clear nylon.



the tip has two long spiral wraps as well as some random banding.



It looks like lancewood or greenheart and on closer inspection, the silk appears to be a plain yellow colour so possibly re-finished.
The butt cap is unengraved and has a domed end.



The ferrules are 'well used' and require re-fixing and a few whippings are missing but otherwise it is very straight and it looks like decent cane. It is not particularly heavy either.
Any suggestions or information would be most welcome.

There is something special about cane poles. I started dismantling this one this morning. As it would appear that its history is going to be hard to come by and consequently its value, both historically and financially is likely to remain low, I have decided to repair it using a mix of minimal intervention and improvement. It is a wonderful colour and I have no wish to change that so it won't be going back to the bare wood. The ferrules won't be stripped back to metal and refinished, but they will have to be repaired. the whippings are very coarse and uninspiring, alternately a dull yellow with faded black jasper and clear monofilament, which looks more like a stain on the cane than anything decorative. At the moment my plan is to retain the exact positioning of the whippings and to use a dark yellow in place of the jasper and black instead of clear mono. The tip will probably be whipped in the same dark yellow close to the original pattern but with tiny snake rings added to facilitate the use of elastic. It seems to me that the tip is made of lancewood as it is quite pale. It bends nicely and I shall stick with it while looking out for a suitable piece of split cane to make a spare tip from.
I have Michael Nadell's superb book and I noticed when reading it, that newspaper is often stuffed into the bottom of the first section to cushion the sections carried inside it, I never expected to find that on this pole, but sure enough, when I pulled off the butt cap, there was a two inch long plug of printed paper wedged behind it.



After a great deal of careful tweaking and fiddling about, I managed to extract it and unfold the crumpled and very fragile paper. The bulk of it consisted of some torn and screwed up pages from some kind of Mills and Boon type novel, but one piece was from the Daily Mail and luckily carried the date! Monday 17 April 1905.




I realise that the newspaper could have been put in at any time since, but I suspect that this dates my pole within a couple of years and ties in with the unlined ferrules on sections 3 and 4 which suggest an early example. It surely has to be at least a hundred years old which makes it my oldest by a country mile. It doesn't seem to me that the stories have changed much in all that time!



and the police are still baffled!

The “contents “ of your pole , Eric, are as interesting as the pole itself, I love such stuff, years ago, I was in the original owners garage at a factory where I was working,following some very old electrical wiring around the wall, it vanished into a corner cupboard, and inside on the top shelf there were about a half dozen very dusty newspapers from WW2. Of course I had to read them, the newspaper headlines were all about the war effort and what was happening where, very interesting stuff ,the newspapers ended up at a local museum as far as I know.


David.

Newspapers under carpets was all the rage! My brother bought a very old house and spent weeks reading them. From before and after WWII depending upon which room. Fascinating historical information.

Is the pole bamboo throughout?

Everything bar the tip is bamboo and it has been bored out until it is pretty thin. I think that may be lancewood as it is quite pale. Rightly or wrongly I assume greenheart is quite dark?

Great about the newspaper dating!

Photocopy the newspaper finds to keep as record as paper soon breaks up when exposed.Now an excellent piece of providence with the pole.

Sound advice that thank you.

Wow............... just found this thread in my continual search for a cane pole. Utterly fascinating newspaper detail