Seabird feathers

[MWithell]

Certainly a very nice selection of floats! BTW, what do you use for end eyes?

[Phil Arnott]

That's a very good question. I've tried copper and brass wire and it's a bit soft and can get bent or squashed. I now have a good supply of float rings as shown below. They are made of a hard springy stainless steel and much better than I can make. The small dia. ones on the right are for sliding floats. I don't think they are manufactured currently which is a shame as they are ideal. For stick floats I use float rubber top and bottom and for wagglers I insert a short length of cane or brass if I want some loading and then use a Drennan swivel float attachment.

I don't use sakandas reed any more and use peacock quill only as it makes superb wagglers. I have a supply of peacock quills . At one time a lady in my village who kept peacocks saved them for me but subsequently as I was fortunate in picking up 70 12 inch lengths for a fiver from a tackle shop which had had them in stock for ages. I also have a supply of balsa dowel from a model shop. The owners said that anglers were the main customer for balsa dowel.The thin brass rod in the picture is also from a model shop, I use it for wire stemmed sticks.

[JAA]

Certainly a very nice selection of floats! BTW, what do you use for end eyes?

Agree with the above and brass picture wire is quite good but will bend with little encouragement - the s/steel ones above are very good tbh. That said I've used Alasticum for years, but it's a tad hard to find now...

Seagull quills make fine floats, they're fairly straight and seem to have a nice width-to-length ratio. For still-water floats I prefer them to crow or pheasant.

[MWithell]

I'll have to have a play with making them into floats. What I don't like about balsa floats is that when the varnish cracks they soak up water and slowly sink. Quills (and plastic!) are waterproof.

[Phil Arnott]

Balsa is fine if sealed properly. I make balsa sliders for use in the sea. They are treated with dope, paint and varnish.

Floats made from traditional materials do require maintenance after prolonged use. They sometimes are physically damaged and the protection is penetrated allowing water to ingress.

Below are commercially made all balsa wagglers. They are superb, light, very buoyant floats which cast exceptionally well although they are a bit delicate. Anybody know who made them?

[Vole]

Gull quills tend to be strong, but not circular in section. If you are obsessive about the tip looking the same width from any angle, avoid; otherwise use them.

[Troydog]

Nice to hear from you again Vole - I’ve not seen you posting for a while….

[MWithell]

Gull quills tend to be strong, but not circular in section. If you are obsessive about the tip looking the same width from any angle, avoid; otherwise use them.

I'm not really worried what it looks like so long as it's strong and it works. That's what my wife thought when she married me...
Regarding colour, I often find a black tip as good as anything for visibility. It depends on the light and on the background, of course.