The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I just found a few floats I made back in the late 70’s & very early 80’s, built purely for my own use. I’d packed them away in a safe place when I moved to the US in 2000, assuming that I wouldn’t have a use for them here, but reluctant to just throw them away. These obviously aren’t at the standard of engineering and finish I pride myself on today. I was surprised however to find that the varnish was still solid and crack free, and that the used wine corks and recycled goose quills hadn’t deteriorated at all. I’m used to seeing “vintage floats” offered for sale, but they invariably seem to have paint and varnish cracked and missing, and often eyes and whipping loose, frayed, or missing in action.

I remember catching a lot of fish back in the day on these floats (Tench, Bream, Roach, and Perch in the UK, Grayling, Whitefish, Ide, Perch, and Tench in Scandinavia), and I’m fairly sure I wasn’t that gentle on my fishing gear… but these floats survived. Maybe I should now present them to someone else, to catch some memorable fish on, as they still seem to be perfectly fishable?

They have aged incredibly well which has to be a testament to the original build. Well done.

Excellent

Very nice I wouldn't have thought they were that old.

I still have one or two floats that I made in the seventies.
They are fishable, but not in the same league as yours.
Your floats look very nice.

All the best.

Very nice floats and fantastic condition for 40 years old.

Wal.

Real nice

Well done, the floats look great and have aged extremely well!

Lovely, as useable now as they were when you made them.

One of the few advantages of getting older. If you look after your stuff, one day you wake up to find that you are the now the owner of some very nice vintage tackle, without even trying!

They have aged incredibly well, I don't suppose you remember what type of varnish you used as it has stood the test of time admirably?