Rod rings need re-fitting-replacement.

Hi guys,

I have a Daiwa Vulcan 13' float rod, the rings are bashed about a bit and need replacing.

I am loathed to put it in my little local for re-fitting (in case something goes wrong) and don't want to do it myself.

It really is a beautiful rod, I have caught so many fish on it, it is amazing! It is roughly twenty three years old and I love it to bits.

Have you got any ideas where I can have it re-fitted, SAFELY?

Cheers.
Steve.

send it to daiwa?

It would be more economical to simply buy a new rod, Steve. Plus they're better now.

Sell the old one to a collector.

It's not difficult to whip rod rings on to a rod and modern rod rings might well give the rod a new lease of life too.

If you want older style rings then I have some early three leg Fuji's saved off of a scrapped DAM Blue ledger deluxe that might suit - same age as your Vulcan, if not a little older !

Tho as ledger rings I suspect they are possibly lower than the float rod stand-off rings more likely in a rod of that vintage.

Honestly, bit of whipping thread, superglue and varnish and it will be good as new for the sake of a few winter evenings work

send it to blue peter

I tend to agree with woody, buy a new rod, they are a lot better now, rod building has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years. making them lighter and stronger. Go on treat yourself!

I couldn't bear to part with it, I bought it on the never never from my mums club book when I was 17.

Hopefully it will be catching me some grayling too, when we go to the Itchen.

I will have to try to do it myself by the look of it.

Hear hear !

Just because something is old, worn, and not as good as newer models doesn't mean it is past it...

Just look at Cakey and me ! ! Living proof....

I have a perfect pristine Bruce and Walker CTM13A which my parents bought me as a sixteenth birthday present.

Hardly ever used it because I was stuck into A levels, then working the summer for some dosh to go off to University with and then once there I discovered girls and beer in a much more direct and time consuming way than formerly had ever been possible in the middle of a suffolk field four miles away from anything....

But I will never let it go and will always appreciate it as the best present ever - I had lusted and longed for that rod for so long and it was bloody expensive back then, ?44 which was the equivalent of ?3 - 400 now...

Took it out and used it a couple of months ago. Bloody awful compared to a modern rod, sadly, but still.... and interestingly a very different curve characteristic when playing a fish because of the Compound Taper - it only bends over the first three feet from the tip, but over that distance it almost bends double without bumping off etc !

Same here! I have a Normark float rod i purchased in 1981, then, it cost ?120....a lot of money at the time. It is a perfect stick rod, also excellent for waggler work. After so many years of use, the rings are a bit shot, i dont think i can get a rod i would find as good these days as with use it has virtually moulded to my hands and i know exactly how the rod responds to in all conditions. It may not have the lastest hi-tech reel grips, or the endorsement of a world class angler tattood on the blank but it is a real classy rod. I think a nice letter to those Normark chappies may help me have the rings replaced correctly at a reasonable cost.

Snap it in half and put it in the wheelie bin.
Stop being so mean, you and the like's of you are putting people out of work......

Well said Jeff.

Nip round his house and knock some sense into him.

Rod building is an art that is well worth the effort .. I built my first rod in 1963, and have since then re-built what must amount to hundreds of rods, from heavy Marlin rods, to whispy Fly rods. I would strongly suggest that you make an effort to re-build the rod yourself, it will cost about ?20.00 tops, and the acheivement you will feel , plus the refurbishment and use of an old friend will far outweigh the cost of any new rod you could buy, my oldest rod, which I still use, is a Milbro Trophy from about 1967, Fibreglass, softish action, not so light, but great for Pin and stick fishing on rivers, I must have re-built it four or five times, ignore posters that say you "must have " the latest gear, latest is not always best.IMO.

Steve ignore posters that say you "must rebuild"...............................Wendy and Claudia will laugh if you get a knackered rod out !

Try Chris Ward at roddoctor@ntlworld.com, he is a master rod builder and has done some excellent work for me. Just give him a price to work to as rings can be cheap to astronomical depending on what you want. There is a bit of info on his website: rodcraftsman.com, but use the email address above.

In passing the pink agate insert (there's a blast from the past !) in the top ring of my CTM13A shattered and needed replacement when I started to get back into coarse angling three years or so ago.

Could I find a replacement ? Could I b*****y.

So I bit the bullet and phoned Bruce and Walker on the off-chance to see if they might just, by a miracle, still have a 30 odd year old spare part in stock.

Well I'm blowed, they did.

So, taking a deep breath I decided not to do the job myself.

I bore in mind my personal emotional attachment to the rod, the fact that it was in otherwise pristine perfect original condition, that I would like it to stay that way and that Bruce and Walker would be more likely to have the original colour whipping thread and be able to match the original varnish.

So I decided hang the likely expense and sent the top section back to Bruce & Walker with open cheque book instructions for them to fit a new top ring.

Which they did. And stripped and revarnished the entire top section too. And turned it around in less than a fortnight - ie. exactly as long as it takes to strip old varnish off and to revarnish and dry with new to perfection.

It arrived with a note, saying that it was nice to see a rod that age in such good condition and that there was NO charge. None. Nothing. Riente. Nada. Piss all. Not even refund of the cost of the courier postage back.

AND not only that; including a second pink agate end ring sellotaped to it in case of any future breakage !.

Now THAT is what I call customer service.

I meant to send a letter in to the likes of Angling Times etc at the time but somehow time passed on and I didn't get round to it.... hope this post sets the books straight if anyone from B&W ever gets to read this rambling....

You get what you pay for with a quality firm like that. Not just now, today or tomorrow but 30 odd years down the line. Quality.

Just a damned shame they have now stopped making the hexagraph coarse rods.... brilliant kit...*


* Not that I could ever afford them mind !

Evan, that is fantastic service! Do you think Daiwa would do the same for me? hmmmm? Might be worth a phone call and I would promise to ramble on about their excellant service on FM, anyone got Bobs phone number? ;-)

Thanks Terry, I will have a look.

Jeff and Jeff, what a pair of tackle tarts you are, obviously with money to throw away too! What do you two do when the car gets a bit old, chuck it away? No, you get it serviced and save yourself a few grand.

Wheelie bin my arse!

The trouble is your looking through rose colored glasses.
It's like your first love, you remember her as she was.

HELLO, she is fat and old now, probably didn't go as well as you remember anyway.
Bin the old stick and treat yourself to some new love.