Mk IV Rods

Following on from the **** Walker thread, and a former owner of a pair of fibreglass MkIV's back in the 70's (wish I never sold them), I have often wondered what happened to the Mks I, II, and III? Did they exist or was it just the IV that made production.

And, was that the same with the Avon rod which again onlyu seems known in its MkIV version. Was this coincidental, a marketing ploy (?) or some other reason?

The Mk I, II and III did exist.

The Mk I was a 3 piece Wallis Avon of 11 feet with a foot cut off it's top piece to make the rod a little stiffer. The butt section was made from whole tonkin cane.

Then came the Mk II which was a 10 foot split cane rod in 2 pieces with a 2 foot length of beech dowell spliced in at the butt. It had a 24 inch handle.

Then came the Mk III, a 10 foot double built split cane rod in two pieces. This was a most powerful rod which Walker used a great deal.

The Mk IV which was worked out in conjunction with BB and Peter Thomas had a taper similar to the Mk III but was stiffer in the butt and tapered more qickly at the tip to enable very light baits to be cast. The Mk VI with a 1 1/2 lbs test curve was replicated by many other manufacturers but a few years later was beefed up to give a 2 lbs test curve due to the poor tonkin that was coming into the country.

The Mk IV carp rod was the first ever purposely built carp rod. At a later stage, versions appeared in hollow glass, built by B James and Hardy.

The best of the glass carp rods were the 11 footers made for Jack Hilton by Alan Brown of Hitchin and the 11 foot fast taper Jim Gibbinson Clooper Carp Rods made by Going Bros.

The development of the Mk IV is described here by Chris Ball. There are 4 pdf files towards the bottom right of the page which give the article.

Curiously, I have some eveidence that the basic tapers of the Mk IV were developed before the Mk III and possibly before the Mk II.

Sean Meeghan said:

Curiously, I have some eveidence that the basic tapers of the Mk IV were developed before the Mk III and possibly before the Mk II.
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Where did you get that evidence Sean?

Thankyou Sean and Ron. Most enlightening.

"The Mk IV carp rod was the first ever purposely built carp rod. At a later stage, versions appeared in hollow glass, built by B James and Hardy"
===========================================================Don't mean Bruce & Walkers and Hardy do you, Ron?

Ok Ron. Here goes.

I'm using the chronology given by Chris Ball in the article linked to above as this appears to give the accepted sequence and dates.

Chris gives the date of the development of the Mk III at around 1953 with Walker catching his 36lb carp on one in 1954. Ball then states :

"The following winter Walker set about making another carp rod - his fourth."

This was the "original" Mk IV with a tonkin cane secton under the corks.

Now, what has often puzzled me is that the two tables that people refer to for the Mk IV taper are in Drop Me a Line and in Rod Building for Amateurs. The problem with this is that RBFA was published in 1952 and, sure enough, on page 75 there is a table of tapers for rods and No 8 is labelled "10ft rod for heavy carp, barbel, etc."

The only difference (and I'm happy to be contradicted on this) is that this rod is listed as having a wooden handle rather than tonkin cane. So it would appear that the final tapers of the Mk IV were known to Walker before 1952 (at the latest in 1951) and one would assume that he had made this rod and fished with it before RBFA was published.

Bruce and Walker developed from B James & Son, West Ealing. By the time they were making glass rods the name had changed to Bruce and Walker. Yes you are right Cliff.

The Mk III rod which according to Walker was double built, remains a bit of a mystery. According to the famous book, "Drop Me A Line", the Mk III was built by Walker before the "Light Carp Rod" which I think became the Mk IV. Walker's Mk II was copied by Maurice Ingham and was built on a blank obtained from JB Walker of Hythe, Kent.

I'll investigate this and report back.

I think I've sussed it Ron! This was posted by a chap called Gurn on another site:

A letter to J.B. Walker dated September 1952..

"Dear Mr. Walker,
You will be pleased to know that Mark 4 Carp Rods made from materials supplied by you,
have accounted for the following carp in the three months June 16th to September 16th, 1952,
exclusive of fish under 10lb in weight: 10lb8oz, 11lb8oz, 13lb8oz, 16lb4oz, 16lb13oz, 17lb8oz,
18lb8oz, 19lb, 22lb12oz, 24lb12oz, 28lb 10oz, 44lb.
Every rod remains in perfect order without the least sign of strain or set. I am very grateful to you for assistance you gave when we were experimenting with carp rods, which greatly assisted in producing the Mark 4 Rods. It is this
development of modern tackle and methods which has resulted in catches of carp which a few years ago would have been thought impossible, and your share in that development is not small. My friends and I appreciate it very much.
Yours sincerely RICHARD WALKER "

So it looks very much like the tapers in the first edition of RBFA were indeed for an early Mk IV. This would imply that the Mk III that Chris Ball is referring to was built earlier than he thought or that Walker had been toying with the idea of a double built rod before he came up with the compound tapers of the Mk IV

All very interesting. To a few of us at least.......mg:

Ron The Hat Clay said:

Bruce and Walker developed from B James & Son, West Ealing. By the time they were making glass rods the name had changed to Bruce and Walker. Yes you are right Cliff.

The Mk III rod which according to Walker was double built, remains a bit of a mystery. According to the famous book, "Drop Me A Line", the Mk III was built by Walker before the "Light Carp Rod" which I think became the Mk IV. Walker's Mk II was copied by Maurice Ingham and was built on a blank obtained from JB Walker of Hythe, Kent.

I'll investigate this and report back.

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I used to frequent B James and Son, Ealing with my late father in the 50's. B James was in fact James Bruce (B James was for commercial reasons) and known as 'Jimmy'. I believe it was his son that took up partnership with Ken Walker and reverted back to the family name.
Jerry