Expensive floats... Would you/Do you pay it?

[binka]

I'm talking about the likes of these...

PAUL COOK SIGNED 3BB PERCH BOBBER FISHING FLOAT DATED 06 HANDMADE MINT UNUSED | eBay

There's been a glut of 'em lately and the asking price for that one is around what I've seen others going for.

Don't get me wrong they're a work of art and in a different league to what I could produce and whilst I will go out of my way on price for certain items of tackle I can't justify the extra when it comes to floats.

I can't really think of a mass produced float which has cost me more than a couple of quid and I can make far better for a few pence.

There's no right or wrong to this, if you like something enough then it's all the justification you need but does anyone here pay these kinds of prices for floats and are these things actually used or are they destined for glass cases on mantelpieces?

 

[sam vimes]

That kind of thing is not for me. I'm sure they are fine floats, but I buy floats to use. £25 for a user is way beyond my price range.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

Paul cook floats are beautiful works of art, but I think they are ‘over engineered’ for the job they are required to do - hence the high cost and price.

Its a little like Michelin star food. A main course that costs you £100/plate will typically be something special, a work of art and taste delicious. But food doesn’t need to cost this much to,nourish us.

 

[thecrow]

Not a chance that I would pay anywhere near that for a float, 2 of them would buy me a perfectly (for me) good rod.

I think you do yourself a disservice Steve when you say yours are not as good, I have seen plenty of yours in the flesh and they are to my eye just as good.

Is the eye on that float a cut off safety pin because that's what it looks like to me?

 

[tigger]

Never!.....I only buy mass produced and in all honesty I think the mass produced floats are far better to fish with than most hand made ones.
A lot of the hand made floats I see are obviously made as ornaments, collectables or converstaion pieces rathher than for the purpose of angling.

 

[lambert1]

Certainly not, although I do admire the work. I tend to use floats I have made myself, because if I lose one they are easily replaced at little cost. I would get upset too seeing such a work of art hanging from a tree:wh

 

[john step]

Blimey! I clicked onto the link thinking that perhaps a fiver or just above that would be the price but got a surprise......... £25!!!!!!!!
He is having a laugh. I have adequate rods for not much more.

They look all the world to my philistine eyes like the grayling floats we used to use as kids for absolutely everything until we learnt better.
I did buy as an extravagance a 2 swan perch bobber from Ian Lewis a while ago. That was a fiver. It does work but no better than some cheapo jobs of my own.

My pike floats are no work of art but they work and stand up to abuse and cost a few pence each, made from wine corks.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I have several floats made by Andrew Field and they are little works of art and very enjoyable to use. His pike bungs are made to the original fishing gazette design, and his tench floats are really lovely.

I use all of mine as I think it would be a waste to keep them and not use them.

 

[S-Kippy]

I totally agree with my corvid friend. These fancy things, though beautifully made, are not to my taste and IMO seriously "overdressed" I dont like a lot of the colour schemes/combinations and this trend for sticking feathers on floats leaves me cold. The best place for a kingfisher feather is on a kingfisher in my honest opinion. Dont get me wrong....they are works of art but to me they are ornaments not floats.

Brother Binka's offerings on the other hand are much more to my taste. I much,much prefer that traditional look and the colour schemes are cock on.I am sure they are also finished to the very highest standard. I've never seen one in the flesh but I cannot imagine that they are not even better than they look. Those I would happily pay money for.

 

[flightliner]

Sorry, definately not for me. To be honest and not wanting to be overcritical most of them look like they would be used by learner or beginner anglers that dont know better.
for me it's either home made for a specific/ or general purpose or a mass produced on that comes just as close.
Times are when a float needs a quick bankside alteration on account of sudden changes in the fishes feeding or perhaps weather conditions so a "fancy dan" float would be a waste of money.
I like em to look lean and mean !

 

[maceo]

Most definitely not!

I've had to wave bye bye to too many of my floats whilst they bob off downstream freed from the constraint of any attached line or swinging happily upside down from a tree branch on the opposite side of the bank.....

 

[nottskev]

There's exquisite skill behind some of these fancy floats, but I still find the highly decorative ones a bit irritating without knowing quite why. Perhaps because floats are tools, and when you see a good set of spanners, eg, there's something pleasing in the unity of form and function - the way they are shaped to do what they do and their lines reflect the forces in play. Good floats already have that quality, even if they they are unobtrusively painted and I do appreciate a well-designed float; adding a stunning depiction of a feather, or indeed the Last Supper, to the body is gilding the lily, for me. And, again just my opinion, isn't there a touch of "personalised number plate syndrome" going on there? The only time I've cast something worth £25 into the river was when a line jam in the tip rings took the top of a feeder rod in. Having said all that, I was taken with Binka's perch floats - handsome looking and just right for the job.

 

[jon atkinson]

When I saw this thread I assumed that the Paul Cook in question was the erstwhile drummer in the Sex Pistols although why he would have been signing floats I haven't the faintest, but some fans are very readily parted from their cash! In fairness, £25.00 on a so endorsed float actually makes marginally more sense to me. I hope that this doesn't encourage Mr Harrell to raise his prices - I like & can currently afford his floats!!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Surely this is a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder?

What can be considered as garish to one may well be artistic to another.


If you can afford to buy and use (or indeed lose) them then what harm does it do to anyone else?

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

I tend to buy mine of e-bay when the price is right. 8 Avons in mixed 3-5gr for £12 posted.

Excellent quality..and I can afford to tree decorate the odd one.

Then again. I am sure the expensive signed ones would look good in a glass box on the wall.

Until they probably end up in a car boot a generation or two later for £10 a case.

Incidently, now as it's easier to upload pics is it possible to see a few pics of Binka creations?

 

[binka]

Incidently, now as it's easier to upload pics is it possible to see a few pics of Binka creations?

Not a patch on the floats in question I'm afraid, Graham.

The best I would describe myself as, having dabbled over the last eighteen months or so, is an enthusiastic beginner and I try not to take it too seriously with practically all my floats being made whilst sat on the sofa with the tv or radio on in the background which I find very relaxing.

I've posted some of these before but they have probably been blanked out by the image host now charging, certainly not of the ilk of the aforementioned floats that the thread is about but I'm happy enough with them all things considered and they're catching me fish.

For some reason (OCD!) I find it very difficult to just make a single float without the intention of it becoming a full set, it's no secret that I like my perch bobbers but I've had a go at quite a few things...











The new image upload is limited to just five images (it used to be ten) so there are lots more including a few pike floats, micro dibbers etc. but the bobbers are by far my favourites to make.

 

[binka]

The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating...

 

[S-Kippy]

I beg to differ, Steve. Those are every bit as good and much more subtely finished. Proper floats them

 

[thecrow]

I beg to differ, Steve. Those are every bit as good and much more subtely finished. Proper floats them

You are correct skip, they lovely bits of kit.

 

[S-Kippy]

You are correct skip, they lovely bits of kit.

Arent they just, Graham.....now those I would happily pay extra for. Wonderful floats.