Practical float making, just thought it might be good to explain some of these-
These were odd bits I have picked up mainly. the first one right to left was some sort of wooden biro casing I found, it looked just the right shape for a float so I picked it up; it is very heavy for its size so might make a nice light sea float for just drifting a bait under it in the sea without any weight, I think it will not take much cocking; or a heavy distance float for a lake maybe or the far bank in a river, see how it goes.
The 4th from the left was one of a set of reed stems I collected years ago, dried and painted, this is the only one that has survived so gave it a re-paint, these were quite good for fishing a small stream in the wind, heavy enough to stop the wind blowing into the bank but would cock with only one small shot so quite sensitive for the water. The 7th and 12th, don't know what these are, found them laying somewhere, they were wooden and shaped like that with the tip but I think they will work somewhere. The 8th float is in fact two broken floats pinned together with a bit of staple clip wire and overlaid with a bit of whipping, a bit bent but usable and would have thrown the bits away so a gain. 9th, 10th and 14th where just bits of left over swan quill given a bit of paint and varnish, very light floats, good for fishing very close in on a lake. 7th, one of my favorite old floats, had it a few years and I bought it in a job lot of old junk somewhere so i imagine its been knocking around a long time; gets a lot of use and got very battered with nearly all the paint chipped off so I thought time to give it a repaint although I think I preferred it the way it was however, I will be sorry come the day I lose it.
I like leaving the bottoms natural be it wood or cork and not pretty but gave me something to do during lockdown, in fact I have made two sets and plenty of floats now so I threw away all my plastic floats except the sea ones which are made of polystyrene but I have not got any thing else that's suitable for now but I might try making some wooden ones; shouldn't be difficult to find something..
