Alan Tyler
Well-known member
It looks a bit uninhabited here at the moment, so although it's not strictly a "build", I thought I'd set the ball rolling with a thread about refurbishing a cane rod.
According to the rubber butt button, it's a Milbro, but buttons can be swapped... it's a 10'6" long, three piece, basic "bottom rod" with whole cane butt and middle and a split-cane tip; nowhere near enough rings, varnish on the cork handle (Ye Gods!), and evidence of having been re-whipped and varnished in the past. Probably 1950's. Expect to pay £10-15 at a car boot, flea-market or on ebay.
Oh, and the tip's male ferrule clunks, and appears to have been pinned.
My main reason (ok, ulterior motive) for doing this as a forum thread, rather than try to work it up as an article is that I foresee needing quite a lot of help and advice. And my photos aren't too good.
Enough preamble: to business.
Job 1 : Unvarnishing the handle.
At this point, I realise I can neither save what I've written so far nor link to pictures until I've opened a gallery, so I invite you to imagine a slim cork butt, with a spring-onion-ish swelling at the top, made vile with a coat of brown windsor varnish. What to do?
In smarta*se mode, I thought of the wife's little steamer; but couldn't find the dam' thing.
In "Oh, c*ck, what now?" mode, I thought of batteries of paint strippers, caustic soda, Mr. Muscle sprays and the like - but what would they do to the cork, and the glue, and the aluminium fittings?
So I started by doing what I'd do with any other grubby rod-handle, and gave it a scrub with a nail-brush and washing-up liquid, under a hot tap.
Whoopty-doo, clean grotty varnish.
Then a gentle go with an old scouring pad. No damage to the cork, but a few flakes of varnish gave up and washed off. I carried on for a spell, and some more varnish yielded, but most stayed firm. NEXT!?
Steam? no steamer to hand, but could try the kettle...
Attacking a steamed but obstinate patch of varnish with my thumbnail, I had a breakthrough - it wrinkled as I ran my nail over it. Now, cork doesn't do that, and if you can get the varnish to move in a way that the cork doesn't, you're well on the way to separating them.
Back to the tap (as less of a hazard to the thumb), and wrinkled varnish was indeed persuaded to flake away from the cork. But this was a battle of attrition - which would wear out first, one small thumbnail or rolling acres of forty-year-old (p'raps) varnish? I could end up wearing my thumb to the bone ... bone? I had a bone folder, for creasing pages for bookbinding... nearer to hand, bone-handled knives...
You've guessed. A vigorous massage under the hot tap with a butter-knife's handle, and great flakes of varnish lay in the sink, and the cork lay pink and new. A bit of thumbnail work on some really obstinate bits (where the varnish clung to a crevice in the cork) and it looked factory-fresh.
A satisfying start, but was I lucky? Have any of you met corks varnished with sterner stuff? And how did you deal with it? Do tell...
According to the rubber butt button, it's a Milbro, but buttons can be swapped... it's a 10'6" long, three piece, basic "bottom rod" with whole cane butt and middle and a split-cane tip; nowhere near enough rings, varnish on the cork handle (Ye Gods!), and evidence of having been re-whipped and varnished in the past. Probably 1950's. Expect to pay £10-15 at a car boot, flea-market or on ebay.
Oh, and the tip's male ferrule clunks, and appears to have been pinned.
My main reason (ok, ulterior motive) for doing this as a forum thread, rather than try to work it up as an article is that I foresee needing quite a lot of help and advice. And my photos aren't too good.
Enough preamble: to business.
Job 1 : Unvarnishing the handle.
At this point, I realise I can neither save what I've written so far nor link to pictures until I've opened a gallery, so I invite you to imagine a slim cork butt, with a spring-onion-ish swelling at the top, made vile with a coat of brown windsor varnish. What to do?
In smarta*se mode, I thought of the wife's little steamer; but couldn't find the dam' thing.
In "Oh, c*ck, what now?" mode, I thought of batteries of paint strippers, caustic soda, Mr. Muscle sprays and the like - but what would they do to the cork, and the glue, and the aluminium fittings?
So I started by doing what I'd do with any other grubby rod-handle, and gave it a scrub with a nail-brush and washing-up liquid, under a hot tap.
Whoopty-doo, clean grotty varnish.
Then a gentle go with an old scouring pad. No damage to the cork, but a few flakes of varnish gave up and washed off. I carried on for a spell, and some more varnish yielded, but most stayed firm. NEXT!?
Steam? no steamer to hand, but could try the kettle...
Attacking a steamed but obstinate patch of varnish with my thumbnail, I had a breakthrough - it wrinkled as I ran my nail over it. Now, cork doesn't do that, and if you can get the varnish to move in a way that the cork doesn't, you're well on the way to separating them.
Back to the tap (as less of a hazard to the thumb), and wrinkled varnish was indeed persuaded to flake away from the cork. But this was a battle of attrition - which would wear out first, one small thumbnail or rolling acres of forty-year-old (p'raps) varnish? I could end up wearing my thumb to the bone ... bone? I had a bone folder, for creasing pages for bookbinding... nearer to hand, bone-handled knives...
You've guessed. A vigorous massage under the hot tap with a butter-knife's handle, and great flakes of varnish lay in the sink, and the cork lay pink and new. A bit of thumbnail work on some really obstinate bits (where the varnish clung to a crevice in the cork) and it looked factory-fresh.
A satisfying start, but was I lucky? Have any of you met corks varnished with sterner stuff? And how did you deal with it? Do tell...
