Float making.

@Clive · Oct 20, 2024

Aknib said:
Hmmm...

The dipping of the toe back in seems to have started something.

I was mooching around earlier, looking for something to do when my attention turned to my float collection and not un-substantial amounts of homemade Avons and their derivatives but something still troubled me, namely the quest to make the largest weight carrying Avon i've yet to make.

It currently stands with the very buoyant goose quill tip and stem on balsa body versions and I honestly think they will be hard to beat but I bought some cork bodies some years ago and decided to knock something up during the earlier bbq, namely a carbon stemmed Avon...

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I have previously made Avons from the cork bodies which i've used and caught plenty of fish with but the stem material always troubled me, thinking that there were lighter and better materials which would allow for more bulk weight down the line, for the job.

Very early days of course and i'm still not convinced that cork has a superior buoyancy to balsa but I think I will see it through in a couple of tip colour variations.

The tip itself being deliberately squared off so as to provide as stark a contrast to its surroundings as possible and I may add slider eyes... I'm not sure yet, but given I have plenty of those already I may just run with it as it stands and add them as a retro fit later if need be.

Very much intended for either high season long trotting or Winter flood work.

I think that if you include a slider eye at the top and flatten off that side of the tip you would improve visibility on the part of the float that should be facing you when you are fishing. I got that idea from Flightliner with his lolly stick tench float tips. I am intending making a set for my old friend who has colour blindness on orange / red. I'm going to dowhjte & black and yellow & black tips.

Regards buoyancy I think dense polystyrene, balsa and cork in that order. I don't find modern cork as easy to turn and shape as the old pre-formed and drilled bodies we used to buy as kids. It seems more 'bitty' in texture.

Aknib · Oct 20, 2024

The cork bodies I have certainly are bitty as you say Clive, I sanded one and compared it with a 'raw' version and it was noticeably smaller after taking the greatest of care to achieve an acceptable finish without compromising buoyancy by sanding it to the absolute minimum.

I think Harcork may have a lot to answer for...