I had two lovely wagglers that I became very attached to, as happens with nice floats that do the job well, but now I have managed to lose them both to far bank bushes on the canal, and so, as I cannot find replacements anywhere and those available in the shops seem such soulless affairs, have decided to make my own
, but only out of what I can find on the canal itself...
Swan quills are common enough finds in the water, nice and bouyant, shapely and tough, and for the inserts I eventually settled upon using dried grass stems from the towpath vegetation because they are quite strong enough for the job and come in convenient thicknesses.
I experimented with quite a few quills and made all the wrong moves, especially with the painting process, before discovering what I think are the right ones! It doesn't really matter how many times you screw up the job of painting because the paint comes off again easily when wet and can be removed with sandpaper when dry and the whole process started over.
I'm making a set of four from found quills of the same length - here's the photo series of the manufacture of one of the float bodies~
One of the lost floats. It has an orange stripe around the upper body which is unusual for an insert waggler, but bloody useful...
Raw Materials; swan quill and grass stems...
Cutting away the vanes (feathery stuff) with long sharp scissors. Working upward from the end of the feather and toward the calamus (hollow end)
The shorn quill...
Removing the worst of the stubble of the vanes with a very sharp scalpel blade. Working this time away from the calamus...
Sanding the vane stubble...
Heating the curved rachis (entire feather shaft) to remove the rest of the stubble, burn away the difficult to remove afterfeather (downy bit) and straighten the shaft itself. The heat is applied very carefully and evenly to avoid destroying the flexibility of the rachis, and then with firm pressure applied as the rachis cools I straighten the entire stem
Straight and true!
Nipping off the thin end...
This membraneous stuff is removed with a finger nail
Sanded once more to remove soot, the last of the stubble and down, and now prepared for the next stage...
Cutting a length of dried grass stem...
Matching for size...
Nipping off the very end of the hollow calamus to make a small hole for the insert...
The grass stem insert, inserted...
Cut to final length...
...and job done!
The complete float body
Next step is the paintwork.
Coming soon
, but only out of what I can find on the canal itself...
Swan quills are common enough finds in the water, nice and bouyant, shapely and tough, and for the inserts I eventually settled upon using dried grass stems from the towpath vegetation because they are quite strong enough for the job and come in convenient thicknesses.
I experimented with quite a few quills and made all the wrong moves, especially with the painting process, before discovering what I think are the right ones! It doesn't really matter how many times you screw up the job of painting because the paint comes off again easily when wet and can be removed with sandpaper when dry and the whole process started over.
I'm making a set of four from found quills of the same length - here's the photo series of the manufacture of one of the float bodies~
One of the lost floats. It has an orange stripe around the upper body which is unusual for an insert waggler, but bloody useful...
Raw Materials; swan quill and grass stems...
Cutting away the vanes (feathery stuff) with long sharp scissors. Working upward from the end of the feather and toward the calamus (hollow end)
The shorn quill...
Removing the worst of the stubble of the vanes with a very sharp scalpel blade. Working this time away from the calamus...
Sanding the vane stubble...
Heating the curved rachis (entire feather shaft) to remove the rest of the stubble, burn away the difficult to remove afterfeather (downy bit) and straighten the shaft itself. The heat is applied very carefully and evenly to avoid destroying the flexibility of the rachis, and then with firm pressure applied as the rachis cools I straighten the entire stem
Straight and true!
Nipping off the thin end...
This membraneous stuff is removed with a finger nail
Sanded once more to remove soot, the last of the stubble and down, and now prepared for the next stage...
Cutting a length of dried grass stem...
Matching for size...
Nipping off the very end of the hollow calamus to make a small hole for the insert...
The grass stem insert, inserted...
Cut to final length...
...and job done!
The complete float body
Next step is the paintwork.
Coming soon
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