They say Spring is in the air but here in the West Country all we seem to get is the cold and lots of rain! Not to dampen our spirits, Thomas Turner have kicked March off well with some great buys including one in Europe. A call from a gentleman in Germany got us excited when he said he had a collection of excellent J S Sharpe Impregnated cane Salmon rods, complete with their original bags and tags. After some negotiation a deal was agreed and the collection of Sharpes rods made their way across the channel to our office in the West Country.
The seller wasn’t wrong, they are all fabulous rods, only used a handful of times.
This got me thinking. I have handled J S Sharpe rods for the last 30 years and take for granted the workmanship involved in making these classic impregnated cane rods but what do I know about the man himself and his company?
J S Sharp served his apprenticeship as a gunsmith with Davidson, a Gun maker in Aberdeen. He loved fishing on the Dom as child, As a young man he left Aberdeen to work for the Hardy Brothers of Alnwick, but after the Great War he wanted to return to Aberdeen to start his own business.
J.S. Sharpe of Aberdeen began its operations in 1920, focusing on the bamboo rod business, which it continued until the early 1980s. The company is particularly well-regarded for its two-handed rods, including the impregnated “Scottie,” which stands out as its most famous model. Although often classified as a “production shop,” J.S. Sharpe’s contributions to the fishing tackle industry, especially in terms of quality bamboo rods, have been significant. Throughout its history, the company operated out of Aberdeen, marking a significant presence in the city’s fishing tackle market.
What is impregnation?
Impregnation is simply a process that fills the tube-like fibres of cane and the minute gaps between those fibres with a special resin.
This is achieved by a series of immersions at varying temperatures in resin baths. The process gives the rod more power flexing in one solid structure. The cane becomes 100% waterproof and impervious to climatic extremes. It requires no varnishing with the cane being buffed to a low satin finish, eliminating flash. In short, as the cane is a natural material all fibres are different in the level of absorption, the more resin that is impregnated the darker the cane appears.
The iconic Sharpe’s spliced joint rods are still popular today despite modern carbons and Kevlar models.
Strangely the longer the rod the more popular it is. The 15’ 3-piece salmon fly is a must have for anglers on the big rivers of Scotland, Ireland and Norway. The spliced joints look odd, but they are there for a reason. Because of the solid structure, the spliced joints are waterproof eliminating the flat spot a ferrule creates. Do I hear you say “Parabolic Curve”? Where possible try to buy a rod with the wooden tapered ferrule pegs. These protect the finished ends of the tapered joints preventing chips and ultimately a split. We have seen wooden replacement pegs and they work too.
The hand-making process of a rod is complex. From cane choice splitting, removing the inner core, shaping, belt sanding etc. Post-war tapering machines removed any human error in the gluing process which was extremely difficult to achieve uniformly on all six sections. The only varnish on a Sharpe’s impregnated rod is applied at the end of the process to the silk whippings and ferrules. A story is recorded where an angler lost his rod overboard whilst lake fishing. One year later a scuba diver recovered the same rod. The cork handle had perished but the rod cane remained 100% intact, still waterproof and arrow straight.
All of our recent collection of J S Sharpes rods are 14ft or 13ft salmon rods, two are spliced joint and the rest are impregnated cane rods, all in beautiful condition. So head over to our website and take a look here.
If you have anything similar you would like to sell, or have valued, then please get in touch!
07535 590617 / 01275 261099
