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For a long time I have wanted to make a functional and interesting stand to display floats on - as a personal project, but I thought my customers might like the idea too.  I had the plan in my head for a year or more but the lack of two rather large and not cheap tools had kept me from exploring the idea any further.  Needless to say, I really did want to make these so I decided to bite the bullet and invest in some new toys for the workshop. Toys is probably not the best way of describing them however, as both are capable of inflicting pretty serious injury.

I proceeded to collect some fantastic weathered oak heart wood from the local woods that I had been eying up for some time.  After a good scub down with a wire brush, a bit of a cut here, several grades of sanding there all finished off with some specially blended finish (tung oil and bees wax) and hey presto.  One truely gorgeous stand to display your favourite float with. The oil/wax finish penetrates the wood deeply, rehydrating it and bringing out the grain beutifully - producing a wonderful satin finish. The floats are held in place with a hole that has been lined with silicone tubing so it can grip your float securely without damaging it and allowing you to take it out for a fish whenever you fancy.

These stands are perfect to display a float - perhaps one that helped with a truely memorable catch, on the book case or as a very usable paperweight on your desk.  Watch out though - they are apt to cause folk like me whose minds tends to wander at the best of times to find oneself sitting there day dreaming about past and future adventures instead of doing that boring thing folk call …. w o r k ……

I would love to hear what you think of them. Please leave a comment. Good or bad, I don’t mind. My skin is pretty thick.

Post script - My fingers are all intact ......for the moment