GB2112612A

GB2112612A - Line threader

Info

Publication number: GB2112612A
Application number: GB08139144A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Lewis Barnett; David Isaac Heath Lewis; John Bagnall
Original assignee: CENTRELINE RODS Ltd
Current assignee: CENTRELINE RODS Ltd
Priority date: 1981-12-31
Filing date: 1981-12-31
Publication date: 1983-07-27

Abstract

A line entry member 4 allowing access to the interior of a hollow fishing rod 2 is provided with a feed eye 5 defining a circular bearing surface at A and further bearing surfaces are provided at B and C. A conical line guide 8 defines the next bearing surface for the line and is followed by further line guides along the length of the interior of the rod. A line threader 10 allows the line to be inserted initially into the rod. This line threader is of small cross-section to pass through the narrow exit opening from the tip of the rod and in order to provide that it has adequate weight to enable it to be passed readily along the length of the rod it is formed of metal sections 10A interconnected by flexible portions 10B which enable the line threader to be inserted in sections through the line entry unit 4 by flexing at the portions 10B. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements relating to line threading for fishing rods A fairly recent development in fishing rods is the provision of eyes spaced at intervals within a hollow fishing rod so as to guide the fishing line down the centre of the rod from an entry point to the extreme tip of the rod where the line comes out. One problem met with such rods is to provide an effective, and easily useable, means of threading the line initially through the whole length of the rod. If the rod is of very small internal diameter at its tip it is extremely difficult to manipulate the line or some form of hooked wire through that section of the rod in particular.

It is an object of this invention to provide means enabling lines to be threaded easily through the centre of a fishing rod.

Accordingly, from one aspect, this invention provides a line threader generally of the shape of a needle having an eye at one end and a tip at the other end, the threader being formed from a combination of metal weights interconnected by a flexible moulded material enabling the threader to flex to follow a nonstraight path.

The incorporation of the metal weights can ensure that the line threader has sufficient weight itself to carry the line through the length of the rod. Threading of the line is achieved by inserting the line threader into the line entry opening towards the butt end and then performing a casting action which tends to throw the line threader down towards the tip of the rod, thus carrying the line with it. For rods of very narrow internal diameter towards the tip end, the line threader itself must be of quite small cross-section and thus to achieve the necessary overall weight it must be substantially elongated.However elongation of the line threader could well make it impossible to insert the line threader into the line entry opening were it not for the flexibility imparted by the flexible moulded material interconnecting the metal weights which allows the line threader to bend as it is introduced into the line entry opening.

The metal weights may be sections or granules embedded throughout the length of the threader. More particularly it is preferred that the metal weights should be sections occupying the full cross-sectional area of the threader for parts of its length, interconnected by the moulded material. The ends of these metal weights will ideally have engaging portions which are embedded in the moulded material.

It is preferred that the eye should be formed in a portion of the moulded material since the eye may readily by formed in such material as part of the moulding process and may be less abrasive when contacting the line. Ideally the terminal portion of the threader beyond the eye will be of generally cruciform cross-section, providing four grooves for the receipt of four sections of line looped through the eye.

Thus a loop formed in the end of the line can be fed through the eye and then looped back on itself, the four sections of line thus formed being received in the grooves so as not to increase the overall diameter of the line threader and line combination to an extent whereby the line threader would not be able to pass down the length of the rod.

The moulded material may be formed from polypropylene or a similar flexible polymer or a natural or synthetic rubber. The metal could be stainless steel or a nickel chrome steel, with or without chromium plating.

The invention also extends to a line entry unit for attachment to a fishing rod about a side opening into the hollow interior of the rod, the unit having a feed eye at the butt end which will project externally of the rod and an entry slit to be aligned with the opening into the rod, the tip end of the slit being formed with a curved bearing surface to guide a line leading from the eye into the rod interior.

The curved bearing surface is provided at what would be a critical wearing point, unless an internal line guide eye is positioned close to the eye opening in the rod. However, the positioning of a line guide at that point produces constraints on the length of a line threader which may be fed into the entry opening. When the curved bearing surface is provided the internal line guide eye can be positioned farther away, thus allowing the line threader to enter the rod at a shallower angle so that a longer section of the line threader can be accommodated through the entry opening.

Preferably, the unit will include reinforcing sections to grip the outside of the rod and strengthen the region of the rod around the side opening.

The feed eye and/or the curved bearing surfaces may be formed from an acetal resin, glass or ceramic material. The curved bearing surface itself may be part of whole of a generally circular eye member. The lower part of a circular eye member is not strictly needed although it could provide for added internal strengthening of the rod. In any event, the lower portion of such a circular eye member would not obstruct the entry of the line threader.

The invention may be performed in various ways and preferred embodiments thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an external view of part of a fishing rod incorporating a line entry unit of this invention; Figure 2 is a cross-section through the rod part shown in Fig. 1 illustrating also a preferred shape for the line threader of this invention; Figure 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing a modified construction for the line entry unit; Figure 4 is a cross-section through a preferred form of line threader of this invention; Figure 5 is an end view of the line threader shown in Fig. 4 showing how a line is attached thereto; and Figures 6 and 7 are cross-sections through parts of alternative forms of line threader of this invention.

The line entry unit illustrated in Fig. 1 comprises a moulding 1 fixed onto a portion of a rod blank 2, near the butt end, by means of reinforcing portions 3 which grip the rod blank. The moulding 1 receives a separate retainer member 4 which holds a moulded feed eye 5 through which a fishing line 6 will be fed. The line enters into the rod blank 2 through an opening 7 as shown in Fig. 2.

Inside the rod blank 2, immediately beyond the opening 7, is a conically-shaped line guide 8 which, with others spaced throughout the length of the rod, serves to guide the line 6 and hold the line away from contact with the internal surface of the rod blank 2.

In order to feed a line through the rod, the end of the line 6 is tied through an eye 9 in a line threader 10. The line threader is then inserted into the rod blank through the feed eye 5, the opening 7 and the line guide 8.

Various contact paints A, B, C, D and E determine the angle which the line threader may adopt and thus the maximum length which any section 1 OA of the line threader may have. The sections 1 OA of the line threader are interconnected by flexible portions 1 OB. The length of a section 1 OA of the line threader may be increased, without increasing the size of the openings 7 (which would further weaken the rod blank 2) by moving the line guide 8 further down the length of the rod and providing a curved bearing surface on a portion 11 of the retainer member 4, as shown in Fig. 3. The critical contact points are now points AA, BB, CC, DD and EE and it will be-seen that point EE is significantly further along the length of the rod than is point E in Fig. 2.

The line threader shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is illustrated in more detail in Figs. 4 and 5.

This line threader incorporates a head portion 1 2 moulded from polypropylene or a similar flexible polymer to form the eye 9. The head portion is attached to a metal weight 1 3 which has an engaging head 14 about which the moulded material 1 2 is formed. By similar means a flexible centre moulded section 1 5 is secured to the ends of the weight 1 3 and a further weight 1 6 forming the tip of the line threader. The flexible section 1 6 is the flexible part lOB as illustrated in Fig. 2. The extreme end of the head portion 1 2 of the line threader is of cruciform shape where it leads away from the eye opening 9.This provides recesses within the overall external circumference of the line threader which will receive four lengths of line 6 which are created when a looped end of the line is fed through the eye 9 and then looped back on itself. Thus the line and threader combination does not form a portion increased circumference which might become blocked within one of the line guides in the rod blank, particularly towards the extreme tip of the rod.

A very lightweight spinning rod will have a small diameter for the rod blank to keep the weight down as much as possible and to provide for greater flexibility. This means that the tip end of the rod will have a very small internal diameter so that the line threader itself will have to have a comparably small diameter. Furthermore there may be constraints upon the size of the openings 7 which may be cut into the rod blank thus limiting the maximum size of any section of the line threader. Two modified forms of line threader which give much greater flexibility are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The line threader 1 7 shown in Fig. 6 is formed from a moulded polymeric material 18 in which are embedded metal granules 1 9 (or even metal powder) to give the line threader the desired weight. The line threader 20 shown in Fig. 7 has short metal sections 21 embedded in polymeric material 1 8 thus providing a series of bending points, as at 22.

The metal used in the line threader may be tungsten, stainless steel or nickel chrome steel, for example.

Claims

1. A line threader generally of the shape of a needle having an eye at one end and a tip at the other end, the threader being formed from a combination of metal weights interconnected by a flexible moulded material enabling the threader to flex to follow a nonstraight path.

2. A line threader according to claim 1, wherein the metal weights are sections or granules embedded throughout the length of the threader.

3. A line threader according to claim 1, wherein the metal weights are sections occupying the full cross-sectional area of the threader for part of its length, interconnected by the moulded material.

4. A line threader according to claim 3, wherein the ends of the metal weights have engaging portions which are embedded in the moulded material.

5. A line threader according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the eye is formed in a portion of the moulded material.

6. A line threader according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the terminal portion of the threader beyond the eye is of generally cruciform cross-section, providing four grooves for the receipt of four sections of line looped through the eye.

7. A line threader according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the moulded material is polypropylene or a similar flexible polymer or a natural or synthetic rubber.

8. A line threader according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the metal is a stainless steel or a nickel chrome steel, with or without chromium plating.

9. A line threader substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

10. A line entry unit for attachment to a fishing rod about a side opening into the hollow interior of the rod, the unit having a feed eye at the butt end which will project externally of the rod and an entry slit to be aligned with the opening into the rod, the top end of the slit being formed with a curved bearing surface to guide a line leading from the eye into the rod interior.

11. A unit according to claim 10, including reinforcing sections to grip the outside of the rod and strengthen the region of the rod around the side opening.

1 2. A unit according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the feed eye and/or the curved bearing surface are formed from an acetal resin, glass or ceramic material.

1 3. A unit according to claims 10 to 12, wherein the curved bearing surface is part of whole of a generally circular eye member.

1 4. A line entry unit for attachment to a fishing rod and substantially as herein described with reference to Figs. 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings.