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Bottom falling out of the market?


Ray T

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Not so long ago the windlass here would have been purchased at ridiculous prices. These have been on eBay now for about a month with no takers. 

COVID 19 may have an effect but the market has been slowing down for some months now.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-PAIR-2-BRONZE-BRASS-BELL-METAL-NARROWBOAT-LOCK-GATE-KEY-WINDLASS/133339609559?

hash=item1f0ba8f9d7:g:6BwAAOSwFFBeTqHS

 

RARE VINTAGE PAIR (2) BRONZE BRASS BELL METAL NARROWBOAT LOCK GATE KEY WINDLASS

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Narrow-boat-Bronze-Lock-Key-Windlass-small-size-used-once/153902282279?hash=item23d54a7627:g:vC0AAOSwegRebheG

 

Rare Narrow boat Bronze Lock Key Windlass (small size, used once)

Edited by Ray T
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2 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

The great advantages of a cheap steel windlass are:

 

(1) It doesn't matter if you drop it in the cut;

 

(2) If you do, it can probably be retrieved with a magnet.

 

Neither of these applies to a bronze one.

You could retrieve a brass one with a magnet, you just need to strap a couple of jubilee clips on it. 

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It may well be that those with the small spindle size are really too small to fit many of the modern spindles.

I have certainly had old cast windlasses where that applies.

I think you will find the "small" eye of most modern two eyed windlasses is generally somewhat larger.

Without some kind of reducer in them any old large eyed cast windlasses are not much use in many places other than on the Ham Baker gear unique to the GU Birmingham main line, and are otherwise really only an exhibit piece.

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11 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

On the basis of Ebay I have a collection in my cellar worth a few squid, all surplus to requirements. I have all the windlasses I need on the boat already.

However, I simply cannot be arsed putting them up for sale, as my time is more valuable.

 

 

Snap. I have one of the brass or copper old ones on a panel that came with this boat. I've never even removed it to look at. My fave by a country mile are dunton doubles which I always use and occasionally lose lol. 

  • Greenie 1
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On 20/04/2020 at 13:27, Ray T said:

Not so long ago the windlass here would have been purchased at ridiculous prices. These have been on eBay now for about a month with no takers. 

COVID 19 may have an effect but the market has been slowing down for some months now.

I think these brass / bronze windlass' are proof that not all shiny 'traditional' items are worth having. They were junk when they were made and they are junk now, if not useless and hazardous if used for drawing a paddle.

 

I have an unused large and an unused small purchased for ornamental use only, and I think there were a couple that came with my boat and both are bent. My windlass of choice is a Dunton Double :captain:

 

edit = the only brass windlass I do like are the miniature versions that act as a centre piece amongst hanging plates, and they only cost a fiver.

 

Here is another on Ebay - apparently rare and collectable for £150 !!!!!!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canal-Narrowboat-old-windlass-Collectable-and-usable-Item/313033162505?hash=item48e23aff09:g:e0gAAOSww7FedBdu

 

s-l225.jpg.e458e28be1848f339bf6b319430e5326.jpg

Edited by pete harrison
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11 hours ago, pete harrison said:

My windlass of choice is a Dunton Double :captain:


I have seen the head snap off a Dunton Double when being subjected to not particularly hard use, so although I own one, I'm now less enthusiastic about using it on a regular basis.  (I'm even less enthusiastic when I look at possible replacement costs should it end up in the cut!)

 

Quote

 

That doesn't look like the usual standard offering for those things.  The ones I'm generally familiar with were clearly cast in exactly the same moulds as were used to mass produce cast iron single eyed windlasses in the period around the 1970s - the kind that were almost ubiquitous to hire boat fleets.

The one pictured isn't the same.  I'm not suggesting it is any better - just different.

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

I have seen the head snap off a Dunton Double when being subjected to not particularly hard use, so although I own one, I'm now less enthusiastic about using it on a regular basis.  (I'm even less enthusiastic when I look at possible replacement costs should it end up in the cut!)

I am not a metallurgist but I can't help thinking all alloy (including brass) windlasses have an inherent weakness as they are comparatively soft so will flex causing stress, and the stress will eventually lead to failure whether that be a bend or a snap. Perhaps there is a marketing opportunity for a Dunton Double made from steel :captain:

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16 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

I am not a metallurgist but I can't help thinking all alloy (including brass) windlasses have an inherent weakness as they are comparatively soft so will flex causing stress, and the stress will eventually lead to failure whether that be a bend or a snap. Perhaps there is a marketing opportunity for a Dunton Double made from steel :captain:

The (aluminium) alloy windlasses I have seen break have all snapped where the head attaches to the handle, and all have visibly had imperfections in the metal that could only be seen once they were broken.

We have had the heads break off two of the long handled "Walsh" alloy windlasses, but so far we have never broken a short throw one.  Can't now find a picture, but the metal had an impure "crystaline" structure in the middle of the breaks

Whilst it is great to have something that is light to carry, I can't help feeling that aluminium alloys are not really up to the task - or at least not if the quality control is no better that it sometimes seems to be.

"Back in the day" when Southern GU locks still had the big 1 1/4" spindles I did use to use one of those cast bronze offerings on a regular basis.  Whether I was lucky of not, I don't know but mine neither bent nor snapped.

I still have it somewhere, (although I'm not currently sure where that "somewhere" is!).~
~

Brass_Windlass.jpg

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