Member postings for Mike

George Clarihew is right: the area around Burghead is also known as "The Broch". In the circles in which I moved before I retired, Aberchirder was always known as "Foggieloan", or just "Foggy". And in the North-east Scottish tradition, George must be known as "Dod."

Edited By Mike on 18/04/2018 10:17:45

I do wish I'd kept my Lincolnshire accent, but I lost it in several ways. Firstly, I had a "posh" aunt who thought it was vulgar, and lectured me endlessly when I went to stay with her. But it was worthwhile putting up with the lectures, because my uncle had access to some brilliant sea trout fishing. Then, in 1961, I went to Rhodesia for two years, and picked up a bit of a South African twang. Now, I've lived in North-east Scotland for over 20 years. I've no Scots accent, but when I go south I am told that I've picked up Scots phraseology. But, like Richard, I love to hear the accent of my home county.

If you want to work on soft metal, beware of some of the "brass" brushes from DIY outlets, both rotary and conventional, which are really brass-plated steel. What was supposed to be a brushed finish on an aluminium item I made finished up with which might be described as a "gouged" finish.

Alistair's observations are interesting. Even my unpractised English ear can detect differences between the way in which the older generation speaks in communities along the Moray Firth coast only a few miles apart. When I became editor of the Banffshire Journal in 2000 I noticed that the Doric in Banff was different to that spoken in my home village of Portgordon 23 miles away. Presumably there were differences in all of the coastal communities in between. There are even differences in place names. Alistair points out that Fraserburgh is always referred to as "The Broch" in these parts. Also, there's a village near here named as Findochty is you look at the Ordnance Survey, but everybody around here calls it Finechty. Someone suggested to me, with what accuracy I don't know, that the original makers of the Ordnance Survey, being English and therefore not able to understand the locals, made plenty of similar errors with place names throughout Scotland.

Isn't it amazing how quickly children pick up regional accents? When I lived in Lincolnshire, some friends moved to Gateshead. When they called in to see me after three months, their kids were speaking Geordie so thick I couldn't understand them. But when I moved to North-east Scotland over 20 years ago I had to learn Doric. I'd only been here a couple of days when a neighbour called, wanting to speak to my step-daughter. "Far's the quiney?", she asked. "Far" is where. and a woman is a quine, so a young woman is a quiney. I'm a loon rather than a man. Fit is what, and so it goes on.....

Thanks, Nigel - much appreciated. My late sister was the technical translator for Mandelli in the era, and I was invited to visit the factory several times before the company got into trouble.

Big boys' toys - and I want one! Seriously, do they normally machine steel dry, or is the coolant turned off so that we can bee what's happening on the videos? When I saw machines not quite this big in the Mandelli factory in Piacenza in the late 1980s, they were capable of such work rates that it was refrigerated before re-use.

Neither the implement in Tractor Man's picture nor the one in the Ebay illustration can be anything to do with shotgun barrels - they are far too short. I have a shotgun bore micrometer, and it has a reach of over 16 inches, so that it can be inserted through either the chamber or the muzzle to measure anywhere along a 32-inch barrel. In addition, I don't think the Ebay implement could be anything to do with dent removal in any kind of tube. I think (guessing) that, rather than forcing the dent out, it would cause a bulge on the opposite side. Shotgun dent removal tools I have seen spread the load over quite a length of the opposite wall of the tube. Some are mechanical, and others hydraulic. If you Google for "shotgun barrel dent removal tool" and look at the pictures, you will see what I mean. I think it's just a tube expander, as Peter suggests, possibly for use by plumbers. As for Tractor Man's mystery tool, I haven't a clue.

I once knew a young newspaper reporter who was delighted to learn that he had qualified for a company car. What was delivered to the office next day? A Bond Bug!

When I first qualified for a company car, I could have what I liked as long as it was either a Ford or a Vauxhall. Then, suddenly, things changed and magazine editors like me could have pretty well what they wanted, and I went for a Peugeot Turbo-diesel, which, in the era, was the best car I had ever driven. A little further up the tree from mere editors, there was a sudden crop of top-level Mercs, and BMWs. The reason? The company had changed from buying to hiring. and hire companies did some excellent deals because they found that good cars with an immaculate service history had a good second-hand value. The company never did get much for clapped-our Fords and Vauxhalls. Is with why company car drivers now shun Mondeos?

Bazyle, It depends on whether you prefer to fish with the reel handles on the left or the right. If, like most anglers, you prefer handles on the left, then you turn anti-clockwise.

Sam, I never did like Diawa reels. For me it was Mitchell fixed spools (which I am still using), and ABU made in Sweden multipliers (ditto). I still have three Mitchells ad four ABUs. My fly reels come from a variety of sources, and I used to make my own coarse fishing centre-pins - at first from the crowns of scrap Caterpillar diesel engine pistons, then from a very high grade aluminium bar acquired through a pal who worked in the aerospace industry.

Some time in the early 1970s I borrowed a load of vintage tackle from Hardys for an exhibition I helped put on at a country sports show. Among many interesting things was Hardy's pre-war Zane Grey big-game multiplier. It was huge, made of Monel metal, and seemed to weigh about a ton! Incidentally, if anyone is tempted to build a fly reel or a coarse-fishing centre-pin (and it isn't exactly rocket science) do use aluminium bar stock, and don't be tempted to fabricate one out of plate. Plate always warps and the reel runs out of true - and that's from personal experience. 

Edited By Mike on 09/04/2018 14:29:37

Sam, I used to get the same treatment when I visited my uncle in Perthshire. In the era, angling clubs used to net grayling and coarse fish, and bury thousands of them on the banks. I used to catch a lot on the Isla and, unbeknown to my uncle, I used to put them back. Talking of Intrepid reels, a friend of my wife's gave me an Intrepid fly reel a couple of years ago after she had cleared the house of a deceased relative. Included in quite a collection I acquired was a "proper" Mitchell fixed-spool from the days when they were made in France, and a built cane spinning rod from the same period.

Sam: The maker of Intrepid reels was Ken Morritt (spelling?) I worked for Angling Times for many years in the 1960s and 1970s, and we did any number of feature articles on roach fishing in Scotland. I took some really big catches on the Tay just below Perth, the Erne, the Forth & Clyde canal, and the Forth at Stirling. You have stirred up some really happy memories.

Neil: I am sure all anglers, as well as nature lovers in general, will wish you success. Unfortunately it's only part of the battle, one other factor being the partial destruction of the food chain by foreign commercial fishing interests. Changing the subject, when I was talking about how the amount of rubbish generated by commercial fishing interests finishes up on Moray Firth beaches, I mentioned seal pups being drowned after getting entangled in bits of net. I've now uploaded a picture on my album. Not my photo - it was taken by a friend in the village.

Idiots aside, it's different vessels for different leisure purposes, isn't it? From my workshop I can see a neighbour preparing his sailing yacht for the summer sailing season. Any day now the crane hire company will lift it into the water in one of the local harbours, and I can't think of anything much more pleasant than sailing in the Moray Firth on a warm, sunny day. Envious? You bet I am! On the other hand, when I used to charter rod-and-line fishing boats there was only one thing better than a big diesel engine I saw in a boat. and that was two of them side by side. I knew some highly professional charter boat skippers who would have been greatly insulted if told they were a lesser form of life. I take ChrisH's point about idiot gin-palace owners, but driving a powerful charter boat safely is not an easy task, as I found out on the few occasions one skipper allowed me to "drive" and navigate under his supervision. Mind you, that was before sat nav, and one of the hardest bits was interpreting what the Decca Navigator was telling me.

Edited By Mike on 08/04/2018 12:29:48

I think we're getting mixed up between commercial fishing and angling here. Certainly, most of the dangerous rubbish that gets washed up within a couple of hundred yards of my house comes from commercial fishing - tangled nets and lengths of wire-cored trawl warp which could easily foul a propeller. This stuff is a danger to wild life, too - I've seen drowned seal pups tangled in lumps of commercial fishing net.

Oh dear - I love to watch motor sport (car and bike), and occasionally take part in clay pigeon shooting. But in a way I agree with Bazyle - there's a time and a place for everything.

The first day of spring weather (touch wood!) here on the Moray Firth, so began a monster clean-up in the workshop. First job was to sort out all of my spanners and screwdrivers (nearly 100 sockets, plus a load of open-ended and ring spanners, 20-odd screwdrivers, plus a stud extractor, bearing puller, and no end of other stuff. It's now all been cleaned up and stashed in one of those big red tool trolleys I treated myself to last December. Tomorrow it's the turn of all the lathe tooling. The pile of rubbish for the tip (sorry, recycling centre) seems to grow by the hour.........

It's been no surprise that Britool and Snap-on tools I bought in the 1960s have cleaned up like new, some but far-eastern stuff shows rust spots in the chrome.

As an angler, I find this debate most interesting, because so-called "water sharing" doesn't seem to work too well. There's a great example about three miles from my home, where an angler can pay a lot of money for a day's salmon fishing on the Spey, and have it totally ruined by canoeists who pay nothing. There are many other examples nation-wide, including yachtsmen ruining fishing, and what the answer is in this overcrowded isle I wish I knew. Don't misunderstand me, yachting and canoeing are great sports at which Britain produces world champions, but we do need some answers.