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To Glassfishingfloats.net!!

 

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I hope the information you find here will be helpful to you in some way.

 

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My Story

 

Hi! I live on the Washington Coast, mostly because I love the ocean so much. We live about 9 blocks from the ocean and we love it. I love to beach comb, go rock hounding & in the winter go agate hunting. In addition to my addiction for Nero Wolfe I am a devote X-Phile (in other words I love X-Files), and am a videophile as well. Love the beautiful old glass floats - mostly the European ones and the unusual rolling pins, old movies, film noir, reading all types of books and meeting new friends. We have 3 speical cats and a new dog so they take up a lot of our time and they respond ten fold in love

 

Things I do and collect

 

I own my own web design business, NewWebsDesign.com

Borne out of curiosity and love for the Internet. I make web pages for small businesses and other float collectors, and I have been selling for other people on ebay for almost 7 years now. I mostly sell floats since that is my area of expertise, but I sell other items as well.

Please feel free to E-mail me if you have any floats or any items you want to sell or have any questions.

 

I collect glass fishing floats, mostly looking for rollers and European embossed floats at the present time. Below are a few marks I am looking for and a few types of rolling pin glass fishing floats that I need to add to my collection.

 

 

Float Articles

 

A Brief History

 The use of the first glass fishing floats can be traced as far back as 1840 or earlier. The Norwegians used a small egg-sized float on which they tied a fishing line and a hook. As the use of nets increased, Norway went on to produce other sizes of floats since glass was an economical method of supporting the nets and offered plenty of buoyancy. Many European countries soon began using glass floats. Trademarks or embossing began appearing on the floats to identify the users and manufacturers of the floats.

 

Around 1910, far eastern countries, primarily Japan began manufacturing and using glass floats, hence their most popular name; Japanese Glass Fishing Floats. To accommodate different fishing styles and nets, the Japanese experimented with many different shapes of floats, from as small as 2 inches in diameter to the gigantic size of 20 inches in diameter.

 

Most floats are shades of green because the glass used was primarily recycled sake (wine) bottles, but clear, amber, aquamarine, amethyst, blue and other colors were also produced. The most prized and rare color being a red, or cranberry hue. These were expensive to make because gold was used to produce the color. Other brilliant jewel tones such as emerald green, cobalt blue, purple; yellow and orange were primarily made in the 1920-30. The vast majority of the colored floats you will find for sale today are replicas. During the fuel crisis of the 1978 many glass float companies in Japan ceased production due to a limited demand. China continues to make glass floats for fishing today, but little is known about the companies.

 

Cork and aluminum floats appeared on the East coast & Europe around 1920. These soon began to replace glass floats since they were more durable & could provide holes or eye features that made net attachment easier and more reliable. As manufacturing techniques improved, plastic floats soon followed.

 

Unfortunately for net fisherman, glass floats would often escape their nets. Today, millions of glass floats are probably still floating in the world oceans.

 

When tide and weather conditions are just right, you can find glass floats that wash up on the beaches of Washington, Oregon & Alaska. Sometimes, several may arrive together in the same location. Often, these floats roll safely onto shore or may be tangled in seaweed or other flotsam. Sadly, they also can be shattered if the float should land on a rocky coastline. During stormy periods they can be thrust hundreds of feet onshore & will remain there until some lucky hunter should find it.

 

Today, the best places to find glass floats are in small coastal town gift shops or antique stores. On the Internet, you can find web pages and auction sites that also offer floats for sale.

 

A final word: Once you have experienced the romance of the glass float, youl find yourself wanting to beach comb whenever you can.

 

Happy Float Hunting!

 

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The Japanese Legacy

 

Although beachcombing is one of man's earliest pursuits, it didn't get really interesting until the Japanese entered the scene shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. When crab fishermen from Hokkaido began using and losing glass fishing floats they unknowingly created a passion for thousands of oceanfront residents on distant shores. This passion runs unabated into the Twenty First Century.

 

If there is one solitary object that represents the avocation of beachcombing it has to be the Japanese glass ball. While it is true that the history of glass fishing floats began with Atlantic fisheries, the real association between the beach and glass floats didn't begin until Japanese floats first appeared on the Oregon coast around 1920.

 

It all began circa 1910 in the small glass blowing shop of Hisakichi Asahara, in the Hokkaido town of Otaru. Problems with cumbersome wooden and cork floats prompted fishermen to seek out another material to buoy their fishing gear. They approached Asahara, inquiring whether he could fabricate a glass sphere to be used for flotation. He responded with a trial order of hand-blown, 3-inch diameter floats. Local crab fishermen tried the new floats on subsequent trips to the fishing grounds off the Kamchatka Peninsula. They were a resounding success.

 

Orders began pouring into Asahara's shop. By 1915 small glass spheres were being mass-produced with tens of thousands of them in use throughout the Western Pacific. Demand for glass balls soon outstripped productive capacity at Otaru. In response, Asahara family members struck out on their own opening glass blowing factories throughout Japan. By the 1920's there were glass ball blowing operations in Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and in Okinawa. There were even Japanese" glass blowers at work in other countries such as Russia, Formosa and Korea.

 

The evolution began. The original 3-inch floats were quickly adapted for use in the octopus fishery and for gillnet and crab tangle nets. Larger diameter balls were successfully tested as trap floats, trolling floats, aquaculture pen supports, marker buoys, jig fisheries and in long lining. Dozens of large factories and many smaller cottage operations were producing glass floats.

 

Some of producers imprinted their mark on the floats; some did not. Hokuyo's famous kita (north) mark is well known among beachcombers. Unfortunately, Asahara never put any marks on their floats.

 

By 1930 there were millions of Japanese glass floats being used in the Pacific. Although no accurate production records survive, the number of glass floats produced by the Asahara family alone is staggering.

 

When asked how many balls were produced over the last three generations, Yoji Asahara (Hisakichi's grandson) thought for a moment, looked up, moved his arm in a slow skyward arc, responding, "Like the stars."

Between 1910 and 1980 countless Japanese glass fishing floats were produced; even today, in the new millennium, there are many thousands of these gems being used by Japanese fishermen.

 

Ironically, there are many thousands of these same floats proudly displayed in the collections of West Coast beachcombers, and, more continue to be found. The legacy lives on.

 

Copyright Walt Pich/span>

 

 This information is included for reference only, no copying or printing without written permission.

 Images are copyright protected as well

 

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