A little history lesson

[Stripercoast1]

Picture time.

The old wire ringed guides, Mildrum braced were easily identified by the U shaped brace, while the Pac Bays have the V shaped bracing.
They both did an unbraced version that allowed a little bit more flexability to the rod. Although the weight differance added by the brace was virtually non existant, some guy's went that route thinking that it added weight to the rod.

[Stripercoast1]

Graphite reel seats were yet to be developed yet, and all seat were metal. They had 2 knurled rings to tighten the reel seat. Charlie felt that these rings should be at the top of the seat, in the down locking position, so that contact with the wrist during fishing wouldn't loosen them to allow the reel to fall out of the seat. It was a common source of disagreement between Dave and his Father in law. It helps me identify the age of a Murat rod when I find one at a yard sale or flea market. When Charlie passed on, Dave went to the up lock mounting position under the reel.

[Stripercoast1]

Changing the action of a blank by wrapping thread at the butt section above the forward grip was at one time nothing more than a run of thread covering the distance up the blank you wanted to stiffen. In a production situation, getting fancy wasn't a way to turn out a bunch of rods. Some butt wraps can take 18 hours.
My opinion is that life is way to short to fish an ugly rod. Heres a few butt wraps done for both looks and performance. The top 2 are single axis, or exist top and bottom of the rod, the lower one is double axis, with the diamonds existing on all 4 sides of the blank. Yeah, thats an Ugly Stick in the background of the 1st picture, it's the rod I loan out when I take a newb along.

[Stripercoast1]

So, who wants to re-build a rod?
Flea markets and yard sales are a couple of my greatest sources of blanks. The further away from the coast you get, the better the deals usually are. The common comments you get, This was my Dads, Grandfathers, uncles rod. I got it when I cleaned out his garage after he died. Whats it worth? My usual responce, It needs a lot of work, but I think I might be able to clean up that old GREEN reel, will you take $10.00 for it?
I will post pictures of the process of stripping down an old brownie, restoring the blank with epoxy, and re wrapping it with modern materials. The re wrap will also serve as a tutorial for the beginning rod builder as well.
It will have to wait a few days however, as the club will be hitting the canal starting tonight until Sunday. I'll get some sleep and continue this thread on monday.

[DarkSkies]

So, who wants to re-build a rod?
Flea markets and yard sales are a couple of my greatest sources of blanks. ... My usual responce, It needs a lot of work, but I think I might be able to clean up that old GREEN reel, will you take $10.00 for it?
.

Rod and old greenie for $10 you drive a helluva bargain there, Gunny.

[dogfish]

Good thread here, like the detailed stories. All you're missing is the guys sitting around in the bait shop smoking the cigars and pipes.


pipe.bmp

[Stripercoast1]

As I type this story, Charlie in fact is puffing Black cherry through an old Mirshaum, with a golden retrievers head for the pipes bowl, Dave continues to light unfiltered Luckies from the stub of the previous one, thumb and finger stained dark brown. Butch is drawing off a Phillies blunt, before the days of restuffing, and filling the room with a cloud of smoke with every exhale. The smell of a Zippo lighter on the beach, especially during a cold front or winter duck blind still sends shivers up my spine as all those old memories come flooding back. Can't forget the blue enamled coffee pot forever perking on an old coleman stove either. Then there's the canned bacon, the kind with the congield fat, dumped into the cast iron frying pan, then the eggs cooked in said fat on the tailgate of a pick up truck.