I hope this won't be seen as a tease, but I was so happy to have some information come through this morning that I just had to make at least a mention of it here.

As it turns out, most of the wraps that you've seen in the Clemens Custom Rod Thread Art book were being done in the mid-1960's by at least one individual. We can now document that beyond any shadow of a doubt. He was doing multiple axis patterns, thunderbirds, flags, plus-one spacing, etc., and many others long before many of us thought these things were out and about. I would never go so far as to say that this particular individual invented these wraps (although he may have) but we do now know, for certain, that somebody was doing them as far back as the mid-1960's.

There's some other interesting and historical information to go along with all this and it will all be in an article in a issue of RodMaker later this year. Probably the volume 8 #6 out in December. I'd like to get it in the issue that goes to press next week, but we have to get some photographs and documentation from some folks before I can print something like this. All in all, it's going to be a very interesting read and one of the more enlightening histories of what most of us think of as the early days of the modern age of rod building.

.............

Tom.

I started surfcasting in Far Rockaway and Atlantic Beach in NY in 1959. I am certain a couple of my fellow fishermen had custom built rods with diamond wraps if not more complex designs. I never asked where they were made but it was probably done on Long Island, NY. Just a bit of personal recollection that might shed some light on the subject.

The history of rod building is certainly a fascinating subject and RodMaker Magazine is the ideal medium for presenting it. This effort continues to add value to your fine publication which is already the best of breed. I am confounded by the fact that so many readers of this Forum do not subscribe to RodMaker. I just don't get it. RodMaker is certainly the richest source of information on the craft. It is a gold mine.. the Mother Load... covering all aspects of rod crafting. This Forum serves a valuable purpose by augmenting the topics covered in detail in RodMaker. It seems a waste for so many to miss out on the full benefit of using both resources to their full potential. They are both great on their own; but put them together and their powers are multiplied!

Thanks for your tireless efforts in maintaining such high standards for RodMaker.
Dave

Some just don't buy magazines - no problem. RodMaker subscribers do get info that non-subscribers don't, but much of that info manages to trickle down onto the various rod building internet forums over time. It may not trickle down in its purest form, but it does trickle down. I'd be willing to bet that plenty of people who never saw the in-depth article in RodMaker on grip flocking are now flocking their own grips. They may have had a few "bumps" or other problems to contend with since they didn't have all the details and problems spelled out for them, but they still manage to get their grips flocked and looking good. And this is just one example. I tend not to worry over whether somebody subscribes or not - it's out there for those that want it. The rest eventually catch onto the techniques by other means. It's all good.

Back to the original topic - We really hit the jackpot with this discovery and it's going to go a lot farther than just some thread art history. Backed up with photos and documentation, it fills in some rather large gaps in the history of custom rod building. I'm looking forward to sorting through it.

If you look in the Clemens Fiberglass Rod Making book, or Pfeiffer's Tackle Craft. both copyrighted in 1974, you'll see photos of decorative wraps, but only stuff that by today's standards appears pretty crude. The 1972 Bullard publication moves some of the more intricate wraps back at least as far '71 or '72, and now we can safely push many of them back even farther, to around '65 or '66. They may go back even farther (probably) but we'd need some actual documentation before we could say for sure. Who knows, we just may turn something up.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2005 01:55PM by Tom Kirkman.

Good stuff. Looking foward to hearing who the Mystery builder from the 60's is.

Great!!! Looking forward to it!!

"I hope this won't be seen as a tease......"

.......not in the slightest !!! lol.

I think this is just fabulous. While I can't see ever finding out who was the first person to wrap a "diamond" on a rod blank, I do find it fascinating to go further and further back and see how many have been doing this over the years.

I know several builders who I think are good thread artists. All have come up with some patterns on their own but each one I've asked has told me that the idea for making cross wraps came to them because they saw a cross wrap on someone else's rod, or knew someone who was doing cross wraps. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find the individual that would say that he had never seen a cross wrap nor heard of anyone else doing it before he (she?) did. But I would think that this person has probably passed on long ago!

Great. Keep working backwards until we can go no further back. At least we will have some history compiled for the youngsters who are coming into this wonderful hobby today.

Looking forward to the article! I need input for a "special"
rod I am planning to build!

Not a tease? You gotta be kidding!! LOL !!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

My guess is that cross wraps have been going non for thousands of years. When I look at American Indian blankets, I always see Stars and all sorts of patterns. And the Scottish Kilts & stuff. So we'll never ever find out who figured out making threads go this way and that will form this, but we can hope that we'll get closer to finding who said let me wrap this Cherokee blanket around a blank like a Chinese Fingercuff, lol.

That's a good point. I took up with dad's old fishing gear as a kid. He had used the stuff growing up in Florida during the 1930's and '40s and none of it had any sort of decorative wrapping. In fact, I can't recall any of the antique tackle I've seen having any crosswrapping. My first experience with it was on an older Zebco Pro-Staff rod that had a diamond out of factory Gudebrod type "butt wind." This would have been in the early 70's or so.

................

This is great! I can't wait for that issue. I am a firm believer that history is very important in our lives.

I have an old Fenwick Lunkerstik that belongs to my father that has a "diamond wrap" out of Gudebrod Trimar type thread....probably from the late sixties.

Andy Dear
Lamar MAnf.

I don't think the Lunkerstiks are that old, but I could be wrong. I think they first appeared in the mid '70's. I have some older Fenwick catalogs, I 'll take a look and see about how far back they go. You may be right, but I think they're a little later than that.

.........

The history of this is really appealing; I'm so glad that you've taken some time to reach out and pull some information in and write on this subject. It would only get harder to do in the years to come.

Billy, did that first wrap equate with today's "Hold my beer and watch this" ??

Putter
Williston, ND

Hi guys n girls,

It's interesting when I've been reading about all the diamond wraps and chevrons and other cross wraps being made on rods, that for the past few years now, I've been noticing that the ladies are wearing the same types of diamond, chevron, and other decorative threadwork on their well done fingernails in the forms of nail polish !!!
I chuckle to myself when I see them and think we as rod builders started it !!! lol

Randy Wilinski

Tom,
That would be interesting to know. The reason I say the 60's is because I was born in 1970, and I am pretty sure my dad had this rod before I was born. At the very least it is from the early seventies, when I was too young to be concious of things such as fishing rods.

Andy Dear
Lamar MAnf.

Man, are we gonna have to wait until December in order to find out who the mystery guy or gal is. That's a long time, so give us a hint.

I started wraping in either late 1959 or early 1960. My memory is a little fuzzy when iIgo back that far and I didn't keep records until the early seventys. I started wrapping 5 1/2 and 6 foot bass rods becaused every thing that you could buy off of the rack was so heavy. I was building the rods on Fenwick and Harnell glass blanks with Featherweight trigger handles and no name (that I can recall) chrome guides. I used thread that I bought from a boot maker and shoe repair supplier. It was about a size B and you could get it in Brown, Orange, Black, Red, Blue, Yellow, and White. It cost two bucks for a 1000 yard wooden spool. I finished the wraps with Guidbrod Rod Varnish, sometime putting as many as 10 coats on them to somewhat cover and level the wraps. The stuff was really thin. A guy named Wayne Despain who was the co owner of the old Tackle Box in down town San Antonio took me under his arm and tutored me in the art of wrapping rods. I also got all of my supplies from him. I started doing some cross wraps later on either in the late 60's or earlier 70's as a result of some rods that i saw at the San Antoio boat show, simple chevrons and diamonds much like what i still do today. By the mid 70's I was doing some multi axis and closed wraps that took far longer than I care to do today. I built my first blank through rod some where about 1970 using the old chrome Varmack reelseats with a trigger. Lew Childre came along sometime in the early 70's and imported some really cool rod building stufff from Japan that changed up rod building stuff a lot.

I stiill have four new Featherweight handles somewhere if I could remember where the box is that they are stored in, probably up in the attic that I can't get the trap door down because of a bass boat being under it with two flat tires. There are probably other treasures in the same box.

Later,
Gerald Mc

I would think some of our thread work might have been spawned in the old sailing ship days. If you look at some of the knots and decorative cord and rope work it looks much the same. Also like someone mentioned the indians use to decorate their spears and staffs. I know on this coast it was kept quite secret and not much of it was even seen until the late sixties. No one shared any of the knowledge and you just had to experiment. Dale needs to be given a big attaboy for breaking the back of silence.