I stopped by an estate sale today and found a couple of old fly rod blanks. Both are Herter's blanks, one is an RB9S10 and the other is an RB9S20. Can anyone tell me anything about these blanks? I paid 5 bucks for the pair so I am not out that much.

Good blanks in their day, which has been some time ago. They'd be either glass, or very early graphite models.

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Can't tell you about those but I have a couple of old Herter's rods which I really liked. Unfortunately I can only fish one rod at a time. I loved that place and the catalog.

You can rest assured that at the time they were sold-Herter's advertised them as being made of the best available materials, built by the most skilled craftsmen of the day, extensively tested under the most extreme conditions in the harshest environments the planet has to offer and personally approved by Jacques L. Herter himself.
Getting their new catalog each year was like Christmas.

These blanks are in fact glass. I thought one of the numbers in the model indicated a length, but that is not the case. I was hoping to find some specs on the model numbers such as weight. I am not a fly fisherman, but I a brother-in-law that wants a very long spinning rod for a special application. One of these may fit the bill.

I happen to have a 1966 Herters Catalog. These blanks are listed as Herter's Handmade Browntone Spun Glass Light Saltwater and Heavy Freshwater Spinning Rod Blanks. The RB9S10 is listed as 8' 6" 2 piece, 6oz Medium action blank for $5.08. The RB9S20 is listed as a 6' 11" 2 piece, 4 oz, Fast tip blank for $4.18. The caption reads: All these spinning rod blanks are to be made up with fixed reel seats, cork foregrips and cork handles built upon the butt end of the blank. All two piece blanks come with ferrules mounted. All these blanks are designed for use with the saltwater and intermediate open face spinning reels. RB9S20 is specially for use as a steelhead and salmon straight handle spinning rod.

That catalog has 546 pages of everything a sportsman would ever want or need.....too bad its gone......hope this helps.

Steve

Thanks Steve! That is exactly what I was looking for. Who knows how long these blanks have been sitting around just waiting to catch that first fish!

If I remember correctly, the term Herter's often used was "finest procurable quality." I used to buy a lot of stuff from that company. It was amazing the quantity of stuff they offered.