I picked up a Kingfisher bamboo fly rod at a local flea market over the weekend. I dont know if I found a rare rod, or something fairly common. I liked the looks of it and for $40 figured that it wouldnt be a total loss if it isnt that great.

I dont know if I want to fish it as it currently is, restore it and update the wraps and use, completely strip it and start over, or just hang it on the wall and admire it.

Pic uploaded to the photo gallery: [www.rodbuilding.org]

Ideas / suggestions?

It's not terribly valuable. Using it could result in damage as many of these older, less expensive rods utilized glues that have crystallized and allow delamination of the strips. If one comes loose, the rod can collapse and break. Making a wall hanger from it is always a safe bet. But, if it's in really good condition and appears useable, I wouldn't tell you not to do that.

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I didnt think it was a valuable rod, but wasnt sure either. I probably will just use it as a decoration. The Kunman rod i picked up is pretty darn good tho.

I would strip it down inspect the components and decide if a restoration is feasible. If restoration is possible then it is a good reason to keep your hand in the craft and end up with a fine fishing rod with bragging rights.

If it is beyond restoration patch it up and make a wall hanger, either way it will keep you in practice.

Have fun

Ken,
As with so many aspects of rod building, it is a personal choice whether to fish if or hang it on a wall. I am certainly not qualified to appraise the rod but would trust Tom's opinion. Maybe Tom or someone else can offer how old it is.
Personally, I WOULD DEFINITELY FISH IT!!! Since it is of minimal monetary or historic value, why would you want to display it? On the other hand, fishing a vintage rod can afford a lot of fun. But you need to be careful and closely inspect it first. As Tom mentioned, the glues available in the 1960s and earlier are much inferior to epoxies available today. A good indication of questionable glue employed would be if there are narrow binding wraps every few inches along the rod's length. if so, make certain they are sound to help hold everything together. If not, you may be OK but still a bit of a crap-shoot. Inspect the wraps, hit the guides with 0000 steel wool and go have fun with it; if it breaks then if died a glorious, honorable death performing its initial intent!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Mark,
You make an interesting argument :) There are wraps all along the rod which suggests what you mention with the binding wraps. Im leaning more towards just displaying it at this point. I MAY try to fish it at some point. Maybe Ill just take it up to the local pond and catch some sunnies on it so I can say I caught something on it.

Ken,
You offer yourself good advice = go fish it but possibly not for trophy toads! But if you do not fish it, you will always wonder. The Fishing Rod Gods will bless you for allowing your vintage rod to stretch its fibers once again.
My Dad was so overwhelmed with the 26lb Sailfish he caught in 1946 while on Navy leave that he bought the rod and reel from the charter boat! It is an absolute beast of a cane rod and I am certain it can handle at least 4X what he put it through. I stripped it down to bare bamboo, mahogany fore-grip, hickory butt-grip, put three coats of PG on the blank and grips, installed modern Fuji HBs out to the original roller tip top and wrapped everything, binding wraps included, with modern nylon D thread. While it may not be “restored” to original specs, it is ready to make Daddy proud once again and I take it on all my tuna trips. While I have not had the opportunity to actually put it into battle once again, it always steals center-stage on the charter boats.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I am wondering what it can actually handle. The pond I am thinking of has sunnies and crappie with the occassional trout. I might give it a shot this weekend to see whats up. If its worthy, I may then rebuild it. I do have other projects so it would be an eventual thing.

Shoot me an e mail and I will see what I can do to guide you. I've done several dozen of these old rods and brought them back to use.

I have also done a bunch of old bamboo rods. I have an old 2 piece 7’6” Montague, about a 4 wgt, which I stripped down and refurbished (not restored) for myself. I fish it a lot, and it is a blast to fish. The shorter bamboo rods really cast and handle quite well, and are fun to fish. Some of the longer three piece 9’ bamboo rods work well, but are heavy and become tiring to fish after a while. What length and power is your kingfisher? I would not hesitate to refurbish and fish it, especially since it’s not really worth that much. If you do break it, piece it together and then hang on the wall.

Norm

It is a 9', no weight associated. The guy I bought from said that he thinks its a 'D'..not really even sure what that means. My 5wt reel balances pretty nicely on it though. I have several other rods I have to work on before I even attempt doing anything with the bamboo rod. If I do any kind of refurbishing, it probably wont be until the fall.

Bamboo rods are fun to refurbish, because they are different from what we normally do and present different types of challenges to solve. It also gets you doing a lot of research and reading, thus you learn a lot about bamboo rod construction and fishing history. Take your time and enjoy the experience.
Norm

I couldn’t agree with Norman more! The rebuilding / refurbishing / restoring (whichever “re” you choose) experience is fun while expanding your knowledge; and then you get to fish the archaic ‘ol thing and experience a bit of fishing history and just how good we have it today. There is just something special to enjoy while fishing a vintage rod; I certainly discovered that with my ‘ol Conolons!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.