John, since your question is about a well known bamboo rod maker, you might find the answer at a website dedicated to bamboo fly rods: www.classicflyrodforum,com/forum.
Forum: rodboard

Michael, you're right. This rod type was made by Waltco in the late 40's-early 50's and called the Stub Caster. It was actually sold as a "tackle box" sized rod which could be used for casting, trolling, or jigging. The rod was sold with an offset casting rod handle, and was available in 2 styles - one with a horizontal coil like the Emmrod, and one with a larger, vertical coil. Searc
Forum: rodboard

Marc, you may find that any thread you get is slightly different in color from what you have - there are often variations in hue from dye lot to dye lot, even in the same color number from the same manufacturer.
Forum: rodboard

Titebond III. Remove any wraps in the affected area. Spread the separated parts to make sure you have opened the entire damaged area, hold apart with pins , force the glue into the seams, remove the pins, wipe off the squeeze out and wrap tightly with coarse thread until dry. Remove the thread and scrape off the dried glue.Rewrap any removed intermediate and/or guide wraps with size A silk, and r
Forum: rodboard

7/64 = about .016, so you may be OK with that size, or possibly even a 6.5 tube; you can buy a few more thousandths by scraping off the finish under the mounting area. If it's the original CarrotStix (solid non-metallic orange), the guide are PacBay Minimas, and IIRC PacBay makes a black frame/chrome ring top to match with a size 4 ring. Thread is Gudebrod 221 orange with no CP.
Forum: rodboard

Thanks, Tom. I did add a 16Y guide as a second guide and moved the 6M to the third guide, which made the sight line fall into place with the fourth guide as the first runner, and it cast very well, but I guess I'll reset to the specified spacing and try that.
Forum: rodboard

Hi folks, Finally getting to set up my first Microwave guide system - the small one from American Tackle. According to the AmTac site and the postings I've searched, the stripper should be about 19.5 in. from the front lip of the fully extended spool, then 11 in. to the second guide and 9 in. to the first running guide. When I set it up that way, there is a pronounced drop in the sight line at
Forum: rodboard

Jim, The length of the grip has no bearing on the guide placement - all measurements are taken from the reel spool face, so cutting the grip back won't help. The center of the spool is the alignment point, and the top inside edges of the reduction guide rings are lined up between the spool center and the top inside of the choke guide ring (first running guide). My builds will usually fall well w
Forum: rodboard

Gene, I'm presuming that the rod blank is broken straight across where the spigot ends. If so, why not repair it a la Ralph O'Quinn, using the original spigot and blank piece - it would save you a lot of time. If you trim the broken blank off the spigot for about 5/16" (8mm), so that it protrudes, you'll have enough overlap for the plug of the repair. All you need is a thinwall fiberglass
Forum: rodboard

Stephen, Hard to tell - sounds like a reel seat model number. Any chance of a couple of pics of the seat and about 18" of the butt end?
Forum: rodboard

Hi folks, Got a Fenwick Lunkerstik 2000 casting rod in for repair, and need to rewrap one guide. The blank is the brown fiberglass with the eagle logo and the thread appears to be a light olive NCP size D. Has anyone done repairs to these rods back in the day (it looks like it dates from the early 80's) who could help me identify the correct thread match? Thanks for the help!
Forum: rodboard

Josh, How about a fly rod reel seat? Smaller in diameter and a ton of choices.
Forum: rodboard

Dave, I would suggest using the larger loop top, replacing and increasing the number of guides and rewrapping with nylon, rather than silk thread. Do a careful inspection of the cane to make sure there are no delamination or crack issues. Have fun!
Forum: rodboard

Dave, What kind of rod is this? From your comment about the tips, I'm assuming it's a fly rod. The cork grip should be pretty easy to get off in any event - it's probably pretty brittle, so you can cut it off with a sharp knife. I would make an outline/dimensional sketch of the grip before you cut it, so you can reproduce it accurately. Reel seat removal somewhat depends on the rod type. Ma
Forum: rodboard

I agree with Tom that a glass spigot would be best; you can buy a solid fiberglass rod at a flea market or thrift store for nearly nothing, which will provide any size material you need for the spigot.. Solid glass is easier to match tapers (you can sand it without significantly weakening it), which will give you a better fit of the ferrule, especially on the side which goes into the tip section.
Forum: rodboard

yep x3
Forum: rodboard

Ryan, If the rod is indeed aluminum, as it appears from the video, it pushes the date toward the later end of the range, as Tom has suggested. The cast slide-on guides also suggest a later date - the earlier ones were usually slide-on twisted wire or were soldered to the steel shafts. The handle, although an early style, was produced for quite a long time - they were substantially the same on t
Forum: rodboard

Ryan, You have a child's rod, often sold as part of a kit including a breathtakingly cheap baitcasting reel, line and accessories. Made by a few different manufacturers; the most common being Vim Mfg. Co. Date range is, in general 1920-50, with most being from 1930-1940. Almost all of these rods, due to the price point (cheap) were made of tubular or solid steel - aluminum was a more expensive
Forum: rodboard

Steve, Your rod is a "trade" trolling rod , not a fly rod, from the 1910-1925 time frame, more likely later (1915-1925) than earlier (1910-1920); the double guides were to correct tip sets from extended use, as Mike says. The handle looks more like Horrocks-Ibbotson than Montague. The grip wrapping is rattan cane. The stamping on the butt cap is probably the retailer's mark (Klyn,
Forum: rodboard

Erik, Many of the older hollow fiberglass fly rods were considerably slower in action than the newer graphite rods. You might check out flea markets for a rod to strip and rebuild - they're typically quite inexpensive and you get a chance to "feel" the blank action before committing to it.
Forum: rodboard

Peter, You can also use spar varnish for the rod and wrap finish, which was the old school way of finishing prior to to the introduction of epoxy and urethane. The prep and application procedure is the same as Tom indicates, although I would give the rod coating 2 weeks to cure before wrapping. The spar will give a slight amber tint to your blank and guide wraps, which will deepen over time. It
Forum: rodboard

Richard, Your problem sounds very much like the color preserver did not completely penetrate and cover the threads. I haven't used the Brilliance CP, but I did run into this problem with my first use of another brand, a very thin, clear, solvent based CP on silk. I did a test wrap series (2,3,4,5 & 6 coats) to find out how many coats it would take (firmly locking the barn door after the hors
Forum: rodboard

Dick, 4 guides plus top was pretty standard on 5 ft. rods back in the day. That may be enough, or you may need to add a guide depending on what your static test tells you. If you're going to replace the grip, I'd go ahead and strip the rod to the bare blank, since you've already pulled off the guides.
Forum: rodboard

Brent, If memory serves, the GEP handles were of cork composition - you might try using cork yoga blocks and shaping them to fit.
Forum: rodboard

Brent, Once you've got the handle off, you're left with a male ferrule (metal sleeve) on the rod butt. I use several turns of masking tape over the ferrule to cushion it and to prevent marring the surface - you don't need or want a whole lot of pressure on the ferrule, just enough to prevent slippage while the rod is turning in the dryer. Although you could use epoxy over the wire and it w
Forum: rodboard

Brent, JB has the right style; they're as close as you'll get in new guides, and they'll look a lot better than the ceramics. The vintage rods typically used 3 guides plus the tip for a 4 1/2 to 5 ' rod (4 guides for a 5 1/2 ') - the butt guide is usually about 24-26" from the reel. They can all be the same size (8), or you can use a size 8 butt guide and 2 size 6 for the running guides.
Forum: rodboard

Brent, The rods were tempered before the guides were applied. Solder flows at a relatively low temperature, much lower than the temperature used in the tempering process. You can use a small torch to melt the solder, knocking the rod against a wood block when the solder is liquid to remove the excess, and then peeling the wire off with a pair of pliers. As long as you don't heat the rod to the
Forum: rodboard

Your Glassmaster is definitely a post WWII rod. If the guides you got from the other place were those described as coming from the J F Pepper Rod Co., they are considerably earlier and different in design than the guides used on the Waltco rods. They'll work fine, but the correct guides would be more along the lines of the stamped flat frame chrome guides made by Allan Mfg. Co. Check the rod clo
Forum: rodboard

Rolfe, Sound like an interesting method, very similar to the way I used to fish floating Rapalas back in the day. Can't help you with a specific blank, but the requirements for the rod, other than the length, sound a lot like those for a largemouth bass crankbait rod. You might look at CB rods designed for small, shallow running crankbaits or a real light (1 power) "popping rod" - bot
Forum: rodboard

Great find, Bobby! Allan Mfg. Co. made a wide range of quality guides from the 30's to the 60's; they were original equipment on many factory rods of all kinds in that time frame. Guides which have solid rings are measured by the inside diameter of the ring. Snake guides (the ones that look like twisted bits of wire with flattened ends) are sized differently and are a little more difficult to mea
Forum: rodboard