Vintage Rod Building

[dave524]

Ran across this this morning,  https://www.fishingtalks.com/fenwick-rod-catalog-1982-16901.html  , in those days there was always a rod in process of being built, usually on the coffee table as I was single ? and frequent trips to L.G. Custom Tackle . A few guys here may be interested in the classic Fenwick Glass Rod Line up and the numbering  system.

[Lape0019]

That is pretty cool.

 

Thank you for sharing.

[Tom S]

Boron and Fenglass. Classic stuff.

From what I understand (and I could be completely wrong about this) Boron was overshadowed by graphite before it was able to be fine-tuned. It was just so easy to build a decent rod from graphite that no-one wanted to bother with the extra cost and complications of boron anymore. Developing a blank from boron required a lot of R&D work, graphite was a lot more forgiving. The benefit from boron was it could make a very light rod blank, but the trade of was a high price tag. 

[DRIFTER_016]

I still have a bunch of Fenglass sticks.

A musky rod and a pile of rigger sticks with the twist wrap.

[BillM]

Dave send me some of those rigger rods, I'll put them to good use out on Lake O

[DRIFTER_016]

7 minutes ago, BillM said:

Dave send me some of those rigger rods, I'll put them to good use out on Lake O

NEVER!!! I use them up here.

[Bill Shearer]

I've got a Fenwick Boron 721. It was my favourite in the spring from the boat at Thornbury and Meaford when the splake were stocked heavy.

Very sensitive !

[dave524]

5 hours ago, BillM said:

Dave send me some of those rigger rods, I'll put them to good use out on Lake O

At one time I built 4 blanks in that catalog as riggersticks

GFL-108 -8F ... 9foot 8weight flyrod paired with a Ambassadeur 5500 and 12 pound test for spring shoreline trolling on Lake O and pickerel on Erie

GFL-108-10F... 9foot 10 weight flyrod paired with a 6500 and 14 or 17 lb test , this was the same blank as the commercial Riggerstick according to Lorne

GFL-108-12F..9 foot 12 weight flyrod paired with a 7000 Ambassadeur and 20 pound test, this was a Fenglass blank and Lorne marketed it as the  "Kingstalker" as I recall in his catalog

Also built the Fenglass SH 1262F 10 1/2 foot steelhead blank with a grip for a mooching reel loaded with 20 pound test that I ran in the riggers.

[Spiel]

Cool find Dave. It got me to head scratching and looking about and then low and behold, I have the catalogue.  

 

[John]

I good friend of mines' Dad used to build split cane fly and float rods back in the 50's and 60's. He is long gone now but the time involved and craftsmanship was epic. There was no fancy wrap or detail but everything was so precise and the balance was perfect. Sad to say I had a 5 wt, one of the last he built as he couldn't compete with the glass rods of the time and arthritis was setting in, but I left it in the UK in the early 70's and it didn't survive my parent's house move..?

[Yellow Fever]

Brings back good memories. ...i built so many rods back then 1/2 the anglers at the Ganny had my rods. I worked at the sportsman show 1 year and went over to see Lorne from LG ,bought a 9 foot "noodle rod" blank and all the fixins. Went back to the  booth and started wrapping,got home at 10pm and put the coating on the guides, it was still tacky in the morning but drove to Port Hope and caught a 16lb bow on it (which was a big bow 45 years ago.) . Showed Lorne the rod that morning and he couldn't beleive i could build it in 1 day. The new guys that build are pretty fancy nowadays,  I can't see well enough to build a rod now but it was a great hobby and made a lot of friends ....Jim Lyon

Edited December 17, 2018 by Yellow Fever

[craigdritchie]

On 12/4/2018 at 10:13 AM, Tom S said:

Boron and Fenglass. Classic stuff.

From what I understand (and I could be completely wrong about this) Boron was overshadowed by graphite before it was able to be fine-tuned. It was just so easy to build a decent rod from graphite that no-one wanted to bother with the extra cost and complications of boron anymore. Developing a blank from boron required a lot of R&D work, graphite was a lot more forgiving. The benefit from boron was it could make a very light rod blank, but the trade of was a high price tag. 

Boron wasn't just lighter, it was a lot more sensitive than the graphite of the day. Unfortunately, it was also more brittle, and had this nasty habit of shattering when put under a good load, particularly in cold weather.  You're right, more R&D would have figured it out, but Fenwick decided it just wasn't worth the investment given Boron's substantially higher cost and much, much lower sales volumes.

I got a couple of Fenwick Boron-X rods shortly after they first came out. First one blew up in my hands spectacularly while I was fighting a fish, leaving me holding a cork handle and a stump that didn't even reach to the first guide. Second one split when I set the hook on a rock. Fenwick did replace them both under warranty, and and I subsequently swapped them for graphites.

Edited December 17, 2018 by craigdritchie

[Yellow Fever]

I delivered a rod to a "customer" (a mailman from Bowmanville) at the pier at the Ganny one day and he promptly tied on a bag and started to fish, 20 guys and nobody had had a bite for a couple of hours so we were not paying as much attention as we should have. Suddenly we here a noise like a pop can or thermos being dragged on the concrete. ...turns out it was a fish , on his rod, and he's not happy so he's heading back out to lake Ont. Well this guy goes into a sprint as his brand new rod is slowly making its way to the edge of the pier...and he didn't make it. In it went to the howls of 19 other anglers. Once we recovered most of us put on spoons and flatfish to try and snag his line, and low and behold he got it back. ....still puts a smile on my face 40 years later