Antique Fly Rods
Recently, I cleaned out all the excess bee equipment I managed to accumulate, cleaned it all up and traded it for some antique bamboo fly rods. Bamboo fly rods have a long – and controversial – history. Most surviving antique fly rods were either made by Montague or of Japanese origin. There are others, of course, but they are relatively rare and very expensive. I’m pretty sure my rods are or Japanese origin. Shortly after WWII, returning GIs brought back rods and pretty much flooded the market with them. As a guess, I would say these rods were 80-90 years old. They were in less than mint condition; with cracked finishes, missing guides, rotten thread wraps, dulled metal ferrules, etc. Just what I was looking for. With some effort, these can be restored. So, I set about listening to soft jazz with a dull pocketknife in hand and began the task. First, I removed all the guides and thread wraps. Then, I began the slow and tedious task of sc