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one of our club members brought am older
bamboo rod to the meeting last night. It
has guides on it that are like the loose
ring style of a hook keeper. Anyone seen this before and what is that style guide
called. The rod has no writing on it. It
fits in a wooden open sided box, has an extra tip, is 10 ft long. Thanks
The guides you are describing were used very early on in rod making by many rod makers. I am not sure of the given name to them, but I have 3 or 4 of them here, including one old Leonard rod (or a portion of it anyway). Just guessing, 1890's - 1900's and maybe a few later than that.
The guides you refer to are called flip ring guides and were common on trout rods from the mid 1800's up to about 1900. When the snake guide came into being many of these old rod were changed over to snakes. As a restorer putting these old rods back to flip rings can be a problem. The rings were often .013 brass and the saddles were cut from .005 sheet brass.
We know and agree that 'fly' lines were made from different materials during those days. However, I have actually wondered for years about those flip guides. Why were they invented? It seems that any of many other styles should/could have been used. Various shapes from a single wire come to mind. Just seems like they selected and stayed with an odd choice. :?