Mystery Rod

A friend has a vintage bamboo unlike any I have ever seen. The first strange thing (to me) is that the rod has no case but instead the sections are held in 4 grooves on a (wooden?) rod that is routed out in 4 lengthwise
grooves which hold the rod sections and extra tip(which is missing) The wooden holder is covered with cloth which is glued to the holder. Thin metal disks are attached to the ends of the holder.
The rod is in poor shape but the bamboo seems to be tight with no lamination separation. The rod is 9 ft with 3 sections. The reel seat appears to be nickle silver with a single sliding ring. Wraps are silk and some guides are missing. The guides are unlike any I have seen. They are in two parts, a ring which is slipped over another part which is wrapped to the rod. The ring is free and would fall off if the other part was not wrapped to the rod. The guides are similar to some hook keepers I have seen. Shooting line would be difficult.
Can anyone identify this rod? Thanks. Oldster Pictures will be sent on an additional post.

oldster,

You are describing a wooden form that was the accepted method of storing a bamboo rod in the post-mid, late 1800's, early part of the 1900's.The guides are also typical of that era and are what were called flip rings.

It is impossible to identify the rod from a description only.

Thanks for the info. That's a good start. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can figure out how to do it!

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Originally Posted by oldster

A friend has a vintage bamboo unlike any I have ever seen. The first strange thing (to me) is that the rod has no case but instead the sections are held in 4 grooves on a (wooden?) rod that is routed out in 4 lengthwise
grooves which hold the rod sections and extra tip(which is missing) The wooden holder is covered with cloth which is glued to the holder. Thin metal disks are attached to the ends of the holder.
The rod is in poor shape but the bamboo seems to be tight with no lamination separation. The rod is 9 ft with 3 sections. The reel seat appears to be nickle silver with a single sliding ring. Wraps are silk and some guides are missing. The guides are unlike any I have seen. They are in two parts, a ring which is slipped over another part which is wrapped to the rod. The ring is free and would fall off if the other part was not wrapped to the rod. The guides are similar to some hook keepers I have seen. Shooting line would be difficult.
Can anyone identify this rod? Thanks. Oldster Pictures will be sent on an additional post.

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I worked on a rod like that five years ago. While I can't be sure what your rod is without seeing it the one I worked on was an Orvis from around 1916 - 1920. The Orvis rod I worked on had an intermediate wrap about every 3/4 inch along the whole length of the rod. Did I mention I hate intermediate wraps? I was six months doing those things.

I refinished an Abbi & Imbre (sp?) two years ago that had the same type of carrier but not the flip-rings for guides. That rod was from early 1940 - 1942. The owner of that rod knew some of the family history about when his father had purchased it.

I have only seen a few rods in that style carrier. Possibly many were lost or there were not many of them to start with, or I have just not seen that many early rods.

Pictures would help.

fishbum

This rod also has intermediate wraps. They are black alternating with black and white (clear). I refinished a rod for a friend with a lot of intermediate wraps also. All the wraps were red tipped with black. I counted the number of wraps at the time but can't remember how many there were. Too many! I agree with your acessment.