HEDDON #20 8 1/2'2F HDH or E

[aged_sage]

In their earliest days, Heddon apparently did NOT put any labels or marks on their rods. They only had "Heddon" stamped into the butt cap ( I have two). Sometime later, the began to have their name handwritten in India ink diagonally across them, and began to assign a number to the rod; the number being the Retail price. They later began to name them and add the length and line weight rating, again handwritten to them, dropping the numbering system at that time. They had a single employee, a lady, who wrote "Heddon" around all of the blanks that were so labeled,according to my sources.

The old bamboo rods were designed for both Double Tapered (DT) and Level (L) lines, as Weight Forward (WF) lines were a thing of the future. The old line designation system was an alpha system. (Conversion tables are readily found to convert to modern line weights.) The designation HDH meant that the line was a double taper (the two H's), and the D represented the weight (in this case a 6 wt.). The simple designation "D" meant it is a 6 wt Level line. Thus, you will more often than not see these rods labeled "HDH or E", which simply means that it was designed for a DT6 or a L7 line.