Byron,
Hardy first built a Perfection series back in the 1960's, and that is the rod I have. I believe it came out after the original Hardy JET, designed by John E. Tarantino, who was a world champion fly caster. The rods were based on Fisher blanks. Actually they may have been Hardy blanks built in the rod factory that Fisher built for Hardy. All the equipment was built, then disassembled and shipped to England for reassembly. The Hardy blanks of the time were very similar to blanks made by Fisher for Winston, Scientific Anglers System series rods, and the Leon Chandler series rods from Cortland. J. Castwell did a report on this forum quite a few years ago on the newer Hardy Perfection, which I'm assuming is the rod you have, as yours still has the plastic on the grip. The old Perfection rods were built on a brown blank. The newer rods were built on a black blank, and came out in 1998. The newer rods were only built for a few years, and the rod cosmetics were much more luxurious than the the older series. The original Perfection was a fairly fast action for fiberglass, while the newer Perfection has a buttery soft, slow action. So far I have cast only a couple of rods slower, a Lamiglas 6'6" 2 weight and my Axisco Airrite Stream 6 piece 7'6" 3 weight. The one characteristic I always hear mentioned whenever anybody casts my friend's Perfection or my Axisco Airrite is the smoothness of the action.
Larry
p.s. - Betty, it has been a long time. I've been hanging out mostly with the glass folks and ultralight folks, but I have seen many familiar names on here since I checked back in. I'm afraid "buy more" is my lot in life.
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