I have enjoyed the cane fly rod questions, and now I have one for you. My grandfather recently showed my dad his old cane poles that he had and I had a couple of questions:
I know they haven’t been used for a long time, not for sure if they have had anything done to them other than storage in thier cases ( I believe cloth). What do we need to do to “clean them up”? Is it a task we could do, or do we need to take them somewhere?
I know the makers of 2 of them, South Bend which I have seen mentioned in a few posts which seems to have been a lower tier rod, not for sure on the quality of South Bend’s, how “are they”? The other is a Shakespeare, my dad looked up the model number and it looked like it may have been in 1931, does this sound right? The other simply has H & I co. on it, any info would be great! The other 2 do not have any identification or markings on them.
Would you reccommend using them? And if so what weight of line is common, or would you need more info. It would be nice to use them, I have absolutely no interest in selling them, but to refinish them or make them usable would be key.
I know I will get some good info, so thanks in advance.
Drew
A bum-legged old man and a drunk. That’s all you got?
That’s WHAT I got.
Drew, I’ll let the real experts give particular advice. But let me just say “lower tier” may have once described a group of rods for sale to the general public. Those SPECIFIC rods you have are definitely UPPER TIER due to their family connection.
Restore and fish them with utmost pride.
Jim
[This message has been edited by nowindknots (edited 24 June 2005).]
Based on some past investigations I have done, I believe the H & I would be Horrocks and Ibbotson (sp?). I’m sure you will get responses to your other questions from folks more knowledgeable than I.
The H & I is definitely a Horrocks & Ibbotson out of Utica New York. You can date the rod by the shape and design of the H&I Logo decal on the rod. H&I, considered by many to be a “production” rod company still made some darn good bamboo flyrods. I have a few in my collection that I restored and I fish them regularly.
The South Bends cover a wide range of offering from that great old company and many of their rods were well made, although considered a bit on the lower end of the scale by many, once again, they can be very nice rods to fish. the model numbers of the South Bends are usually written in black on the rod and would look like #59 - 9 as an example. You can get a pretty good idea of what you have by going to a web site owned by “FISHNBANJO”. Sante Guiliani (and I sure hope I spelled his name correctly) is extremely knowledgable on all of these manufacturers and his website will tell you a little about them.
[url=http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2h7gi/fishnbanjossliceoflifeincyberspacecopy/:14540]http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2h7gi/fishnbanjossliceoflifeincyberspacecopy/[/url:14540]
As far as worth, who knows? I know if they had belonged to my grandfather, Ft. Knox doesn’t have enough to get them.
Now, Cleaning them up and getting them ready to fish?, I would find someone in your area that is knlowledgable in bamboo rods and the state of their integrity and have them checked and cleaned (if need be) and of course if necessary, restored so you will have them to pass on to your grandson. You have a wonderful treasure, engineered and built by some of the masters of old, and fished by a dearly loved one.