PHY Perfectionist Action

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (kimk) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:50:57 GMT

The question then becomes "can an object which has utilitarian use be an object of art?" Consider an art glass vase. Like an etching it may be one of an edition, but each one represents vision and creativity at the hands of its maker. The cathedral itself. Just a public building or a work of art in its own right? Some 18th century timepieces have a creativity and vision that transcends function. There are some engraved shotguns which might be considered. Consider the rods of our own...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (bobbeegee) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:40:16 GMT

Thank you Uni! I liked the old rating system better. More user friendly and inderstood.

Bob

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (uniphasian) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:28:50 GMT

Bob - if you like the thread, go to the top of the page where the title is listed. Just to the left of it is a little heart icon. If you click on that, it leaves your kudo (or vote) for the topic. The more votes a topic gets evidently says something, just what that is I'm not entirely sure either.

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (bobbeegee) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:24:33 GMT

Haven't figured out this new kudos thingy, but if we were still on the old Forum I would certainly be giving this discusssion 4 or 5 stars!

Bob

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (creakycane) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:04:46 GMT

Really nice images! I guess it must be quite a challenge to decide as an artist how to represent fine details on a trout, for example. I have no talent in that area, but really envy those who so obviously do, my compliments.

I saw only a couple of the Monet cathedral paintings when at the Musee d'Orsay in the spring; I believe some were on loan. But of the few that were there, it was intriguing to guess what he was trying to convey to the viewer by the small changes - time of...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:26:41 GMT

I can't pretend to know to fully know Monet's intentions as he worked on the cathedral paintings more than a century ago. I do have my own insights as a full-time illustrator and artist. Since as an artist my work is to communicate science, I stand in both worlds of art and science, and have to keep the left and right brains talking to each other. I must balance the desire to exhibit creativity and insert liveliness into a painting of a fish with the requirement to satisfy the client...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (jaybird) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:32:56 GMT

I say it's time for "more fishing...less fussing".

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (creakycane) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:12:45 GMT

It certainly seems that the Young rods do exhibit variabilities and changes over the years. I believe this shows inventiveness and a keen interest in rod performance and the end product - utility in casting and with a fish on. Youngs, and Summers rods for that matter, are simple and workmanlike - and elegant in their own subtle ways.

The parallel of Monet capturing a cathedral in Normandy in a series of paintings, to Young making individual rods slightly differently, seems to me...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (mer) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:00:42 GMT

"7.5 foot leader, 7.5 foot rod, 30 feet of line out of the tiptop, 45 foot cast"

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:36:12 GMT

That's fine with me if you use the phrase. Like your present sig line, it pretty well sums things up.

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (mer) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:14:55 GMT

"I pick one up, cast it, and it makes me smile. That's its job and it does it well. "

Thanks Bob. You've put in words the exact "something" that made me choose the rods that I have in my small collection and that I've gotten up at SuperBoo every year, usually because Sante stuck a rod in my hand saying "You have to go cast this". One year it was a Kushner, this year it was a Halstead. Next year, who knows, but the anticipation makes the...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:08:33 GMT

Bob: It never occurred to me that your comments were in any way disparaging. I personally doubt that the "ring of fire" was meant to hide defects in Young cane, but others are free to disagree. I base my belief on the fact that Young continued to offer blonde cane rods in his 1948 catalog after developing and introducing his flame-finish technique. I know of three Young rods that were built within a three-month period in the spring of 1948. The earliest of these rods was the first...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (Bucky) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:29:30 GMT

I have never had the opporunity to mike a rod built by Mr. Young's hand but I have been told that the dimensions are all over the board on the rods. (Which I would guess is the case on many cane rods. No disrespect to Paul Young rods here.)

Eric

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (bobbeegee) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:33:57 GMT

My comments were in no way proffered to disparage Mr. Young. Just some thoughts as to why one of his Perfectionists may cast somewhat differently from another of the same make. I think Quashnet and Harry have adressed this most admirably!

Bob

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (canerodscom) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:05:50 GMT

Interesting too, that it is widely rumored that the infamous "ring of fire" was designed not only to temper the cane, but also to disguise certain cosmetic blemishes. All manor of variables result in different feelings rods; tapers, glues, heat treating, cane density, phase of the moon, and the list goes on. Please don't take this as a criticism of Young rods. I just think the mojo is the chief factor in what makes them so special.

Harry

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:57:56 GMT

On page 6 of the circa 1954-55 PHY Co. catalog (photo of Ned Jewett on the front cover, holding an Atlantic salmon), Paul Young stated four rodmaking considerations that guided his work:

"The critical selection of cane, the precision with which it is worked, the perfection of glueing and, equally important, the design of each model for a specific use...."

An illustrated essay titled "How the Finest Rods are Made" reviewed Young's efforts in these...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (bobbeegee) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:47:22 GMT

I would agree that the major contributor to the different actions experienced on supposedly the same taper would be the bamboo culm used to make the rod. I would suppose that Mr. Young used the same aged Tonkin Cane for his Perfectionists? Most all clones are made of Tonkin, but not necessarily the right Tonkin for Mr. Young's Perfectionist taper. I can think of no other material used in construction that would cause this
anomaly? Of course, no two rodmakers have the...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (Bucky) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:05:37 GMT

The first rod I built was a Perfectionist using Howell's taper from "The Lovely Reed". Since then I have wiggled and casted at least 5 other clones and a couple with altered dimensions. One was made as a true 4 weight. Every one of them are different than the true taper I was able to cast last year. As a hobbiest builder, one of the things I have discovered about cane is that a similar taper built by different hands will all feel different. Some of them were nice tapers and...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (slomoshun27) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:19:32 GMT

The closest I can come to relevance in this conversation is to thank Bobeegee because I am also unable to generate those Martin
Keanesque prose and usually devolve to "feels good, I like it" or "Nah, not for me".
I do have a rod in perfectionist taper from "Wanigas". I'm told that these used cane from the PHY shop and were finished by
Art Neumann's guys. The aluminum reelseat hardware with it's plastic screwlock threads sure looks...

Re: PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:28:18 GMT

What's a Driggs?

Sort of a cross between a pool cue and a cattle prod, with some funny metal loops attached. I hear it's used for catching those fish with spots on 'em.

PHY Perfectionist Action

feeds@yuku.com (czkid) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:11:18 GMT

Please iterate your impressions of your experience casting the various Perfectionist originals AND clones please. I finally got an opportunity to cast my 5wt clone for a few hours on stream and I want to verify my impressions.

Petri Heil,

Ralph