Ever so often you see a comment from one of the forum members about needing a replacement tip... but seldom a follow up.
A few years back I purchased a PHY "9ft Parabolic" from Jim Bresko (Coldwater Classics) that was a single tip rod. After learning to love the rod I became a bit nervous about it being a single tipper, so after a few queries I had Mike Brooks undertake to make me a replacement tip. Well... Mike did me one better... he made me two tips! The tips arrived a couple days ago, and what with my wife's crazy schedule and the un-relenting heat it took until today to finally try them out. I'm really impressed, because Mike went the extra mile to try to make the action of these tips exactly like the original tip, and he has succeeded! I will say that the new tips are a slight touch stiffer than the original, but that may be a good thing as my guess is that they will "settle in" and end up being exactly like the original.
When the original maker is no longer around, the purchase of a replacement tip can end up being a major task. "Why?" you ask. Because you want that tip to be as much like the original as possible, not just from an appearance standpoint, but from a casting standpoint as well. Since you generally have a tip to go from you'd think that would be easy... duplicate the taper and the wraps and you're done... right? Wrong, Lizzard Breath... unless you know exactly how that tip was made... the process is equally as important as the taper.
I my case I knew that Paul Young impregnated his rods, so that's one of the big reasons I selected Mike Brooks (the fact that he's a good friend had nothing to do with it of course), since Mike is one of the few folks around that impregnates rods. Also Mike is a nut (in a nice way) about doing things correctly. We added up all the things we knew about the processes that PHY used in building his rods and incorporated them into the tips... including the tapers. This wasn't easy, as the rod being a 2pc 9ft rod caused Mike a bit of grief. Most of PHY's tapers are compound tapers (i.e. on less than 5 inch centers) which requires a mill in most instances. In Mike's case his supplier of form material didn't have any long enough on hand, so we had to wait on that. 5ft long tip blanks get to be a lot of fun to handle, once you find a culm that will satisfy a picky maker. Then comes the question of glue... what the hell kind of glue did our friend Paul Young use?? Mike did some research and claims he came up with something very close (hey!!! he won't even tell me...). Once we got through that aspect of the game he had to flame the blank using the same process that PHY did, then the final touch-ups to the taper and he was ready to put on the hand made ferrules that matched the originals to a "t". Mike made guides to duplicate the originals and found tip tops that were VERY close. Then before he put on the hardware he soaked the blanks in his "secret sauce" and let everything dry according to formula.
Then Mike ran into trouble... unfortunately this rod was the Deluxe version of the taper ($75 in 1951!!) which came with a two color spiral wrapping. The colors of the wraps were flame red major wraps joined by a gold spiral wrap, and a super deep varnish job to top the whole thing off. A really striking combination to the eye.... and an absolute bitch to duplicate. Mikeee is no slouch when it comes to finishing rods... but this puppy drove him nuts... just ask him he'll tell you. But he might not tell you the solution that took him so many re-do's to obtain. Suffice it to say that Mike Brooks triumphed and finally shipped the rod home to me this week.
The first trial run was successful... but the proof of the pudding will be next week when I take the rod up onto my home waters and fish a certain stretch first with the original tip and then with the duplicate. If all goes well... I can lock up the original!!!!
The rod???? Well our dear buddy Quashnet finally came up with the complete ID. My rod is apparently a prototype of the rare PHY "Nymph", and here is Paul's own description of the rod:
"NYMPH" ROD - Full parabolic, 9' - 16/64 ferrule, 5/64 Tip Top, 4.25 oz. This rod uses an HDG and casts 80' - 90' easily with proper timing. It plays big trout safely on 3X and 4X gut and small flies. It is restful to use. Is the result of long experiment to develop such a rod.
Ralph
A few years back I purchased a PHY "9ft Parabolic" from Jim Bresko (Coldwater Classics) that was a single tip rod. After learning to love the rod I became a bit nervous about it being a single tipper, so after a few queries I had Mike Brooks undertake to make me a replacement tip. Well... Mike did me one better... he made me two tips! The tips arrived a couple days ago, and what with my wife's crazy schedule and the un-relenting heat it took until today to finally try them out. I'm really impressed, because Mike went the extra mile to try to make the action of these tips exactly like the original tip, and he has succeeded! I will say that the new tips are a slight touch stiffer than the original, but that may be a good thing as my guess is that they will "settle in" and end up being exactly like the original.
When the original maker is no longer around, the purchase of a replacement tip can end up being a major task. "Why?" you ask. Because you want that tip to be as much like the original as possible, not just from an appearance standpoint, but from a casting standpoint as well. Since you generally have a tip to go from you'd think that would be easy... duplicate the taper and the wraps and you're done... right? Wrong, Lizzard Breath... unless you know exactly how that tip was made... the process is equally as important as the taper.
I my case I knew that Paul Young impregnated his rods, so that's one of the big reasons I selected Mike Brooks (the fact that he's a good friend had nothing to do with it of course), since Mike is one of the few folks around that impregnates rods. Also Mike is a nut (in a nice way) about doing things correctly. We added up all the things we knew about the processes that PHY used in building his rods and incorporated them into the tips... including the tapers. This wasn't easy, as the rod being a 2pc 9ft rod caused Mike a bit of grief. Most of PHY's tapers are compound tapers (i.e. on less than 5 inch centers) which requires a mill in most instances. In Mike's case his supplier of form material didn't have any long enough on hand, so we had to wait on that. 5ft long tip blanks get to be a lot of fun to handle, once you find a culm that will satisfy a picky maker. Then comes the question of glue... what the hell kind of glue did our friend Paul Young use?? Mike did some research and claims he came up with something very close (hey!!! he won't even tell me...). Once we got through that aspect of the game he had to flame the blank using the same process that PHY did, then the final touch-ups to the taper and he was ready to put on the hand made ferrules that matched the originals to a "t". Mike made guides to duplicate the originals and found tip tops that were VERY close. Then before he put on the hardware he soaked the blanks in his "secret sauce" and let everything dry according to formula.
Then Mike ran into trouble... unfortunately this rod was the Deluxe version of the taper ($75 in 1951!!) which came with a two color spiral wrapping. The colors of the wraps were flame red major wraps joined by a gold spiral wrap, and a super deep varnish job to top the whole thing off. A really striking combination to the eye.... and an absolute bitch to duplicate. Mikeee is no slouch when it comes to finishing rods... but this puppy drove him nuts... just ask him he'll tell you. But he might not tell you the solution that took him so many re-do's to obtain. Suffice it to say that Mike Brooks triumphed and finally shipped the rod home to me this week.
The first trial run was successful... but the proof of the pudding will be next week when I take the rod up onto my home waters and fish a certain stretch first with the original tip and then with the duplicate. If all goes well... I can lock up the original!!!!
The rod???? Well our dear buddy Quashnet finally came up with the complete ID. My rod is apparently a prototype of the rare PHY "Nymph", and here is Paul's own description of the rod:
"NYMPH" ROD - Full parabolic, 9' - 16/64 ferrule, 5/64 Tip Top, 4.25 oz. This rod uses an HDG and casts 80' - 90' easily with proper timing. It plays big trout safely on 3X and 4X gut and small flies. It is restful to use. Is the result of long experiment to develop such a rod.
Ralph
