We have threads on got a new rod lately,made a new rod lately and while restoration work is often discussed there has been no threads devoted entirely to it
that I'm aware of.There are many on the forum besides me that do a fair amount of restoration work whether it's for income,personal collection or
both.Let's see some of your favorites and in getting the thread started I'll post one that gave me a feeling of immense satisfaction in bringing a
piece of history "back to life". How this rod found me in the hills of western Maryland (about 90 miles NW of the nations capitol) all the way from
the other side of the country(California) is a story in itself so I'll just stick to the rod.It all started Christmas week of 2006.I recieved a phone call
on a Friday night from a gentleman who explained that he had seen a restoration that I had done and was wondering if I would be inteested in restoring a rod
for him.I told him to email me pictures of the rod so that I would know what I would be working on and I would then contact him to discuss whether it was worth
restoring or not.I recieved the pictures and knew right away that I would have to contact someone far more knowledgable than me about vintage rods.I contacted
the Gnome as I usually do when I want an old rod ID'd.I asked him how he would like me to handle getting pictures to him as I didn't wish to incur his
wrath for jamming up his email account like I did the 1st time I sent him pics
(it was the first time I had attempted doing that on a computor and had no idea what I was doing).The Gnome graciously agreed to help with ID and
approx. value if I would burn a CD and snail mail it to the Cave.About a week and a half later I recieved an email from Jeff that it was a high end Monty trade
rod and even in mint restored condition was only worth about x amount of dollars assuming one could find a collector of 9' casting rods. I contacted the
gentleman from Ca. and told him that even though my rates were fair and probably lower than most would charge that it would cost as much or more just to strip
the rod, rewrap and varnish it than what the rod was worth.He only thought about it for a day and contacted me to let me know that he didn't care.He liked
the rod and wanted it restored.He had attempted it himself and was dissappointed with the results and wanted it fixed.That should have been my 1st
warning.It's one thing to restore a rod that has been neglected for a long time,it'squite another to have to undo poor attempts at restoring(even if
they were with good intentions)before you can even start to bring it back to life.About the 3rd week of Jan. 2007 the package arrived. opened the package and
my 1st thought was "well you've got your work cut out for you on this one".# of the 4 sections had been rewrapped with the wrong shade of red
with nylon so heavy it could've been used to fly kites.Then the sections had been varnished over without the removal of the original varnish.And it was
done with varnish that had obviously gone bad.This a picture of what showed up
(it was the first time I had attempted doing that on a computor and had no idea what I was doing).The Gnome graciously agreed to help with ID and
approx. value if I would burn a CD and snail mail it to the Cave.About a week and a half later I recieved an email from Jeff that it was a high end Monty trade
rod and even in mint restored condition was only worth about x amount of dollars assuming one could find a collector of 9' casting rods. I contacted the
gentleman from Ca. and told him that even though my rates were fair and probably lower than most would charge that it would cost as much or more just to strip
the rod, rewrap and varnish it than what the rod was worth.He only thought about it for a day and contacted me to let me know that he didn't care.He liked
the rod and wanted it restored.He had attempted it himself and was dissappointed with the results and wanted it fixed.That should have been my 1st
warning.It's one thing to restore a rod that has been neglected for a long time,it'squite another to have to undo poor attempts at restoring(even if
they were with good intentions)before you can even start to bring it back to life.About the 3rd week of Jan. 2007 the package arrived. opened the package and
my 1st thought was "well you've got your work cut out for you on this one".# of the 4 sections had been rewrapped with the wrong shade of red
with nylon so heavy it could've been used to fly kites.Then the sections had been varnished over without the removal of the original varnish.And it was
done with varnish that had obviously gone bad.This a picture of what showed up
End of part 1.I type slow and need a break.Part 2 to follow shortly.
.It was painfully obvious that no amount of rubbing was going to remedy the
situation.So I emptied the varnish tube,cleaned it out with acetone and after it was thoroughly dry,refilled with new varnish.Stripped the tip so I could start
over
and finished tip 2.Rewrapped tip 1 and dipped both the tips an hung
them in the drying box.2 1/2 months had now elapsed since recieving the rod.During this time I sent emails every 7-10 days to the owner keeping him abreast of
the progress.Took a break for a week in order to finish the 4'4" banty that I was making using a taper by AJ Thramer.I wanted to use it this
spring.Back to the task at hand and things were going a bit smoother and faster due to the mid sections larger diameter.Mid section finished,1st dipping and in
the DB.Lightly sanded and dipped coat 2 on the tips.3 1/2 mos elapsed since rods arrival.Remember this.In addition to stripping and rewrapping, the
REAL tedious work of applying 6 coats of Als' color preserver to the guide wraps and 4 coats of the same one drop at a time with a dubbing needle
to over 150 intermediate wraps followed by 2 coats of varnish applied in the same manner to all those wraps is to say the least tedious and time consuming!But
I sure a h--l didn't want to redo any sections because of bleed through.Time to start the butt(and final) section.Yes, the light at the end of the tunnel
was visible.The butt section work went by smoothly and trouble free and finally the rod was to the point that was agreed upon by both parties.The cane portion
was restored to it's origional glory at a price agreed upon by both parties for the cane work only.I took one look at the rod and knew in my heart
that I wasn't letting it leave my shop with the bamboo looking that good and the metal and cork looking THAT BAD(refresh your memory by looking again at
the picture in the 1st post)!My cost,my time but I'll be damned if the rod was leaving looking half finished.So I removed all the finish off the ferrules
and buttcap, reblued and clearcoated them.Polished all the brassblack from the winding check,reelseat and re blackened and clearcoated them.Took a damp rag and
steam iron to the cork raising all of the depressions as well as I could.Then lightly sanded with 600 grit,800 grit and finally 1000 grit.Finally after 7
months and approx. 82 hours of actual time invested it was ready to begin the journey back across the country.The owner was ecstatic! That made it worthwhile
for me and helped ease the fact that I did the extra work on the metal and cork gratis, due to my hard headedness and unwillingness to let the rod leave
looking half done.I think the rod looks as good as the day it left the factory circa 1900-1910.What do you think?
the crack
dwights old granger sections
