Another vintage fly rod

[BilletHead]

    Ok made a trip to Herman for a couple days visiting friends. We did a route to check out a couple antique/flea market places. Last stop was Rosebud. Found some old fly rods. Spotted One and the only markings was this sticker. Hastings oil filter cartridges. It's in fantastic condition. No breaks in the thread wraps, nada none. Some black gunk on the end eye that scrapes off. Get this price tag 5 dollars. I of course got a five spot out and no tax even. I did what I could to find anything about it. Found one listing where it said was a promotion for dealers that sold the Hastings products. 

  What do you think @tjm?

  Think I will put an automatic fly reel on it and catch a fish. That would get my moneys worth.

[Gavin]

Looks like an old trade rod made for Western Auto, etc. likely made by Shakespeare.

[tjm]

Great score, heck of a price.

Promotion yes. Trade rod, yes. The rod paint color would have likely been unique to that job, on one of a companies standard blanks. But I think it could have been True Temper/Montague,   who made mostly all trade rods, many for Herters, as well as the big catalog stores. Or even St Croix, or a Florida outfit that I think was called US Fiberglass that is said to have made some of the Cortlands. Just about every rod company made some trade rods, Phillipson, Wright & McGill, Harnell, Fisher,  Orchard Industries, Conolon, Pacific Laminates/Sila Flex,  some others that I can't think of at the moment, one in Ar.  I don't associate sanded blanks with Shakespeare, although I'm sure they did some. And outfits like Herter's and Sears sourced rods from multiple makers.

Just looking at the short piece of blank, it has a similar taper to my W&M Denco. The reel seats,   winding checks and ferrules sometimes give the maker away. Harnell can almost be identified by his guide wraps. 

<8'6" I'd start with a  #6 or #7 line and go from there, over 8'6" I'd think 8-9 wt.  The auto reels are too heavy for me and the ones I've used had limited capacity like <50' of L6F. I love the Medalist reels and the vintage is right, but for that rod would maybe fit it with the (back then)  more common/blue collar  Sal Trout 1554, a very light spring/pawl/"large arbor"  reel also made by Pflueger from the "30s through the "70s.  Just to take it fishing or try lines on it,  you can use any reel you have, II just happen to have several of the Pfluegers.

[kjackson]

Love the history.

However, I do see a problem--buying bargains, as that's a slippery slope, and my basement is an example.  You're probably relatively safe with fly rods, but if you fall into buying potential fly tying material at thrift stores, you might as well give up all your free space. I am fighting that addiction, but it's still strong. Whenever I see a mink stole (or collar or whatever), I keep thinking about mink dubbing (and zonked strips) which is where I started tying so many decades ago. 

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, kjackson said:

Love the history.

However, I do see a problem--buying bargains, as that's a slippery slope, and my basement is an example.  You're probably relatively safe with fly rods, but if you fall into buying potential fly tying material at thrift stores, you might as well give up all your free space. I am fighting that addiction, but it's still strong. Whenever I see a mink stole (or collar or whatever), I keep thinking about mink dubbing (and zonked strips) which is where I started tying so many decades ago. 

  I have fell to that delema many times. Hobby lobby has cool stuff and I grab potential stuff and then not use it. Fighting the urge to buy stuff today while out on the hunt. Bought one bargain and passed on another should of got. I hope we go back that way. None fishing related at this time. 

[tjm]

The old wild mink collars were great tying material with 3-4 complete pelts chasing each other, mask to tail, you could tie most any trout fly for a life time. The only drawback being the limited colors. Regular mink like coats, stows ect, not so good because they are sewn together small patches of color and quality match, sometimes no bigger than a thumb. 

[jdmidwest]

I would guess old Herters like Tjm said.

What weight and length?  Handle?

$5 bucks won't even buy you any Chinard junk at the 5 Below store, still have to cough up the 50 cent tax or more......

[BilletHead]

17 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

I would guess old Herters like Tjm said.

What weight and length?  Handle?

$5 bucks won't even buy you any Chinard junk at the 5 Below store, still have to cough up the 50 cent tax or more......

 Measured it and its the 8.5 foot. No other markings except the oil advertising. @tjm is up to speed more than I am so I will start out with the 6 and 7wt lines for testing. Here is the handle and rod wraps.

[tjm]

That reel seat looks very Harnell to me, as does the grip shape and the red/yellow wraps. If I'm right the rod was made by John Harrington  either in Venice Ca. or Braymer Mo. On rods with his fish trademark he often used solid block cork and the yellow thread went trim to trim under the guide. My Harnell is 9' and weighs 5.3 oz. I think the bend is what they call parabolic, and  thinking that, you should give the thing a whirl with a #5.

Going from what I recall of stuff I read  a few years  ago... Harington may have been one of the first three men to make a fiberglass fly rod, his story and that of Dr. Havens- NARMCO/Conolon and Dr. Howald-Shakespeare are a bit mixed up and at some points vague Harington is said to have worked for Douglas during the war and the other two for Convair. So all three had aviation fiberglass as backgrounds as did Jenkins that left NAQRNCO to start Pacific Laminates/Silaflex.  All three all given credit as being the first in one or more accounts, but not much paper trail. 
Early on John Harrington was partners with a man named Renell, hence Harnell as a contraction of the names, they split later and the Harnell name was sold. If memory serves he produced rods under the  Harrington label starting ~1965 and moved to Mo around that time. Again, if my memory is working tonight, his reel seats became Varmac.

[BilletHead]

11 hours ago, tjm said:

That reel seat looks very Harnell to me, as does the grip shape and the red/yellow wraps. If I'm right the rod was made by John Harrington  either in Venice Ca. or Braymer Mo. On rods with his fish trademark he often used solid block cork and the yellow thread went trim to trim under the guide. My Harnell is 9' and weighs 5.3 oz. I think the bend is what they call parabolic, and  thinking that, you should give the thing a whirl with a #5.

Going from what I recall of stuff I read  a few years  ago... Harington may have been one of the first three men to make a fiberglass fly rod, his story and that of Dr. Havens- NARMCO/Conolon and Dr. Howald-Shakespeare are a bit mixed up and at some points vague Harington is said to have worked for Douglas during the war and the other two for Convair. So all three had aviation fiberglass as backgrounds as did Jenkins that left NAQRNCO to start Pacific Laminates/Silaflex.  All three all given credit as being the first in one or more accounts, but not much paper trail. 
Early on John Harrington was partners with a man named Renell, hence Harnell as a contraction of the names, they split later and the Harnell name was sold. If memory serves he produced rods under the  Harrington label starting ~1965 and moved to Mo around that time. Again, if my memory is working tonight, his reel seats became Varmac.

                           You are spot on tjm on 5wt line. I made up a 9ft tapered leader quick and put a reel with WF 5. Casted really neat. Heavy and slow action just what we know those old rods like this did. Nice wide-open loops. I can get a bit over 50 ft. and I know this is not what is needed trout fishing anywhere around here or anywhere IMO just wanted to know what it would do.  Now to get it on a fish.