G'day Guys,

A customer has given me an Ogden Smith "Montreal" cane fly rod to restore. I have never worked with cane before so I wanted to get some advice from those of you that have.

So here's the deal. The rod is 3 piece and about 9' in length. It is not in good condition. Four guides have come off and I only have 2 of them. A number of the decorative wraps are missing (thin bands at approximately 1" crs on the rod). The guides that remain on the rod look like miniature braced boat rod guides and most are quite rusty. The original finish (or what I think is the original) is fair on some parts of the rod and missing on others. And last but not least, the tip section has been broken and repaired about 8" forward of the ferrule.

My customer just wants the rod as a wall hanger. As this rod may have some value I didn't want to just go to town and destroy what value it may have.

So my questions are:

1/ Will it be possible to find guides that are the same or similar to the ones on the rod?
2/ How should the rod be restored? Leave all of the existing patina, replace the things that are missing and leave it at that? Or strip the whole thing and make it shiny?
3/ What sort of thread should I use? I'm guessing silk. I'm also guessing it may be hard to match the colour.
4/ What sort f finish? Varnish? Should I recoat the whole rod or just try and coat any new wraps?
5/ The break has been repaired but i don't know how as it has a long thread wrap over it. Should I try and remove the thread and then just replace the trim bands in this area so it looks like it should? This may work as it won't be fished.

Any help would be appreciated. If you think photos will help let me know and I'll post some.

Regards

Jason

now you are talking in my area of knowledge.
so to answer your questions..
1. the guides can maybe be found but it may take some looking on the used market.
2. if it's just a wall hanger then I would strip it all since it's easier to start clean. I would leave the grip with all it's original patina.
3. Silk. also starting clean will match all the wrap colors.
4. varnish. a good spar. and if you want ot go really traditional make sure it's not a poly/spar blend.
5. I would cut the thread off and see how bad the break is. again if it's a hanger. then the intermediate wraps will hold and cover it.
Pics would help. feel free to hit me up in a pm if you want.

Sounds like a lot of work for a wall-hanger. "Restore" has a lot of subjective interpretations. After gathering the information for your client, he may decide it'd be best to find another rod to restore, many may not need so much work. Personally, I'd prefer a wall-hanger to appear as original, which would include decades years of "patina" and not the look of a new rod. But everyone's different. And the value for the customer may be part sentimental too. Sounds like a good learning project for you though :)

eric
fresno, ca.

G'day Guys,

Thanks for your input.

Yep this might be a tricky one. My customer doesn't want to spend too much on the rod either. If I had to strip and re-wrap all of those little trim bands it would take forever and I'm certain would go over his budget. I'll have to talk to him but maybe finding and replacing the missing guides plus replacing missing trim bands might do the trick. That way at least it will look a bit more complete, and still retain the original look and feel of the rod.

Any ideas where should I start looking for some replacement guides?

Cheers

Jason



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2015 05:44PM by Jason Groombridge.