Last rod for a while

[droppedit]

We are finally going to add on to our house to bring everything from upstairs to the ground level. By doing this there is no way I can continue to build rods and build a house too so I've put out the word that I'm taking a break. Here is the last one for the next couple of years. I really like this one on the count of the way everything happened.
It is hard to say if this was a restoration, a clone, or completely new. The first few pictures are what I had to start with.

[droppedit]

I had instructions on how everything was to be assembled. I then did the layout and masked off the blank so I could spray paint white to go under the white under wraps. I then squeegee'd a clear coat over the blank and let that cure for a few days.

[droppedit]

I was ready to wrap so I did my under wraps with Gudebrod white D NCP, Vintage Gudebrod Re size E nylon, and Gudebrod Black D Nylon. All inlays are 1 strand of black or 6 turns of red.

[droppedit]

After wrapping the guides I gave it 3 coats of color preserver. I've used Classic Coat rod finish for years and loved it but this time I wanted to keep the finish as thin as I could. I found a finish for fly rods made by classic coat and am really impressed with the way it went on. Go figure, I find something I like just as I'm going to quit for a while. Anyways, here is the finished product.

[droppedit]

Here are a couple more.

[steelfish]

that rod look pretty good amigo.
outstanding job.

having a hiatus from rodbuilding in order to build/mod your home seems like a nice trade.

[Swami805]

Very nice and clean work John, that finish looks great. Nice looking rod

[54bullseye]

I can't claim that kind of workmanship !!!! Dave built that rod and did a beautiful job !!!!   John Taylor

[Fishy247]

Very nice! Clean and classy. That turned out really sweet! What blank is it?

[Bryan Young]

That's a very clean look.  Simple and very clean.

[droppedit]

Very nice! Clean and classy. That turned out really sweet! What blank is it?

I have no idea what Altenkirch was building on. The blank was definitely matched to the butt which has his logo stamped on it. The way the pin is set up in the seat the rod would only go in one way. It is such a treat working on these old rods. The quality of the components will probably never be repeated. They just don't make them the way they used to.

[54bullseye]

I bought this rod cheap off eBay and it was an obvious redo but I saw the C. Altenkirch stamped into the aluminum butt ! They made rods out of the Hamptons on Long Island from the 1930s. They made wooden rods first then as fiberglass got going they switched over. The wood rods are impossible to find very rare !! I have a friend who has one with a big gold Kovalovsky 16/0 on it what a rig !!!! I found the 130 pictured below a few years back it came from Ontario, Canada and it was on eBay. When I got it I was very impressed with the craftsmanship of the rod !!! The 130 was built on an early Shakespeare blank and shows the spirals of the fiberglass wraps they were among the first of the fiberglass production rods. They machined there own aluminum butts out of solid aluminum and they are crazy heavy !!!! The wraps are beautiful yet tastefully simple ! They didn't use any one type guide they used what the customer wanted Fin-Nor - Tycoon, Mildrum and others. They had a signature ramp or transition from cork to rod which I think is really cool !

Dave did a real nice job on this rod ! Because the rod was a dark yellow/gold I wanted to use contrasting colors on it hence the white, black and red "keep it simple" !! These are guides that came on the rod and it was black and red but not very tastefully done and finish was bad. Looks pretty darn good now Thanks Dave !! The blank is about 80 lb class and a very thick hollow glass maybe Lamiglas   Not sure what it is. Below are a few pictures of my 130 rod sorry for the photo quality they aren't my best pictures.  Thanks   John Taylor

[54bullseye]

A few more of the 130 rod. Click in pics to enlarge.

[Reel 224]

Very nice work Droppedit. I like the way you put the thread combination together and design.

Joe

[gstours]

Thanks for sharing your pictures with your words.  You both do very good work.  Keep it up, we are inspired to try to get out of our 📦.   Thanks 🙏.  Great job,  great pictures.   5 stars ⭐️