From: johnf@Auspex.COM (John Fereira)
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing
Subject: Re: Restoration of antique gear.
Keywords: antique, restore
Date: 1 Sep 92 19:15:09 GMT
Organization: Auspex Systems, Inc.

In article <1992Sep1.091323@ratchet.Prime.COM> kosicki@ratchet.Prime.COM (Bernie Kosicki) writes:
|Hello Everybody,
|
|I was lucky enough this weekend to come into possestion of some old
|(antique?) fishing gear.  There are a couple of Salmon trolling rigs,
|one Penn reel and another Shakespere, two baitcasters, and a fly fishing
|pole.  I was wondering if anyone has experience in restoring older gear
|and could give me advice on how to clean everaything up.  The stuff is
|pretty dirty after being stored for about the past 20 years in a dirty
|basement.  I have stripped off all of the old braided line (that black
|stuff that rots eventually).  It was all pretty bad.  Although I would
|appreciate any general knowledge on the subject, here are my more
|specific questions:
|
|1)  Can I refinish the fly pole.  It looks like there is a varnish or
|laquere finish on it that is not good.  What about replacing the rod
|guides?  I can not make out the brand name on the rod, ans part of the
|label is ogne.  It does not seem worth paying a pro to do the work on
|this, but I'm open to suggestions.
 
I've refinished an old fiberglass rod that I picked up at the flea market.
It's not that difficult to do.  It's pretty easy to replace the old guides.
The nice thing about refinishing an old rod is that you won't have to 
determine where the guides should go.  Guide placement is usually critical.
You should be able to sand off the old varnish with some very fine sandpaper.
The best thing I've found for refinishing a fiberglass rod is Formby's
Tongue Oil.  

|2) What is the best way to clean the old reels?  I would really like to
|get them open and repack the bearing etc.  Is it safe to open these? 
|Are springs and stuff going to fly out when the covers are removed?
 
|3) Three of the old poles are made of metal.  They are surprisingly
|strong.  It looks like they have hand-made cork handles, which are very
|interesting.  Has anyone seen these types of rods before, and what if
|anything should I do with them?
 
I also restored a old metal rod once.  It was an old boat rod with a
hexagonal steel "blank".  The guides were wound on with wire and it had
a carved wood handle.  Trying to find replacement guides as heavy as the
ones on this rod was a problem so I just cleaned them up as much as possible
and repainted the blank.  After sanding and refinishing the handle and putting
a new butt cap on it it came out pretty nice.  

|I was really hoping to use the Penn reel (which is on a fiberglass rod)
|for some salmon/laker trolling in Maine.  It seems to be the newest of
|the lot, maybe 15 years old.  I am open to suggestions on what kind of
|line (weight/length) to use on this puppie.
|
|If possible, I would like to refinish the flypole for reuse also, as
|there are many stocked brooks near my house, and I thought it would be
|cool to learn flyfishing from 'the old man'.

Check out Clemens books on rod building.  They should provide enough 
information necessary to refinish the fly rod.  Check out the fishing shops
for one that does rod building.  They're usually pretty helpful.  There
is a guy locally that'll let me bring in my rods and use his varnish dryer.

|I was thinking of using the remaining baitcasters/rods to decorate my
|den/basement.  I thought it would look sort of cool, but I still want to
|get them into working order as best I can.

I'd suggest that for the metal rods as well.  You can put them up there
with the old wooden skis with cable bindings.

-- 
+============================================================================++
| John Fereira            "Is that all you ever think about?"                |
| johnf@auspex.com                                                           |
+============================================================================++
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing