Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

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dplucker61
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Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#1

Post by dplucker61 »

12
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Old Cane-Sorry it took so long to get back to you, other "family emergencies" came up. So today I removed the ferrules. The one that was replaced by someone at some point must have been glued on w/ epoxy as I ended up having to chuck it up and turn in off. All the others came off by heating w/ an alcohol lamp and yanking. The female ferrule on the butt section took quite a few heatings but eventually surrendered. They were pinned in place w/ .045 wire so I had to turn a punch but that worked out find. Digging out the wire from the bamboo was another #@x#@ task. Female ferrules are NOT step-down, they are straight tubes. So here is what I found:
Butt section female ferrule station = 17 1/2/64. Length of ferrule = 2 7/8"
Butt to center section male ferrule station =16/64. Length of ferrule=1 49/64". Diameter of male slide=17/64.
Center to tip female ferrule station=11/64. Length of ferrule=2 7/16"
Tip male ferrule station = 9/64. Length =1" Diameter of male slide = 11/64

Hope you've got something that will work for me. The ferrules were brass, plated, but I can't tell if the plating was chrome or nickel. Thank you for your time. -Dave

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OldCane
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Re: Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#2

Post by OldCane »

dplucker61 wrote:12
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Old Cane-Sorry it took so long to get back to you, other "family emergencies" came up. So today I removed the ferrules. The one that was replaced by someone at some point must have been glued on w/ epoxy as I ended up having to chuck it up and turn in off. All the others came off by heating w/ an alcohol lamp and yanking. The female ferrule on the butt section took quite a few heatings but eventually surrendered. They were pinned in place w/ .045 wire so I had to turn a punch but that worked out find. Digging out the wire from the bamboo was another #@x#@ task. Female ferrules are NOT step-down, they are straight tubes. So here is what I found:
Butt section female ferrule station = 17 1/2/64. Length of ferrule = 2 7/8"
Butt to center section male ferrule station =16/64. Length of ferrule=1 49/64". Diameter of male slide=17/64.
Center to tip female ferrule station=11/64. Length of ferrule=2 7/16"
Tip male ferrule station = 9/64. Length =1" Diameter of male slide = 11/64

Hope you've got something that will work for me. The ferrules were brass, plated, but I can't tell if the plating was chrome or nickel. Thank you for your time. -Dave
Dave,

I'll look around, but turn around time might be a bit slow since I am recovering from having a pacemaker stuck into my left shoulder and restricted in lifting anything heavy. Taking it easy for a few weeks.

So butt section bamboo ferrule station (& ferrule opening too) is 17.5/64's and the removed ferrule was 2 7/8" long. Was the butt the correct length with that ferule installed? Because if it was a replacement it is possible that the correct ferrule might be longer/shorter.

I'm confused by butt to center male ferrule - do you mean the mid section's male ferrule? I think that's what to meant and it has a 17/64 opening.

I will need to go find the original thread too since I've forgotten some of the other details.
I don't have a PhD, but I do have a DD214.

dplucker61
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Re: Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#3

Post by dplucker61 »

Old Cane, Yes, all you said is correct. I'm pretty damn sure the ferrule on the butt section is original, the rod was the proper length w/ it on. The only ferrule that was changed was the male ferrule on the tip. And yes, the butt-to-mid section ferrule I was talking about referred to the mid section's male ferrule. Hope you are getting along ok w/ your new pacemaker. They are a wonderful creation of science when they work properly. BTW, you mentioned a hand welt and a rolled welt. What distinguishes one from the other? Thank you, -Dave

dplucker61
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Re: Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#4

Post by dplucker61 »

Old Cane, can you help me zero in on the age of this rod? It came without a tube, but was strapped into a routed piece of felt-covered wood that many times held older rods. The reel seat is nickel silver w/ a slide band, pinned. The fish on the logo has a looped tail but is otherwise straight across the emblem rather than on an angle. The ferrules were chrome or nickel-plated brass, I can't tell the difference, straight rather than stepped as I had previously mentioned and were not serrated nor did they seem to be tapered down to the point where they picked up the wrappings. The intermediate wrappings were red and every 1 1/2" or so apart. The wrappings for the guides and ferrules were a greenish-yellow variegated type. There was a hook-keeper. The winding check may be nickel silver or plated brass but is circular rather than hexagonal. I got most of the varnish removed from the rod and found one sliver that I'll have to glue back in place on the big end of the one of the tips. That's about it, anything you could tell me about its pedigree would be great! Thank you, -Dave

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OldCane
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Re: Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#5

Post by OldCane »

As far as age, my belief is that the earlier Fishkills were built with the plated brass hardware and so this would have been perhaps the late 20's to early 30's. Montague at first didn't have named models and sold their rods to many retailers on price points. At some point early on Monty decided to market rods under their own name and models. Soon thereafter the Fishkill model was improved to fit into Monty's higher end rod line up. So only a few years of plated brass rods were produced, IMHO. Montyman (moderator on this site) has much more knowledge as to time periods that I do.

My own Fishkills are from this period when the model was the bottom end of the high end Montague line up and therefore had NS ferrules with hand welts. For most of the life of the Fishkill model the rod was made with decent NS components, but few guides when compared to higher models. Mounting guides and their wraps equaled hand labor or increased cost. The Fishkill model continued right up to the end of production in the early '50's. A few rods might have been made up at that point out of whatever parts were available and so it might be possible that a few more rods were produced with plated brass fittings. But that's just a guess.

Rolled welting is when the metal tube used to make a female ferrule is rolled up on into a ring around the opening. Hand welting is when a soldered on solid metal piece is soldered onto the tube to reinforce the opening vs. rolling the tubing. Monty made rolled welt plated brass and NS ferrules with rolled welts plus several different styles of straight or stepped tube ferrules. The stepped ferrules were either very early NS or the low end plated brass stuff. Unless you can see brass showing through the plating your rods might have straight tube NS ferrules. This was a ferrule used on mid-level rods for years - rods such as the Splitswitch model. Which brings up the chance of your rod being a combo rod. Since no pictures the question is does the reel seat/cork grib come off of the butt section bamboo and reverse? The Fishkill was made as a combo and this one might have had plated brass ferrules.
I don't have a PhD, but I do have a DD214.

dplucker61
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Re: Montague Fishkill Rehab, contd

#6

Post by dplucker61 »

Thank for some insight as to the age of the rod. No, this is not a reversible rod. This is a bit of a mystery, as I'm sure dating many old rods is. The ferrules are definitely brass plated (I did a little semi-destructive sampling on one of them) and the welts appear to be the rolled type. I'm 99% sure the sliding band reel seat is nickel silver. Would the ferrules you might have be the brass or NS type? Speaking of combo rods, I also have a "4SC Splitswitch Combo 9' rod. I don't really like the way it casts, more like a tomato stick than a fly rod, which surprised me as the literature I read about these rods before buying it touted it as one of their mid-tier higher end rods. My 9 year old grandson wants to learn to fly fish so I was thinking of using the shorter version of the Splitswitch for him to learn on. If he can cast it, he'll really enjoy a better rod later on. Sound like a good idea? Hope everything w/ your new built-in pace maker is going well. -Dave

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