Show Your FE Thomas Fly Rods

[upstate]

F. E. Thomas 8 1/2 ft. 3 piece Special. Built in 1914 this rod carries a Wulff bamboo taper 4 wt with ease. It has a decidedly crisp dry fly action, all cork grip,left hand twist guides,full intermediates and agate tip tops and is all full length. It has been a pleasure fishing size 22 and 24 tricos on long 7x tippets of late here in the Catskills

[headwaters]

Outstanding recent additions! Thanks for sharing, guys.

[Peales]

LeeB,
Nice Brown Tone. So how much does it weigh? Is it a 4/5wt?

[wineslob]

Pre-1909 Dirigo I "restored" as best I could with the info I could find. Not the best photo.

[LeeB]

Hi Peales;
It's quite a light rod, 3.45 oz. with 14/10 ferrules. For me it's definitely a 4 weight.
Lee

[firehole]

That's one beautiful F. E. Thomas Browntone.
Dennis

[Short Tip]

It sure is. Like an archetype for the model. Really nice Lee.

[Peales]

And I imagine that the 10/14 ferrule combination represents an nice full working taper?

[canefisher]

104" Special Valise rod

[teter]

Gorgeous rod, Lee.

[LeeB]

Thanks all.
Peales - yes, but the fine tips and moderate swelled butt give it a very pleasant dry fly action.

[headwaters]

canefisher--

Sweet rod! Although they were cataloged, and several are shown in the FET book,I've never seen one. What are the markings on the end of the butt cap?

Thanks!

[headwaters]

And, as I believe I've said before, that is one beautiful rod, Lee! In fact, I think there should be a Forum rule that you have to repost pictures of that rod periodically.

Thanks for sharing!

[Seabowisha Salmo T]

hello, lee; . . a fine "special" "special" rod! my experience suggests there should be no number on the butt cap of that rod, perhaps one or more concentric circles. i suspect the thomas employees were fairly careful to install the correctly marked ns reel seats on the correct rods. however, i suspect they were not likely to be as careful with the caps on all cork and wood insert seats; i do not have sufficient documentation or examples to - beyond a reasonable doubt - show that to be factual..
regards, jim w

[sunjpg]

Seems like a 1935 rod based on the 35 on the cap.

I doubt the midnight blue Thomas shield on the tube is original to the tube. It should be the older style Thomas shield that is a greenish-blue color as seen on the valise rod in post #189.

Jay

[headwaters]

Seabowisha--

What leads you to conclude that Lee's rod should have only concentric circles on the butt cap, as opposed to the number "35"?

My understanding from the scholarship reflected in the Stewart & Girard FET book, and the rods in my collection, is that the FET marked rods with only concentric circles on the end of the butt cap were made prior to 1910, whereas -- as indicated by sunjpg's post above -- Lee's rod almost surely is a rod completed in 1935.

Are you suggesting, as sunjpg is, that because the rod tube shield is the earliest FET shield (with two stars and no "Co.") that his rod is a pre-1910 rod? If so, it would not be a Brown Tone rod in my view. If anything, it would be Mahogany rod.

And, the FET book notes that the first edition FET shield was first put on the tubes in the mid-1930s, perfectly coinciding with the date noted on the butt cap of Lee's rod. Stewart & Girard, pp 181-182. While I believe that the shield on Lee's rod tube could be a NOS version of the first edition shield added to the tube later, my guess is that the shield on the valise rod in post #189 is simply a faded version of the same first edition shield, which may have been added to the tube for that rod at a date later than the rod was completed.

[Seabowisha Salmo T]

Seabowisha--

What leads you to conclude that Lee's rod should have only concentric circles on the butt cap, as opposed to the number "35"?

My understanding from the scholarship reflected in the Stewart & Girard FET book, and the rods in my collection, is that the FET marked rods with only concentric circles on the end of the butt cap were made prior to 1910, whereas -- as indicated by sunjpg's post above -- Lee's rod almost surely is a rod completed in 1935.

Are you suggesting, as sunjpg is, that because the rod tube shield is the earliest FET shield (with two stars and no "Co.") that his rod is a pre-1910 rod? If so, it would not be a Brown Tone rod in my view. If anything, it would be Mahogany rod.

And, the FET book notes that the first edition FET shield was first put on the tubes in the mid-1930s, perfectly coinciding with the date noted on the butt cap of Lee's rod. Stewart & Girard, pp 181-182. While I believe that the shield on Lee's rod tube could be a NOS version of the first edition shield added to the tube later, my guess is that the shield on the valise rod in post #189 is simply a faded version of the same first edition shield, which may have been added to the tube for that rod at a date later than the rod was completed.

replace the name "Lee" with canefisher, it might make more sense. lee does have a very fine looking rod, i wish some of mine looked that good. canefisher's rod looks early. i suspect it will have no number because it is so rare. concentric rings, may be, may be not. a j and i discussed lee's rod or one similar when he was considering a study of two number rods. i feel that there are not enough surviving examples to ever discover the meaning although i wonder if two numbers are not to be taken together but instead taken individually as to meaning. without something written, we may never know . . . .

[sunjpg]

First, let me say that disparaging Lee's beautiful 7-1/2' Brown Tone is not my intention at all.

What I am saying is that I do not believe that the older blue-green Thomas shield logos faded appreciatively over time, and I do not believe the midnight blue shields were used on FET rod tubes until approximately 1947.

I have never seen an early FET blue-green shield that could be considered to be "faded" due to the color of the shield being some intermediate color between the original midnight blue shield color to a faded blue-green shield color.

The image below shows a group of FET Specials and Brown Tones from 1936 to 1948 with the early, blue-green shields. A couple of these rods are all-original, excellent condition FET Specials that were never fished. They are as near mint as possible for 75-85 year old rods.

A few of them were fished extensively and the shields on those tubes are scratched rather badly, but there is no real color difference between the near mint shields and the beat-up shields.




The image below shows a group of FET Specials and Brown Tones from 1949 to 1957 with the later midnight blue shields.

The first rod in this picture shows one of my pet peeves --- a NOS midnight blue shield slapped on an early FET tube with the nickel plated tube cap. I have never seen an original FET nickel plated capped tube with a shield logo. Based on the years when the nickel capped tube was offered by FET, it would have had the earlier blue-green shield --- if it had a shield logo which I do not believe any of them ever had.

I also think the midnight blue shield is not original to the WWII era blue plastic rod tube. I think it was added to this tube.



Back in the mid-1980s Sam Carlson gave me a couple NOS FET midnight blue shield logos that he said came from the FET shop. Arthur Taylor also gave me some NOS FET logos in the 1980s that he said came from the FET shop in the late 1950s when it closed. The image below is a close-up of the front and back of those NOS logos.



The FET shield logo that I've rarely seen on any FET rod tubes is the one that says "Thomas Rod Co." as shown on page 181 of the FET book.

I hope this information is helpful to FET aficionados, and if anyone has other thoughts and information on this topic, please share your info. These are my observations and experiences based from 35 years of fishing and collecting FET rods.

Jay

[Short Tip]

Hi Jay, fascinating info. I agree that the earlier rods with the plated tube cap should not have decals originally. I always thought of the decals as a Leon-era addition.

Did someone here win the FET catalog photos on Angling Marketplace tonight? if so, congratulations.

[canefisher]

Another FET. 8' Dirigo, 14/10 ferrule


The reel seat on my valise rod has no markings