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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 23, 2005 15:44:18 GMT 8
The series of Bamboo Fly Rods built under the name of Granger had always been known as the high quality workhorse on the big and rough American Western trout streams. These rods were first built by Goodwin Granger and later Bill Phillipson in Denver Colorado from the 1920s till WW2. The Wright & McGill CO. of Colorado then bought over the entire production facility in 1946 and continued to produce high quality but affordable Bamboo fly rods. Wright & MsGill produced their last Granger Bamboo rod in 1955 when the management felt that the future of Fly Rods lies with Fibre Glass. The rest is simply history. A brief write up on the Granger rods can be found in the following Web Site : mysite.verizon.net/vze2h7gi/fishnbanjossliceoflifeincyberspacecopy/id13.html & mysite.verizon.net/vze2h7gi/fishnbanjossliceoflifeincyberspacecopy/id14.html . A more comprehensive history on Granger can be found in Mike Sinclair’s book, “Colorado Classic Cane”.
In the 1970s & 1980s, Granger bamboo rods continued to be known in the Bamboo community as affordable but high quality rods for the American West. But the “affordability” factor changed dramatically in the 1990s after John Gierach’s epic and almost revolutionary book, “Fishing Bamboo” became a best seller. Gierach praised the high quality and functionality of Grangers. Equally important was the fact that Gierach promoted the “Blue-collar” quality of Grangers versus the bigger and more expensive names such as Garrison, Payne and Leonard and call Grangers the best value money can buy for Bamboo fly rods. The price of used Granger rods sky rocketed over-night. It seems that every Bamboo rod fisher and collector wants a Granger to experience what Gierach was talking about. The Granger fever continued until today. The Granger rod company was revived just last year by outstanding rod maker Gary Lacey ( www.grangerbamboo.com/ ). Despite the availability of brand new and well built Grangers, the price of classic Grangers continue to sore. Just 2 months ago, a mint condition 8’ Granger Victory sold for US$1,800 on eBay. One could get a very nice Leonard for that price!
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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 23, 2005 15:45:11 GMT 8
My first experience with Granger was a Champion 9050 that I own for a while in 1998. This was a 9’ 5oz rod with a taper designed for a 5wt DT line. The rod felt a tad heavy for my liking. Although the taper was well designed in my opinion and the rod was lively, I did not particularly fancy the responsiveness and feel of the rod. At that time, I could not appreciate what’s the big deal about these Granger Bamboo that Gierach was talking about.
But all that changed last year when I visited a friend in the US and cast his W&M Granger 8040 (8ft 4oz) and Granger 8642 (8.5ft 4.5oz), both built to cast 5wt DT line. While the overall weight of these rods appears heavy, the swing weight was very well balanced. Most important of all, the rod taper was very lively and responsive. The 8040 was especially sweet, delicate yet powerful. I was mesmerized and instantly appreciated Gierach’s excitement about Grangers! Naturally, I was compelled to add a classic Granger to my collection.
I certainly wasn’t keen to spend big bucks on a “Mint Original” Granger. Neither was I enthusiastic about a Lacey’s Granger as I feel it lacks the “classic” factor. Hence, I put a bet on my rod restoration skills (or the lack of it) and started a restoration project on a beat-up, vintage 1952 Granger Aristocrat 8642.
The Aristocrat 8642 that I had acquired was assessed to have been built in 1952 by W&M Granger facilities. It was own and fished by a gentlemen that lived in Colorado until he decided that since he’s too old to be on the stream anymore, the Granger should be put to good application by someone else who can still wade and cast. I can tell that he took good care of his gear. But 53 years is indeed a long time and it shows on the rod. While the cane sections are all full length, there are several casting and fishing sets on both tips and the mid sections. The varnish are alligatored. Some of the varnished silk wrappings are drying up and getting crispy. The cork grip is badly ridged and soiled. The guides show signs of tarnishing and the reel seat is kind of stiff. The only consolation was that the ferrules are all nice and tight and gives a resounding Granger pop (Gierach’s words) when taken apart.
Most importantly, my aim was to restore, NOT rebuilt, the rod. That means that when I’m done with it, the rod should look EXACTLY like it would have appeared on that fateful day in 1952 when it pass the quality check station at the Wright & McGill Granger rod facilities. This appears to be a tall order for my skill but the almost orgasmic feel of casting the 8642 and Gierach’s nostalgic words on the “Blue-Collar Bamboo” spurred me to plunge into the project head first with eyes wide open.
First step I took was to establish a reference on what an original Granger Aristocrat should look like. Naturally, Lacey had done his research and his eye for details is well known in the industry. He was a real easy guy to talk to as well and he was willing to share information, up to a certain limit of course. There are also several “mint original” Aristocrat for sale at various Bamboo rod dealers and the pictures are also good reference.
The varnish was stripped down with mild surgical alcohol to prevent damage to the glue holding up the bamboo strips. Granger rods used hide glue that may be rather sensitive to the stronger solvents found in hardware shops. All rod components except the reel seat and ferrules were stripped down and the cane sections polished with 5/0 steel wool. Some of the ghost markings from the half century old silk wraps were further sanded with 1200 grit wet sand paper. I was surprised by the fine workmanship of Grange in 1952. The cane sections were impeccably milled and put together with invisible glue lines. Even the reel seat was reamed and 100% filled with cork. Those rod craftsmen really took pride in their work in those days.
Next step was to straighten out all the casting and fishing sets in the rod sections. This is a slow and painful process ……. Even writing about it now feels painful……… I shall not bore all of you with the details. Suffice to say that it took close to 2 weeks of about 1hour per evening to get it reasonably straight. I am still not 100% satisfied but enough was enough……
Varnishing the blanks was almost easy after the 2 hard weeks of straightening. I used the dripping method with highly diluted spar varnish. Would have been nice if I set up a dip tank but in the interest of maintaining a somewhat “normal” house in Singapore and a healthy matrimonial relationship, I thought dripping would be good enough! The finishing coat was hand polished over a week with synthetic polishing compound for the glossy shine that you see on most high quality Bamboo rods.
Granger rods uses Perfection Snake guides. I must say that these guides has the best dressed guide feet that I had come across after 15 years of rod building. The guide feet are nicely filed to allow the wrappings to “flow” over them and tapers nicely to the snake. Each guide was cleaned with acetone solvent and polished. The greyish black colour of the guide was then achieved by dipping them in Birchwood Casey “Brass Black” gun blueing solution. Unfortunately, the tip tops were beyond salvage and they were replace with modern guides.
The ferrules were perfect even after all these years! I decided not to re-set them and left them alone. The engraved witness marks (bamboo talk for alignment dots) are still nicely visible on the Nickel Silver ferrules.
The next challenge was to match the silk wrapping and tipping colours EXACTLY. The tan/beige silk colour with dark chocolate tipping of the Aristocrat is notoriously difficult to match. Granger rods uses silk thread from Rice Silk Co. that folded in the 1960s. Even if you can get hold of an original spool of Rice Silk with the correct colour (they go from about US$60 to US$100, depending on colour), it would have faded sufficiently over the last 40-50 years and the colour would not come out right. Moreover, the colour preserver and varnish would add a shade of amber over the thread to throw you off. So I experimented for several weeks and learned the following lessons :
Best match is achieved by using Pearsall Gossamer silk in Antique gold, wrap on first, then rinsed with water and wiped with clean piece of cotton cloth a few times to fade the "orange" sufficiently to match the desired beige/tan color tone. You can try using Java Brown as well but you would not get the brightness seen on the newer rods by Gary Lacey. Then color preserve with Gudebron #811 color preserver. The #811 does not darken the thread like other preserver and retains the original color tone. I needed 3 coats of #811 to prevent the varnish from seeping through. You also need to consider the color tone of varnish that you planned to used. After my first attempt, I discovered that varnishing over the wraps actually darkens it a little. To maintain the truthfulness of restoration, I stripped down the rod again and "wash-down" the wraps to a lighter shade.
The best match for the chocolate tipping is with Gudebrod Fenwick Brown silk thread, varnished WITHOUT color preserver. Pearsall brown will also work but it dries to a much darkar brown according to my eyes at least.
I arrived at the above after going through almost all suitable colours of Gudebrod, YLI and Tyre silk thread. I must admit that I did not try the Rice silk simply I could not get hold of any. I also tried 4 types of CP from shellac (thinned to different proportions with a Varity of Turpentine), Flexcoat, Mike Brook's and Gudebrod etc. #811 was the easiest to work with and gave the best result in that you do not need to account for the darkening effects.
I uses Mike Brook's drip on varnish for the overcoat. One option that I had considered to lighten the overcoat is to finish the blank first, wrap the rod, lighten to the correct shade, apply CP, then put on Mike Brook's walnut oil thread finish. The darkening effect should be less.
I must say that once you started the process, the pursuit of a perfect colour match is rather intoxicating........... my wife claims that I had been mumbling about different shades of tan and beige for several weeks..........
After 7 months of fun and heartache, the following is the result :            I am haunted by Bamboo ……..
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Post by Qwek on Apr 23, 2005 22:05:53 GMT 8
Strange, when I came home I found the phone directory was opened at the Solicitors section. I hit the redail number, and an answering machine spill this out: " Hello, you have reached the office of Fly-No-Cast and Fish, we are the solicitors for claims and representation against unlawful trade of artificial fly projection instrument. Allow us to represent you for recovery of original mental state of your spouse. We can also assist you to file a motion requesting relief from further advertisement of such instrument, especially for in this area; flyfishingsg.proboards38.com/index.cgi?board=Bamboo&action=post&thread=1114242258&start=0I quickly hang up the phone, before I start having illusion of me throwing out my flyfishing tackles. Eeeeeee  Scarrrryyyy.... Qwek |
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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 23, 2005 22:57:45 GMT 8
Strange, went I came home I found the phone directory was opened at the Solicitors section. I hit the redail number, and an answering machine spill this out: " Hello, you have reached the office of Fly-No-Cast and Fish, we are the solicitors for claims and representation against unlawful trade of artificial fly projection instrument. Allow us to represent you for recovery of original mental state of your spouse. We can also assist you to file a motion requesting relief from further advertisement of such instrument, especially for in this area; flyfishingsg.proboards38.com/index.cgi?board=Bamboo&action=post&thread=1114242258&start=0I quickly hang up the phone, before I start having illusion of me throwing out my flyfishing tackles. Eeeeeee Scarrrryyyy.... Qwek Master Qwek, I'm afraid your Mrs is 18 years too late with the phone call........ Fly-No-Cast and Fish & Partners had been engaged full time by my girlfriend turn Mrs since 1987....... she should have seen it coming as she ignored my disclaimer to her when we met in JC. ........ let's see if I can find me another beat up 50+ year old Granger 8040........ |
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Post by mtshark on Apr 23, 2005 23:46:51 GMT 8
Hi shadowcaster, Very nice article that you have written. I read every single word and I could really feel your love for the canes rod. Looks like if anyone ever is poisoned by the bam and boo... a cure is never possible... The only way around it is properly to stay away from the canes from the beginning... With this section here, I believe sooner or later, they will be more believers into this almost cult like worship for cane rods... amazing.  |
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Post by Chee Yung on Apr 25, 2005 6:46:55 GMT 8
Hi TY   , One word.... WOW!!! I was initially surprised that you've decided to work on a Granger because of the earlier said lack of FEEL... but after reading your account of the USA experience ( was it Banjo or Firehole?? ;D) and wiggling a 9' vs an 8' 4oz myself recently, I understand your change of heart. (For those uninfected forummers, Gierach actually mentioned longer and heavier Grangers ( 9ft 7wt) as value for money in one of his later articles but IMHO longer cane are indeed tip heavy and any cane above 6wt should be hollow-built...) Anyway back to TY's masterpiece... I must say that your attempts to match the colours are testimony of your great commitment (and an understanding wife  )... Just a silly question: I've found the colours on the two Grangers I've seen to be somewhat lighter than yours and the ones on the Net and the goldish wrappings really shining through... wonder if they were restored??? Again thanks for posting such marvellous and litigenous stuff here ...wonder how it casts Oyah 1 more silly question is there any difference between W&M compared to Goodwin Granger? Thanks!! Cheers CY |
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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 25, 2005 19:41:28 GMT 8
I must say that your attempts to match the colours are testimony of your .......... an understanding wife )... Amen to that! She's understanding enough to agree to standing in a freezing Alaskan river infested with salmon eating Brown Bears with me this June ;D ;D I've found the colours on the two Grangers I've seen to be somewhat lighter than yours and the ones on the Net and the goldish wrappings really shining through... wonder if they were restored??? Could be either way. Gary Lacey said that he had personally found 4 different types of beige/tan colour silk on the Aristocrats that he had come across. This is on mint un-used rods. If you include rods that had been used on the streams and with the effects of ultra violet over 50-80 years for some rods, the possibilities is simply endless! Hence, the datum is always to match the thread colour on the mint un-used rods. ...wonder how it casts Beautifully! Almost cast itself...... I just supply the arm movement. I was laying out 70ft of line effortlessly. Had the pleasure of landing a good size peacock on it yesterday. The way the 50+ year old rod was bent made Mr Qwek thought it was a Separau! Is there any difference between W&M compared to Goodwin Granger? Good question. I had not cast enough of them to tell the difference myself. But the general concensus is that W&M rods are a tad faster. The taper are the same but people suspect that it could be the heat and amonia treatment. Like most things, there's only one way to verify that for sure............ |
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2005 7:59:36 GMT 8
I am speechless.  |
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Post by Chee Yung on Apr 26, 2005 8:42:09 GMT 8
Hi TY , Ahh..... I can only quote Nick Lyons about your significant other's 'conversion' to salmon fishing... ' After a freezing session in French winter chasing chalkstream trout, Nick struggles into his car (where his wife Mari always waits for him and reads while he fishes). Mari was warm under a blanket and he cuddles close. As he warms up and Mari smiles knowingly, he reflects ' I'm always worrying about you suffering in the car'..... ' The moral: Family men who are fishing nuts are certainly more concerned about their wives than even their wives realise... So... kudos to you that she understands you 5am 'sacrifices'...hahahhaha .... or is it because she is a teddy collector Man! 70 ft of line is impressive for 5wt not to say a boo... they are not called western wind-rods for nothing I wonder how they compare with a Payne 100 ( I think ) which some say is of similar taper  . Billy!!! When are you contributing your boo article! ;D... love to know how the AJ saga turned out! hahahaha... Oyah TY, to digress... did you finally acquire that AJ hollowbuilt? Finally... Instead of having to refer to banjo and his clarks site so often, its good if we can create a minidatabase of the classic rods here TY ... I for one am looking into 'collecting' rods from new makers and would like to report on that front ;D as I'm lousy at history  .... Cheers CY |
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2005 9:00:38 GMT 8
Hi TY , Billy!!! When are you contributing your boo article! ;D... love to know how the AJ saga turned out! hahahaha... My AJ is safely at home, thanks to Uncle Wong. He fitted the new stripping guide for me with great care. Varnished it painstakingly. I am forever grateful to Uncle Wong. The varnish is dry. My friend, a furniture manufacturer, ask me to let the varnish harden for a few more weeks. So that the hold will be stronger. He deals with varnish everyday. So I thought it was sound advise. Anyway I wasn't rushing to use the AJ. Maybe next week, I will draw the weapon and go lampan hunting. As for bamboo articles, I think I'm junk at it lah. I'll just post bamboo catch reports pictures. |
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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 26, 2005 18:28:57 GMT 8
The moral: Family men who are fishing nuts are certainly more concerned about their wives than even their wives realise... They don't stay under the blanket every weekends for no reasons........ the only way to make sure she'll be warm and comfortable is with more than enough Simms Gortexs......... I wonder how they compare with a Payne 100 ( I think ) which some say is of similar taper IMHO, the Payne 100 is a lot more delicate than the Granger 8642. The 8642 will allow you to compress a tight loops if you wish, but its also a lot beefier and would not allow a delicate roll out...... at least in my clumsy hands..... did you finally acquire that AJ hollowbuilt? Yes...... it was a matter of time anyway. But I did not go for his standard signature taper. We discussed in conjunction with Ron and decided on hollow building based on a tweaked Payne 201 taper instead. This is mainly for a solid 5 wt for New Zealand and Alaskan waters. Should receive this any day now...... Should we have a gathering when AJ's hollow built here? I had also recently received another 7' 3/2 hollow built from a Michigan builder. Monster of a 4wt! SHould be interesting contrast. |
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Post by Chee Yung on Apr 26, 2005 19:57:55 GMT 8
Hi BT n TY, Wonderful news indeed that both of you are fitted with the 'hollow-built' excuses hahahahaha... TY yours is even better with 'for her' waders! hahahaha Now now TY, if my banana hands say the 8ft Granger is good, your refined phallages will taste the more subtle qualities better .. oh my! another 4wt.... glazing over..... As for the gathering, I'm also waiting for Mike Brooks to forget about his Viagradip experiment and ship over his rod to me! ... marcello's hollo is hopefully due in 5 mths if the recent sad robbery at his place didn't rattle him too much  ! .... All in all...Looking forward to the caning session .bros..OWWW! ;D So TY, did my rod info suggestion gel? I know its not always good especially with $$ n info involved in this matter but do consider ..thanks. Cheers CY |
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Post by ShadowCaster on Apr 26, 2005 22:31:52 GMT 8
Now now TY, if my banana hands say the 8ft Granger is good, your refined phallages will taste the more subtle qualities better .. oh my! another 4wt.... glazing over..... As for the gathering, I'm also waiting for Mike Brooks to forget about his Viagradip experiment and ship over his rod to me! ... marcello's hollo is hopefully due in 5 mths if the recent sad robbery at his place didn't rattle him too much ! .... All in all...Looking forward to the caning session .bros..OWWW! ;D The 8642 is actually a 8'6" 4.5 oz for 5/6wt. The 8' 4oz is the 8040 which I'm planning as my next project after Alaska. A mint condition 8040 is almost as sweet as a Leonard 50DF. My my Mr Kuan, I think the Boo bug took a big bite out of you! But I think MV Brooks is a good bet. I was told his Payne 195 is out of this world. My next acquisition will probably be a permacane version of his 195...... |
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Post by Chee Yung on Apr 27, 2005 8:05:56 GMT 8
WHOOPS ;D, Correction noted TY.... not the most fastidious of individuals I am... but to lose 6 inches in one careless stroke is .... 'un-manly' :-[hahaha Permacane pill? ;D Cheers CY |
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! .... All in all...Looking forward to the caning session .bros..OWWW! ;D