Turning Old Into New

I was reading the Tightloop Blog and noticed George has been building out some beautiful rods using older blanks from Sage and other companies. The blanks are from some of of the past desirable rod series...and, his builds are beautiful. Yep, his clients are getting a beautiful rod with all of the desirable performance traits of yesteryear...essentially a brand new rod.

Refurbishing older rods is nothing new and I have through the years done just that...take an older rod that I love to fish, and upgrade the components, turning a tired old rod into a beauty. I mean, why put an old rod out to pasture? One that you loved to fish! Turn that old rod into a new one and you have all of the old fishing memories with that rod rushing back.

There is a caution that comes with any consideration to upgrading an older rod. And that comes with certain collectible rods. Any change to a rod that is wanted by collectors should not be updated...those rods are more valuable in original form.

Below is one of my rods that received new reel seat hardware. It was just a minor upgrade, but made a big improvement in aesthetics. The rod originally came with dual gold rings and I changed it to a cap and band reel seat. Yeah, I didn't really care for the gold bling thing, but with this change, I fish it much more these days.