I had some free time today and did a quick head count of rods needing repair or restoration before they head to the water. It looks like there are 6. These are the two that will be getting attention first.....



First up for repair is a Horrocks & Ibbotson Tonka Queen. This was an Ebay find that had been previously restored, but had been loped off down to 6 feet. I had contacted several bamboo specialists this fall in an attempt to have a new blank tip made for it, with no luck. I ended up steeling the spare tip from my H I made JC Higgins 10 footer. That combination seems to work great, turning the Tonka Queen into a 7'2" 3-4 weight rod. Which is infinitely more useful to me as a brookie rod. I'll be refinishing the tip to match the butt section, replacing the guides and rewinding the whole rod so it matches.

Next up will be my Phillipson Power Kast T80, the only rod I have I regret buying.



This was another Ebay find, that came to me for next to nothing, so I shouldn't complain. The tip appears to have been through a fire at some point and will need to be replaced as it's extremely brittle . I've contacted a few people, again trying to find a matching blank....with no luck, so I'll have to get creative on this one. So far every "parts rod" I've bought for it, I've ended up liking more then this thing, so I haven't gotten very far on it.