It is currently 28 Mar 2024, 06:43


New Topic Add Reply
Author Message
Post 05 Jan 2006, 06:11 • #1 
Sport
Joined: 06/08/05
Posts: 55
Anybody knowledgeable about the fiberglass rods of Russ Peak? I know they were available in a range of actions called Dry Fly, Modified Dry Fly, and Para, and that Mr. Peak would usually recommend the Modified Dry Fly because of its versatility. I read comments that ranged from luke warm to glowing about these rods. Any models especially good?

John


Top
  
Quote
Post 10 Jan 2006, 06:38 • #2 
Emeritus
Joined: 07/05/05
Posts: 1154
Location: US-OH
While I've never handled a Russ Peak myself, I can say this with certainty; I've never seen one on Ebay trade for less than $400!

Joe C.


Top
  
Quote
Post 14 Jan 2006, 10:39 • #3 
New Member
Joined: 06/10/05
Posts: 21
$400 would be a 9'er. Something fishable (6'-8') $1000


Top
  
Quote
Post 28 Feb 2006, 18:23 • #4 
Guide
Joined: 11/08/05
Posts: 113
Location: BZN
I understand that these may become available new in the forseeable future ...


Top
  
Quote
Post 01 Mar 2006, 10:57 • #5 
Guide
Joined: 12/17/05
Posts: 104
Alistair,

Explain yourself :)

Thanks,
Pete


Top
  
Quote
Post 01 Mar 2006, 15:55 • #6 
Sport
Joined: 06/08/05
Posts: 55
Pete,
I recently spoke with Kerry Burkheimer - a rod builder with ties to Peak. Kerry has one piece Peak blanks, possibly phenolic, that he cuts and pieces together with spigots. I think they are built to Peaks specs using Peak aesthetics. Price was $575. May be this is what alistair is referring to.

John


Top
  
Quote
Post 01 Mar 2006, 16:45 • #7 
Guide
Joined: 11/08/05
Posts: 113
Location: BZN
Kerry has a significant Peak blank inventory. He MAY make you a finished rod if he likes you, there's a fit between what he's got and what he believes your need to be, etc. Seems very reasonable and straightforward, right?

I believe that his rod company may sometime in the forseeable future also be putting out short production runs based on his Peak blank inventory.

Don't quote me as having any special scoop or inside info. My anticipation is based on recent information that sounded believable to me, from a source that I choose to believe.

Tight Lines,

Alistair


Top
  
Quote
Post 01 Mar 2006, 17:39 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 12/17/05
Posts: 104
Alistair,

Thats interesting, were these balnks built by Peak, or does Kerry use Peak's mandrels to make them? Where do all the mandrels go that the famous glass rod makers made or had thier rods made on?

thanks,
Pete


Top
  
Quote
Post 21 Mar 2006, 18:42 • #9 
Guide
Joined: 07/17/05
Posts: 114
Location: Chester County, PA
peterstaud - in the last several years that Russ Peak had his shop on Hill Ave in Pasadena, I would go hang out there while waiting for my daughter, who was attending CalTech just across Colorado Blvd. A couple of buds out here on the East Coast were very good customers of Russ and had various rods in process or repair, so I would check on them while I was visiting Russ and maybe move them along a bit. Russ had a hefty backlog.

His shop was full of long blanks, most of them glass, back from the days when he was designing the blanks and mandrels so Conolon or whoever could roll them.

Russ liked to ramble about short ferrules and different glass cloth patterns, and it's too bad I didn't know enough to learn anything.

About the same time, I struck up a series of conversations with Kerry (and wife) and Robert Sigman on taper design. Robert does magnificent hollow cane rods, and Kerry was into plastic, but it was amazing how similarly certain rods felt during casting (such at the Ed Rice San Mateo shows). When I pointed this out to them and asked if they collaborated, they scratched their heads and said not really, though they knew a bit about each other.

Kerry ended up with the shop's blanks after the shop closed and Russ passed. I don't know if he is rolling any new glass. I assume that he is slowly and judiciously using up Russ's inventory.

Some of the facilities that did and could have done the blanks have closed, burned down, or otherwise become unavailable. Also, some materials, like phenolics, have fallen out of commercial use, due to toxicity concerns, whatever.

tl
les


Top
  
Quote
Post 22 Mar 2006, 12:26 • #10 
Guide
Joined: 12/17/05
Posts: 104
les,

I'm still a little fuzzy on how making a glass blank works. Does a new mandrel have to be made every time a new taper was thought up and had to be tested?

You were very lucky to have met Peak. I bet you have a have a few of his rods?

Thanks,
Pete


Top
  
Quote
Post 28 Mar 2006, 06:25 • #11 
Guide
Joined: 07/17/05
Posts: 114
Location: Chester County, PA
pete - not a builder myownself - I think a maker can cut different patterns out of the glass cloth, or graphite for that matter. That would change the walls even where the same mandrel was used, I would think.

I think other makers also lay fibers longitudinally or wrap a tape and I gather you can also have several different wrappings on the same mandrel, which would change a lot of action related characteristics.

Yah - Peak is one of those that I have more than one of.

tl
les


Top
  
Quote
Post 28 Mar 2006, 11:19 • #12 
Sport
Joined: 06/08/05
Posts: 55
Les,
What Peak glass rods do you have? How would they compare to the new glass? At one time Peak offered Dry Fly, Modified Dry Fly, and Parabolic actions in his glass lineup. I am particularly interested in the parabolic.

John


Top
  
Quote
Post 12 Apr 2006, 11:04 • #13 
Sport
Joined: 04/12/06
Posts: 53
Location: US-CA
All,
I have a six foot fly rod that was built on a fiberglass Russ Peak blank by a good friend of his, Jesse Terry, who Russ taught to build rods. The rod casts well for me with a DT 4 line and I love to fish it on small brushy streams. I did go into Russs shop from time to time in the mid seventies and would listen to him and admire the beautiful rods that he was building for people all over the world. I wish I had the money at that time to have been able to afford one of his rods but I was going to collage at that time. It seems to me that I remember Jesse saying that Russs daughter did most if not all of his wrapping in later years. The back of the store was filled with blanks at that time but I dont believe he was selling them. The only thing I was able to afford and still have was an Orvise box of assorted leader material for tying tapered leaders.

Cyrus
***email address removed***


Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

New Topic Add Reply



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
Google
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group