Union Hardware fly rod

Question
i am looking for info on "Union Hardware" fy rods. i recently received an old round hollow STEEL rod just under 9' long. i would like to restore and use this rod but would like to know a little more about it before i do anything with it. i have not been able to find any info on this company or their rods. i don't know if it's worth restoring, using for decoration, or worth a lot of money. any info you can give me to learn more about this rod is greatly appreciated. thanks, willie

Answer
Hi Willie,

Union Hardware Company of Torrington, Conn. would be the name to use as you start searching for information.  They sold a lot of rods in the first half of the 1900s.  They had several steel rod models in the 1910-1930 time frame.

Yours is an extruded steel rod.  It is hollow, extruded as one piece of molten steel and you will notice the taper in the rod as you run your finger along the length...you can feel where it steps down in size as you go toward the tip.  There were a few manufacturing companies that made steel rods for the industry...Horton Manufacturing, American Fork & Hoe, Gephart Manufacturing for example.  They made thousands of steel rods and put other companies' names on them.  They also made rod swith their own names on them.

The steel fly rods work pretty well.  I have three.  I use them once in a while but they can get heavy as you get older.  Take along a lightweight graphite rod for the afternoon fishing.  In modern terms, probably a 7wt line would be what I would start with to see how the rod performs.  You may want to go up or down from there if the 7wt doesn't seem to be working the rod the way you like.

The rod in mint condition is only worth about $30-$40 as they don't have much of a collector following.  You can probably rebuild it, paint it, put new guides on it, a new handle and a new reel seat if you want and not affect the value.  But, you might like the way it fishes when you're done and it cold be a fun project.

Do some searching for the company and those that made steel rods as well.  That can also be fun.

Thanks,  Joe