Vom Hofe Bamboo Rod

Question
I have a 7'71/2" split bamboo rod with rattan butt and fore grip windings. It might have been a two piece but it is currently frozen together. It is marked "Ed W. Von Hofe & Co. Makers NY". The reel seat is of a sliding ring construction and is marked with #5 on the hood. It is in excellent condition except that some one has replaced all the windings with some cotton thread on the tunnel guides and removed all the intermediate windings. The remaining fore grip winding appears to be red over a yellow or orange.
I want to restore it to the original design and would appreciate any information you might have as to thread colors and design or sources of such information. Sinclair does not list Vom Hofe. Would you have any idea of the worth and age of such a rod?
Thank you,
Neil

Answer
Hi Neil,

That style vom Hofe rod in Poor-Fair condition is valued about $100; in Good-Very Good condition about $250; and in Excellent-Mint condition about $500.  Of course, price varies with actual condition and length and guides.  A lot of the vom Hofe rods have agate guides throughout.  If you have tunnel (or bell) guides, this may be a much older rod. Replacements for those guides will be hard to find should you need any; but they do surface now and then. Most of these boat rods fish from both sides so the tiptop allows line feed from both sides and there are two sets of guides installed opposite each other along the rod shaft.

Most that I have seen are primarily red silk thread on the wraps.  Green silk and black silk are used as accents.  I would not be surprised to find gold used as well.  White silk covered with varnish might appear yellow or orange.  Some of the rattan grips have red silk thread run between the rattan wraps as an accent.  Most (probably all) will have lots of intermediate wraps in red silk.

You do need to get the rod apart at the ferrule.  Try light heat to expand the parts and allow you to break the "frozen" connection...be careful not to get things too hot.  The nickel silver seat and ferrules will clean up with "0000" steel wool...Brasso may help.  Clean the ferrule good inside and out and apply some ferrule lube before you try putting it back together.  Once cleaned it should work great.

If you know how to do this work, just take your time and it will come out fine.  If you don't know how, or if you get stuck on something, send me a private email at [email protected] and I'll help you with the steps involved.  I like these old boat rods.  I'm restoring a #4 vom Hofe right now.

Thanks,  Joe