pentangle (five sided ) solid glass bait casting W&M rod

Question
Hi Joe
I have been collecting, refurbishing, and fishing with solid fiberglass rods for over 30 years including many fishable solid glass flyrods. My question involves a W&M 5'2" five sided nyla glass rod that I suspect preceded the square nyla glass rods. I say that because the handle has a screw-design butt cap  identical to the W&M "Paramount" bamboo BC rod pictured in D.B. Homel's "Antique and Collectible Fishing Rods", page 68. I have consulted with one of the "old timers" from W&M who claims all of the old paper work on these rods was thrown away.

My question is: Can you help me identify the vintage of this rod ? It is marked "Nyla glass Wright and McGill B62M " on the butt end of the blank with a nickle silver round butt ferrule. I have seen only one other rod like this one on ebay, and the former owner was not able to give me any history. I imagine that there were "Paramount" left over from the bamboo era and they designed the B62M and the B67L tips to mimic the Paramount tips.  The owner also did not count the sides of the blank and thought he had a "square nyla glass". I have several square W&M rods and they have a square brass or nickle silver ferrule and the handles are a much simpler design.

Thank you for any help you can offer.
Denis

Answer
Hi Denis,

I too have several W&M square and round fly, spinning and casting rods in solid glass, but I've never seen a 5-sided one.  I would guess that your idea is correct...that they used some left over butt/handle sections and fashioned glass rod shafts to mimic the older bamboo style. Likely, the mass production models used lesser quality handle and a simpler design for producing the shafts.  I suspect the 5-sided was more or less experimental and proved to be more difficult to make than the 4-sided shafts and round shafts that became the normal.  Based on my limited experience with these rods, the 5-sided appears to be quite rare.

I would expect this rod to be mid-1950s vintage, maybe a bit earlier if it was an experimental run of rod shafts.  I don't have any reference to make an estimate of value but would assume it would be about double a round or square rod in comparable condition.

Sorry I was not more help.  I think you have figured out the basics and I don't have any further details.

Joe