Reel Foot Drawings for John

John, here are the drawings I made by measuring the model reel’s foot. I used a circle template to determine the radius of the foot. The thickness (0.040″) is an estimate. The original foot is hammered on its inside radius and is not a consistent thickness throughout. I will be using the same technique to make the new reel. The foot itself is fairly simple and attached to the reel foot bracket with 2 rivets.

Mid 19th Century Baits

My name is Philip Allen, I have been commissioned to replicate  by fabrication, fishing baits that were being manufactured in the  mid 19th century . These baits would have been readily available to President Martin Van Buren. The picture I have posted are original baits of that period. I will try to make some of these baits and some others, to compliment the extraordinary fishing tackle being crafted by the other men involved in this project. (The Van Buren Boys)

Even Charles Goodspeed got it wrong…

Even Charles Goodspeed got it wrong…

There have been many historians of presidential fishing. When it comes to Martin van Buren, almost all of them are dead wrong. Take for example Charles Eliot Goodspeed’s 1938 Angling in America: Its Early History and Literature. In it, he chronicles the angling of prominent piscatorial presidents such as Arthur and Cleveland, but dismisses George Washington and Van Buren as “fishermen of a sort.”

He was clearly wrong about Washington, as my experiences with Mount Vernon and personally inspecting Washington’s fishing tackle has confirmed. But he missed the boat even more about Van Buren. MVB was a dedicated sport fisherman.

Goodspeed, however, was not the last historian to misread MVB’s fishing history.

Bill Mares’ 1999 book Fishing With the Presidents was not much kinder. About the only time MVB shows up in the narrative was when Mares repeats Goodspeed’s error and declares “George Washington fished for recreation throughout his life. But if we look at the record of his sport fishing, we wouldn’t rank him much higher than John Quincy Adams or Martin Van Buren.” It is one of exactly two references to Van Buren in the entire book!

Over the next few months I’ll share some of the research I was able to uncover on Martin Van Buren as an angler. Hopefully, this will set the record straight once and for all about one of our more dedicated fishing presidents.

– Dr. Todd

Aging Test 1

The aging test starts with a 4 hour soak in Tumeric and Coffee. After drying and evaluating, it appears the Tumeric will need to be toned down as the yellow is prominent.
More tests to follow.

The Rod

Given the time frame for Van Buren, he would have owned a rod from the Smith age of rod making, which refers to the fact that most tackle was made by gunsmiths and other existing trades, rather than an industry dedicated to tackle making.  These rods were made of wood using domestic hardwoods such as White Ash and Hickory, as well as exotic woods such as Lancewood, Bethabera, and Greenheart and were  typically comprised of four or five separate sections with a total length up to 18 ft.  A glorified example of this type of rod was the “Porter’s General” rod constructed to maximize versatility as well as to make such large rods as manageable as possible when not in action. The butt section was often hollowed out to house one or more tip sections.  In addition to the butt section, the rod contained two or three mid sections of length similar to the butt section and at least two tip sections.  Extra sections served as replacements if one broke during use (not uncommon with early wood rods!), but also were designed to provide alternative combinations to change the length and flex of the rod based on the type of fish they were after.  The rod sections were joined either by scarfing and wrapping the sections together or using ferrules made from brass or nickel silver.  The reel seat was placed forward of the grip area in the earliest versions as with casting rods, rather than at the butt as in later fly rods.  Below is a pictorial record of my adventures in making a version of this rod.

The common wood used for the butt and at least the first mid-section was ash, so that’s where we start.  A 1 1/2 inch x 1 1/2 inch x 36 inch blank was cut from larger stock and centered on the lathe for initial preparation of  the butt end prior to hollowing.  I decided it would be easier to hollow the butt while square, but needed a way to affix the blank back on the lathe once the hole was drilled.  I thus started by turning a 3/4 inch dowel on the butt end and then cut the end piece off for later press fit into the hole in the butt:

Using long spade bits and an extension, a hole was then drilled into the butt.  the first 18 inches was drilled at 3/4 inch diameter and an additional 6 inches was drilled out to 1/2 inch diameter.

Okay, time to move on to the first mid section.  The diameter of this section will taper from appr. 7/8 inch to 5/8 inch, so is thick enough that it doesn’t require added stabilization in the center while turning.  Tapering is achieved first using gouge and skew chisels, then by employing what John Betts, wood rodmaker par excellence, calls “clappers”.  These tools employ Sure-Form blades for the rough work, then sandpaper for the finish work (John has published a wonderful book through Amato Books that details use of these tools and other tricks in making strip-built wooden fly rods).

Here is a pic of some of the tools employed to round stock and form the taper.  the router set-up is used to knock off the corners from squared stock prior to putting on the lathe:

Here are a couple pics of turning the first mid:

So, with a bit more lathe time, we now have opening bids for the butt and first mid:

For the second mid, I decided to switch to Greenheart (wood kindly provided by Tom Kerr…thank you , Tom).  This wood should provide increased flexibility as we head toward the rod tip and was a favorite choice of early rodmakers.  The diameter of this section will taper from appr. 5/8 inch to appr. 7/16 inch.  When the shaft gets this thin and lower, we need to add a center support to keep the shaft from whipping about while turning.  This center support can then be moved to finish turning the center:

So, Time passes…lots of turning….lots of shavings…we now have the butt and two copies of the first and second mids, as well as two copies each of greenheart and yellowheart tip sections:

the end sections are left unfinished until final decisions are made regarding section lengths, taper, and placement of ferrules is complete so that the pieces can be re-mounted in the lathe in the same configurations.  Now, it’s time to make those decisions and proceed with ferrule production (10/31/09)

 

11/6/09

Made some pretty good progress this week with the ferrules…just have to do the toughies on the Butt section and big end of the first mid.  The “dowelled” male ferrules were the biggest challenge…more to the point, drilling the holes in the female ferrules to accept the dowels since there is not a lot of clearance.  It’s understandable why the makers in the later 1800’s decided this type of ferrule was unnecessary.  That would have saved a lot of effort and given the thinning of the walls, I question how much stronger the doweled ferrules would have been compared to flat male ferrules adopted by later makers.  Regardless, that was the style in the Smith era and that’s what was done.

I started by making a jig to center the holes in the ends of the two mids.  The one to receive the tip section tapered from 3/8″ to 1/4″ and the one for the second mid tapered from 7/16″ to 3/8″. Basically, it’s done by drawing a centerline on a block of soft wood…I used pine…then, drilling a hole through to the other side using a spade bit matching the diameter of the ferrule and stopping when the tip of the bit just breaks through the other side.  A kerf was ripped  along the centerline from the ‘entry’ side, which allows pressure to be placed on the ferruled by a drill press vise,  to hold it steady during drilling.  By then rigging the jig on the drill press and inserting the ferrule, then centering the drill on the small hole on the “breakthrough” side, one can drill out the hole to receive the male ferrule:

Files, bits and sanding tools were then used to make the holes conical to fit the tapered ferrule dowels.

The  smaller ferrules were made from extruded tubing, which is a bit of a cheat since the early rodmakers did not have this material and thus used seamed/soldered brass tubes as I will use on the larger ferrules downstream.  I will likely make these smaller ferrules seamed by cutting and re-soldering them for better historical accuracy.  So, here are a couple pics to show where we stand at the moment:

Geo Bainbridge 1816 Plate 3 Gaudy salmon fly

From Geo Bainbridge 1816 “The Fly Fisher’s Guide” tied to test some aging techniques. The bottom fly is fly No. 3 and the top fly is a “gaudy” fly No 4.

The Reel

I’ve done some research on 1840-50s reelsmiths and reels that President Van Buren may have used. Since Van Buren lived in NY (just south of Albany) and likely traveled through NYC on his way to and from Washington, he would have had access to reels imported from England as well as those built by the early New York makers. I would like to think that President Van Buren would have supported American manufacturers and turned to one of the New York makers. Makers like John Conroy, who started producing reels as early as 1830. Conroy was later joined by his son under the name J. & J.C. Conroy. J.B Crook was another prolific early New York reelsmith. There were perhaps a dozen New York reelmakers by 1850. Unfortunately, many of the reels from this period are unmarked. The Old Reel Collector’s Association (ORCA) forum and its publications are a great source of reel history.

The reels produced by these makers were primarily either single action or multiplying reels. A single action reel has the handle attached to the spool spindle so one rotation of the handle turns the spool one time. A multiplying reel is distinguished by having a handle offset from the spool spindle and a geared mechanism. One revolution of the handle typically revolves the spool 2, 3 or more times. This multiplication was particularly useful given the very small diameter spindles that spools on these early reels had.

The other consideration I had was the rod Dr. John is building for the exhibit – a Porter General rod. This was a versatile rod that can be reconfigured for a variety of fishing styles. A brass multiplying reel with a stop latch would be a good match to this rod. I was fortunate to locate several reels in private collections that the owner’s were willing to lend me to photograph and measure, and in one case, completely disassemble! This yielded a wealth of information on how these reels were constructed, materials and manufacturing techniques. Here are some photos of the reel I’ve chosen to duplicate:

(you can click the photos to see a bigger image)

I am working up the drawings/plans for this reel now and will post those when complete. I’ve also ordered most of the materials. I do have to make a decision about the handle grip. The original appears to be ivory. I have the option of using synthetic ivory, bone or some other material like rosewood. I have some time before I need to finalize the choice.

cheers,

Michael

Greetings from the Van Buren Boys!

Hello!

This blog has been put up to track the work of the Van Buren Boys, a crack team of fishing nuts who have been charged with creating a historically accurate ca. 1850s fishing kit that would have been used by President Martin van Buren. In the following weeks we will have photos, commentary, and articles from the Van Buren Boys updating everyone on the progress of the work.

Trust me when I say you will all be blown away by this project!

– Dr. Todd

The Van Buren Boys!

Welcome to The Van Buren Boys’ blog! We are five dedicated craftsmen working together to create a fishing exhibit for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, New York.  Martin Van Buren was the 8th President of the United States. Here is a link to his White House biography.

The Van Buren Boys consist of:

Dr. Todd Larson who heads the group and will be writing the history of Van Buren and Fishing.

Dr. John Elder is an accomplished rod maker and woodworker extraordinaire. John will be charged with constructing an 1850s-period Porter General rod and a period tackle box.

Philip Allen is a metalsmith genius. Philip will be in charge of constructing period 1850s metal spinners and flights, which Van Buren used for muscky fishing on the St. Lawrence.

Royce Stearns is a fly tier so good you think the flies will fly off his vise. Royce will be tying period 1850s flies.

Dr. Michael Hackney is a renaissance man who can make just about anything. Michael will be reproducing a period 1850s fishing reel in brass and constructing a horsehair line.

Each of us will me posting our research, progress, photos and other information as we complete this project.