action rod wood handle

Question
Dear Sir.    I have a action rod,orchard industries inc.Detroit 12,Mich.Pat.no 1920966.that is all that is written on pole,however,It has a wooden handle that is 4.25 in. long a thumb screw to hold reel,made of fiberglass 54.25 overall. and wound steel eyelets.I would like to know the age,or any other info.you might have on this rod.     thanks much Bob

Answer
Hello Bob. Thank you kindly for the question.

The Orchard action rods were quite popular from the late 1930's through the post WWII era when I believe Action Rod Co. was purchased by True Temper. The original patent number was for the reel seat and was filed by a patent attorney on behalf of Joseph Carlson November 11, 1929. The Patent was granted in 1933.

I looked around at is out there for buy, sell and trade and found some pretty immaculate looking examples of the rod you are describing. While not profoundly valuable by any means, the rods do seem to be collectable due to the history and unique designs of the handles and the rods that were inserted into them.

You described the guides or "eyelets" as you called them as wound steel. I'm not certain if you mean guides that are bound to the rod with wire, like many of the steel rods from the past have been (some even soldered profoundly over the wire) or the type of guide that Aetna manufacturing known as the foul-proof guide. They were formed in a manner that resembled a spring so the guide would flex with the rod. My guess is the "wound" style...

At any rate, if she were a steel rod, she might have dated back before WWII but since you stated the rod was fiberglass, that tends to put it into the post WWII era.

I have attached the string for the world-wide web for you to see the original patent...it's pretty cool! Just copy and paste this string into your browser and check it out. I will try to attach a PDF of the document but I'm not certain the ALLExperts site can handle attachments from my end. Hmm...saved them in Photoshop as bmp's but need to be png images...check them out on the US Patent office site with the string below...

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=01920966&IDKey=C447D05F7D3F%0D%0A&H

So there you have it Bob. I would encourage you to obtain an era specific reel and line for the rod, make sure she's in good shape and take her fishing or better yet, find or form a club that uses vintage tackle in derbies or tournaments and have some fun!

Thanks again for the question-

Mark Rimmer- Southern California ([email protected])