A day spent on eBay led me to an 8' 4/5wt. Viking brand Fly/Spin combo rod that I was able to purchase for $25.
Here is the rod as I received it.
Through some research I found out that the Viking brand rods were made in Japan after World War II. These rods were made with a reversable grip section and came with different weight tips so you could fish the rod as either a fly or spinning rod. This rod came in wood box and typically included some basic fly's. These rod combo's were a very popular souvenier for US servicemen returning from occupied Japan. The imported Japanese rods were not built anywhere near as well as those made in the US at the time, though they are reported to be servicable fishing rods.
The rod I purchased was in very good shape overall. The grips, metal hardware and blank were in excellent condition and only needed light cleaning. The guide wraps were deteriorating, so all that needed to be done was a rewrap and refinishing of the guides to put this rod in service.
Since the rod had little collector value I opted to rewrap in a red/black twist thread that was typical of the era instead of the light green that was original to this rod.
I recently used this same thread on a build for a customer, it has long been a favorite style thread for me, but I have rarely had the opportunity to use it. In this photo you can also see part of the orinal decal that is still complete and clear on the rod. And, just for fun, I opted to do this rewrap on the handwrapper I built for my first rods. It was actually fun to wrap something by hand as opposed to on my rod lathe.
Below is the almost finished product. All that remains is a treatment of color preserver and finish on the wraps. I can't wait to get this on the water and embarass myself with trying to cast a fly. The reel in the photo is a vintage South Bend Finalist that I thought fit the overall style of the rod.
Keep your eyes peeled for my next adventure in bamboo.....The PMQ or Poor Man's Quad. I will be attempting to make a quadrate bamboo blank out of a garden stake from Menards.....we'll see how it goes.
