Limited Edition: The “Aroner Series”

I got an email the other day from a customer who said he had a few questions about a rod that his friend had recently bought. He wanted to send along a few pictures to see if I could help identify it. Anyway, when I opened up the photos I was surprised to see that the rod was an “Aroner Series”, a limited edition model that I made in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and of which I only made about a dozen in all. Needless to say I haven’t seen too many of them turn up over the years so it was a pleasant surprise to suddenly stumble across this one.

The series was one of my first limited edition efforts and it had a few distinct features (engraved hardware, a seat with full rails, bright hardware, small ruby line-up markers on the ferrules, among others). I remember really enjoying making them (but also that it had been a lot of work).

I also have to confess that things like this are one of the real pleasures in being a rodmaker, when you come across something like this that you made long ago and which someone is so obviously excited to own (this rod also looked like it was in great condition).

Anyway, here are a few (very nicely done) photos of the rod: