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Paul Young Midge Bamboo Rod 6'3" 2/2
$ 7,500
VFT6429
For sale here is an original Paul H. Young Midge bamboo fly rod in near mint condition! As Bob Summers states in the provenance letter included with this rod, "This is one of the best examples of Paul's work in this condition I've ever seen".
The rod has richly flamed cane, an oil finish with varnish overcoat on the script, black silk wraps and decorative spiral wraps in front of the grip, dual bright aluminum rings over all cork reel seat, size 12/64" black aluminum ferrules with a great ferrule fit. Original bag and tube. Lettered on three flats in PHY's handwriting. First flat: Lloyd Lawson - Dearborn - July 1954.Second flat:"Midge" 6' - 3" - 1.75 oz. H.E.H. Third flat:Paul H. Young Co. Detroit. Maker.
The following information was also graciously supplied by the owner of the Paul Young Rod Database, "Quashnet":
I believe it is very likely that the original owner of this Midge was the sameLloydLawson of E & L Transport Co. in Dearborn, Michigan who during World War II, to meet emergency wartime needs, designed a custom dual-engine Ford truck specifically to haul B-24 military bomber aircraft sub-assembled parts to factories for final assembly. The bomber assemblies were too big for the trucks of the time and bomber production was delayed.Lawson was part of a team that set out to design a more powerful truck. No time to design a bigger engine and everything else to match, so they used a dual arrangement of existing engines. The drawing board for the original plans was a concrete factory floor. The team sketched out their ideas with soapstone and set to work. Each of the two engines in each truck had its own ignition switch, gauges, radiator, transmission drive shaft and rear end. It was essentially two one-and-a-half ton trucks set on one chassis. They made it work. One hundred of the trucks were built. The last I knew, only one of the trucks survives today. Bomber production increased to the point where at the Willow Run plant near Ann Arbor, MI (a Ford factory run for the war effort by Henry Ford), one fully finished and functional B-24 bomber was turned out PER DAY. After the war, it was surplus B-24 aluminum aircraft tubing that was used to make handmade bamboo fly rod tubes for Paul Young. Ironically, neither of the twoLloydLawson rods that I know about came in a B-24 tube.
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Shipping Information
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Other Terms
- Unless otherwise noted, all items come with a 3-day inspection period during which they can be returned to us for a full refund (provided that they are in the same condition in which they left our shop). Return shipping is the responsibility of the buyer. If an item is returned, we will issue a refund within 10 days upon receipt. Refunds will be either administered by providing a check or, when possible, by canceling a credit card purchase.