The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Most Hardy rods have a serial number stamped on them, from this number you can work out the approximate date of manufacture.

Please see the .pdf files below for a list of approximate dates.

That's very interesting Mark. It makes my FWK Wallis rod May 1885, that seems a tad early to me.

According to this site the FWK Wallis wasn't made until the 1930's:

http://www.upon-bamboo-fly-fishing-rods ... reels.html

It is, apparently, a Canadian site and I am told it does have at least one error though.

January and June both with an F seems strange, Mark,
I've seen a slightly different monthly order somewhere,
also another list that dropped the I for August and carried on to N

January F
February B
March C
April D
May E
June G
July H
August I - J
September J - K
October K - L
November L - M
December M - N

I've been lead to believe that composite rods , ie: those of whole cane / built cane construction are particularly difficult to date accurately . .. Can anyone confirm this please ..

FWK Wallis - All Round made 1934 - 1955
" " - Avon " 1934 - 1953

"Hardy rods were marked with numbers only pre-1900 and with a letter & a number from just after the turn of the century" per G Turner's Guide.

1934 starts with E28279 -: 1953 starts with E86201 -- : 1955 ends with E98999 + H101 - H 4600.

My rod is E21919. I was told at the Hardy museum, without the number information, that it was probably 1928.

My Hardy Wanless is H25743 which dates it to 1959 which sounds about right.

I have another version of the dating process which I will put up tomorrow once I have converted it to pdf.

E21919 is 1931 - on the butt cap? Probably the butt cap was made then and taken from stock & used in 1933 onward.

I have added another pdf file that I have to the first post in this thread.