Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything

[endo]

@Matt said in Ask Giles Anything:

So you’re saying the S stands for “S”omeday we’ll rerun the Beatle Buster?

you're not following @Matt

[jordanscollected]

@Giles Has Iron Heart Wabash been made on selvedge machine before? if not, any reason why?

[Giles]

It has not. Possibly because the machines that we use to bleach the dots need projectile loom width of fabric. Or even if we can feed shuttle loom width through the "dotting" machine, it may be super inefficient....

[jordanscollected]

Thank you I can see where that would make it inefficient.

[Buckeye]

@Giles @Alex There are many things that make IH fantastic, but among my favorite are the dedication to quality assurance (fabric, stitching, shape, etc) and precision of sizing. What other brands do you both look to as following in the same footsteps at IH; i.e., doing things ‘the right way’? I think @Olly referenced @Alex respecting Freenote Cloth in that manner on a production of the Iron Cast.

[SourPower]

@Giles do you have any photos of the titanium fishing reels you used to make?

[Giles]

This was one of them.....

https://oldtimeangler.tripod.com/index/hardyzanetireel.htm

I'll take photos of them later....

[Alex]

@Buckeye said in Ask Giles Anything:

@Giles @Alex There are many things that make IH fantastic, but among my favorite are the dedication to quality assurance (fabric, stitching, shape, etc) and precision of sizing. What other brands do you both look to as following in the same footsteps at IH; i.e., doing things ‘the right way’? I think @Olly referenced @Alex respecting Freenote Cloth in that manner on a production of the Iron Cast.

Freenote, Samurai, Stevenson Overall, Y2, Double Helix, The Flat Head.. There are a lot

[Giles]

@SourPower

This was the reel we made for House of Hardy, it was sold as the Hardy Zane Ti and retailed for USD10,000......

This is the prototype, it has a handle made out of a "plastic" type material developed by the Soviets for the International Space Station (Hardy's changed the handle for the production model)...

This is a Ti prototype for the Hardy Marksman. Hardy's did not sell the Ti version (I think mine is probably the only one in existence), but they licensed the design from us and made it out of aluminium. They made a few 100, possibly a few 1000 and it was a nice little earner

And these 2 are random 2/3 weights

I've use the one with line on a lot (paired with an Orvis 1 weight) for native brown trout and a few memorable times for Bonefish in The Bahamas. I don't suppose many people have landed a Bonefish on a 1 weight outfit

[Giles]

@Buckeye Same as @Alex , but a few more

White Kloud
Ripple Fisher
Zenaq
The Osaka 5
Tackle House
Good Art
and and and

[SourPower]

@Giles thank you so much for sharing. These are genuine treasures, I love the timeless design and raw finish.

I cannot even imagine the joy of hearing that small arbor 1wt setup scream after connecting with a bonefish!

The Zane is a masterpiece, one of the most stunning pieces of fly fishing equipment I have ever seen. I can really appreciate the connection between your passion for fishing and over-engineered “IH values”. These photos bring me back to a beautiful tarpon that I landed about 5yrs ago after a grueling fight…

[Giles]

Ive still to do a Tarpon. I’ve tied shit loads of flies and chucked them at shit loads of fish in Florida, The Bahamas, Mexico and Belize. But still they allude me.

[goosehd]

[SourPower]

@Giles

[Sir_Cuffs-a-Lot]

but were you happy about it??

[Giles]

@SourPower That will do nicely, and boy do I love a pair of Xtratuf.....

To your comment about taking Bones on a 1 weight outfit. It teaches you 2 things:

1. How close you can get to a fish and cast without not spooking it. I got way more hits on the 1 weight than I do on my traditional #7. However, that may also have been that out of necessity, you have to use minute flies......
2. That you have to know how to run mighty fast in calf deep water....

[Buckeye]

@Giles What does ‘extant’ mean in the context of IH pieces?

[Matt]

That they are in semi regular production as opposed to being a seasonal release not to be rerun.

[seawolf]

@Buckeye long ago, there used to be an archive of all of the “extinct” products that wouldn’t be rerun, and in contrast, as @Matt pointed out, the “extant” products are regularly restocked and very much “alive” in the manufacturing pipeline.

[Buckeye]

Thank you @Matt and @seawolf!