Product Description
Vintage Agatine Guides are wonderful for adding a touch of authentic angling history to the next rod you make. And they’re even better if you’re restoring a rod and can put one of these NOS (New, Old Stock) components to proper use fulfilling a role for which they were originally intended.
These Pre-WWII, German-made High Frame guides are crafted with slightly thicker (older?) Orange Agatine rings, with brass or nickel silver frames that feature a bright chrome finish. We believe that these were originally sold as “Bells Life High Guides”…if you can confirm or dis-confirm this with a scan of an old catalog, we’re truly interested in learning anything you can share. These guides are strong and can serve duty on vintage or modern spinning rods. We do not have full size runs of these beautiful guides, so they best serve as the largest butt guide (or guides) on a rod; finish out the guide set with our selection of style-matched high frame wire guides. The guide ring has an O.D. of about 18.5mm and an I.D. of about 11mm, with a width of about 5mm. These stand about 1.130″ tall and are about 2.255″ long from foot tip to foot tip. You’ll get used to this notation on the vintage parts pages. We use the term “about” because we’re measuring one sample out of a bin of comparable parts. They’re all close enough to be in the same bin, but in some cases they were produced over a period of years and they are not identical.
Product number VSAG-185-TOG-BHGF-BC. This stands for Vintage Synthetic Agate Guide – 18.5mm OD – Thick (for this size guide) Orange Glass – Bells High Guide Frame – Bright Chrome Finish. Sort of makes sense, and it helps us to begin wrapping our heads around all these parts.
Sold Individually. Limited Supply. “Limited Supply” indicates that we had less than 100 specimens of this particular guide in the bins when we listed the product; when these guides are sold out, they’re gone unless we acquire another collection.
Be sure to read our rambling post on the Vintage Guide Collection!
