Heddon - Bill Stanley's Favorite 1 3/4F

Have had this rod for a few years, and have tried to replace the reel seat with the original Heddon parts.  I just could not remove the reel seat without warping it after boiling water and did not want to risk it even on the "parts" rods that I had.  Since I was going to keep it anyway, I broke down and used a modern reel seat.  The light wood was not my first choice, but the only one I had on hand that would fit over the bamboo without shaving it down too much.  I also went back to the original maroon & gold silk wraps.  Good news, my newest lacquer, thinned 50% had no bleed through.  The bad news is that it changed the colors.  I would have loved if it would have stayed true but can't wait to fish it.  Just tried it out, does well with a WF5 Sylk line.  I will give kudos to whoever redid this in brown & tan, they did a great job with the tipping, nice and thin.  I do know the varnish must have been polyurethane - I could not remove from the writing with alcohol and it would not sand worth a crap.  Luckily I was able to peel it off once I removed the adjacent varnish.