Maxwell Leonard 38M-4 Fly Rod 7' 2/2 #4

An excellent HL Leonard 38 M-4 fly rod, 7', 2-piece, 2-tips, built for a #4 line. Serial #654 dating this to 1979, in the early part of the Tom Maxwell era manufacture date. Very nice DF action. Used but very well cared for condition. The grip has a fair amount of hand soiling but the ferrules and hardware show very little brassing. The varnish as usual with Maxwell period rods is superb, and I can find no blemishes. The Ferrule fits are good and the rod is pin straight. Blond cane in three up pattern. The nodes are fairly small, indicating skilled pressing. Light yellow wraps with brown at the ferrules and a band of deep red at the keeper, ferrules, and tip tops. The ferrules are oxidized pewter. The keeper is on the wrap flat as well as the lettering "38 M-4" and on the reverse, under the keeper wrap, the serial # "654".  The grip is 5 1/2", 11 corks, in a slim cigar profile. The reel seat is a varnished, mortised curly maple cap and ring. The butt cap is stamped "H.L.Leonard Rod Co, the Rodmaker, since 1869" in the cartouche. The rod is packed in a tan cloth bag and a grey hard coat aluminum tube with brass collar and top (as an aside, Tom Maxwell gave me the job of dealing with a large amount of rod tubing that was fairly scuffed up. I found a draw die house that could re-draw it to a highly polished condition, but he vetoed that as the minimum order was more than we would use in a dozen years. Next I had samples hard-coated, a frost-like type of anodizing in several color choices. We settled on the grey which this rod tube is a sample of!). Every once in a while we run across a rod I would love to keep and fish. This is one of them.