Very astute observation Mr. Romig- I have an early Paul Young 8 & 1/2 foot 2/2- one tip is about 1/64" thicker than the other and it originally had a red agate tip guide. Mr. N is 110% right about wire guides and tip tops chewing up lines, especially the older braided silk ones-- I had Bob Sommers up in the TC area (near our cottage at Boyne) replace that with a Perfection tip top, and he also replaced the heavier agate first or stripper guide on that rod with a later style compatible with the new lines. I use Wulff TT lines on all my cane rods. Some Hardy Perfects also had agate ring line guards- they would often break while contained inside the ring--one way, amongst many known to the cognoscenti here, to date a cane rod is by the guides, including the first and tip guide, also the wraps and the ferrules. I believe Paul Young and Everett Garrison were the first premiere rod builders of that era to adopt the Fierrabend Super-Z ferrules in the late 1940's-- Young rods are "Steinways" IMO- only one mistake, again IMO- on a few super light sticks he built- and son Jack later re-offered, he tried aluminum ferrules- Bob Sommers has replaced several sets of those for clients with the far superior Super-Z's, again, IMO.. I'm down to about 10 good cane rods in the 7 to 8 &1/2 ft. lengths in both two and three piece- some pre-fire Leonards, a few Grangers (both Goodwin and later W&M) several Merrick R.L. Winstons and a Gary Howells (who was to R.L. Winsto9n as Bob Sommers was to Paul Young), but the very last rod I would ever part with is the Paul Young Perfectionist 7 7& 1/2 ft. 2/2 5 wt.- Like a Marttin HD-45 guitar or a Parker AAHE 20 bore- a true "Classic" that also performs to "Perfection"--
