The Hunter SP 12' 3 piece

[Davyr]

That'll be it! :thumb:

[Haydn Clarke]

The 'SP' denotes having butt and tip aqualites and intermediates on some rods although most have aqualites anyway.

My "plain" Hunter does have all those! So what do we think SP stands for then -Super Posh?

Mine too. Mine, which I'm pretty sure is original and un-restored, has a very red agate guide for both the butt and tip. The butt guide is also of an odd size, almost halfway between a standard float rod agate and a stand-off avon butt guide. I'll try and get some pictures up soon.

[Davyr]

Here are a couple of photos of the relevant bits of my Hunter - it'll be interesting to see how they compare to Haydn's. I'm not sure if my rod was very lightly-used or just well-restored, but it does look pretty immaculate, even if I do say so myself!

Chapman Hunter.jpg

Chapman Hunter agate.jpg

[Greentura]

That's a sad looking tip guide Davyr. The rod looks restored, the finish was never that good, brown whippings by the look of it and a 'new' Chapmans gold oval, none of mine have them, maybe yours is older. the writing is the wrong way up compared to both the ones i have now and others i have seen and all of them have the 'R Chapman & Co Ware, Herts' transfer and around the whippings for the keeper ring "hollow built". I hope to be in contact with John Chapman and will ask what the 'SP' and 'NL' mean :thumb:

[Davyr]

Yes, restored, I expect. Mine has no keeper ring, The whippings are "wine" (as described on the Chapmans site: http://www.chapmanblanks.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=644). It's a pity that site only has drawings of the rods and not photos, isn't it?

[Haydn Clarke]

Mine has very dark (almost black) whippings. I spoke to John last week and he said that they used to use dark brown/wine coloured thread. Mine has the gold oval lable like yours, Davyr. I do need to do a bit of work on mine; not much, just replace a few very lightly rusted eyes and perhaps over-varnish it as it really is in good original condition. I shall try and get some pictures up over the weekend.

[Greentura]

My next hunter project arrived last week and it too has a rounded cork end on the handle but is also marked 'SP' now more confused than before :think:

[Haydn Clarke]

This went very cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... true&rt=nc

Anyone on here the lucky recipient?

[Davyr]

This went very cheap.

"Collection in person only" does tend to put bidders off.

Especially when it's from Stevenage.

[Haydn Clarke]

Well it wouldn't have put me off as I can go home via Stevenage. If I didn't already have one I'd have taken a punt on that as I paid nearly double for mine. I may not have won but at least I'd have pushed the lucky sod who did win it that little bit further.