Asbjörn Hörgård /ABU Rods

Composite Hörgård image and many others below from the very  interesting vintage fishing  web pages of Øyvind S. Bruland

Missing from my collection was a Horgard split cane flyrod or baitcaster imported by ABU from Norway, until very recently.

En route to my collection, are  two  Asbjørn Hørgård  Konkurasse and Golden fly from Oyvind in Norway and Earl in United States. Still looking for any baitcaster model viz Norsk or Sjoa models or Spinning viz models Figga or Threadline

Golden Fly below

Konkurannse  D (Tournament model) below

1951 Napp och Nytt

My Norwegian friend Jon Steinsnes and Dr Wolfram Schott  are on the job keeping their eyes open  for one of these Horgard split cane baitcaster (Norske or Sjoa) rods for me.

Also Hans van der Pauw from the Netherlands has been a great help in gather information on the Horgard rods supplied to ABU.

Enjoy this summarizing Asbjørn Hørgård  information written by Wolfram Schott

The Horgard story is extraordinary and well worth the read to see a story of pride, passion, persistence unfold to the benefit of all.

Wolfram has also supplied some wonderful images of the Horgard manufacturing equipment

Alas there is no such thing as a Hörgaard Museum, not in Trondheim (where the factory was), nor anywhere else in Norway. The items are exhibited in the Norsk Skogsmuseum (Norwegian Forestry Museum) in Elverum/Norway, some 400 miles south of Trondheim, together with MANY hunting, fishing, lumbering, wood-processing and other related items.

thanks very much Wolfram

The Horgard rods commissioned by ABU  are shown here in better detail than in their 50's catalog pages above.

Great translation from the Norwegian, allowing us English only speaking fans an insight into the background and process involved.

Many thanks to the shy and anonomous translater

Asbjörn Hörgård pdf file

In this first article, I will take for me fly fishing rods for trout made from splitcane at the Trondheim factory, Asbjørn Hørgård As.
It is a known fact that Norway has had several renowned fishing rod manufacturers. There have been large firms that have invested in a wide range of fishing rods to the salt and freshwater fishing.

The rods for trout fishing with fly gear, were produced a few places in the country.
Making cane rods requires special knowledge and special machine equipment, which was not easily obtainable.
Some handful of useful and ardent amateur team sticks of wood and delivered to a small circle.

In Trondheim, there was a keen and enterprising angler, Asbjørn Hørgård. The man was an early this country with their fly rods. Already in 1934 he produced his first pole. The knowledge he found by the intense exploration. With the help of his school English and encyclopedia He found out the knowledge by studying and try out the information in an English book "Amateur Rodmaking".

By splitting up Tonkin bamboo poles that were supposed to making skis, he started to split bamboo and glued them together afterwards. Cutting took a long time, they may be even tapered in addition to each split/part was triangular. Like the handful of useful person he was and with insight in the mechanical industry, he made ​a  planing machine based on bicycle wheels and bicycle gears, both with front wheels and wheel hubs. Moreover, he had much help of a mechanic teacher G. Storvik the "Central Technical School, which helped him invaluable. And he made ​the team milling spindle and other components in steel, which both had to be tuned and threaded.
The adhesive was a mixture of horn glue and varnishes.

He noticed that the quality of the glue and paint were not good, and worked his way to England by boat, to try to acquire knowledge about this. To acquire this competence was not easy, this was mid 30's. He visited several cities on exploration. Finally he found a shop with a sign that said: "Fishing tackle Established more than 100 years in London. He took courage and went inside. Here he was greeted by a friendly older man, who told that he had been doing to make fishing rods by the old method the entire life. This was precisely this Asbjørn Hørgård was looking for. Hørgård heard that the competition in the market was hard and new production methods made it difficult to keep it going. There was a lengthy discussion and Hørgård shared his methods at home Trondheim splitting and plan of cane splits. The older man split and planed manually. Eventually ventured Hørgård to ask about the glues, lacquers and preparation of lashing wire. He got all information he would like. The goal was reached and with fresh courage he returned to Trondheim to continue work with fly rods.  Back home in Trondheim took he took up his small production of rods. He moved to a larger production facility, as he got loans from his bank in order to rent an area of approximately 160 square metres.

The rods achieved a good reputation. They were tested by city experts in fly fishing, Director Reidar Brekke in Trondheim Insurance company. He was the most famous and important angler in the city. He started throwing competitions in Norway, and the same man was also a renowned entomologist with studies, especially of insects that were trout food animals. Reidar Brekke has also written some articles in "Sport Fishing" the 1930's, and in 1940, his book "About Trout and salmon fishing in Norway "on Johan Grundt Tanum forlag.

The statements from Brekke weighed heavily and increased demand for Hørgårds rods. But to sell them in Oslo area proved to be difficult. Not least, this was because, the wholesaler that Hørgård contacted also had a leading position as an importer of fishing rods from abroad. It was a constant struggle to convince market that the Norwegian-produced rods were as good as imported rods from England, the time leading manufacturer and supplier to the Norwegian market. Until the outbreak of war turnover increased and he had to bring in more workers to help with the production. When the war broke out, many changed in the country. At Hørgård there was a steady but limited production in the first years of the war. He had a warehouse of Tonkin bamboo, which were completely necessary for the production.