For a variety of the reasons the Hardy Perfect has charmed and seduced 6 generations of anglers. Not least among them is it’s iconic round agate line guard. The early agates were, I believe, red, and matched perfectly the red agate stripping guide on fine bamboo rods. The matching agates in both sites, set in nickel silver, were jewel-like and contributed to a high brow elegance. And make no mistake, the agate line guard was a recognition of the problem of line abrasion on the otherwise soft nickel silver and brass metals of the reel. Line abrasion on a Perfect was NOT a problem, whatever the use, line, size of fish, or flavor of the water.
The Hardy Perfect was, for its day, very durable…..with the exception of its most visual, appealing component…the agate line guard. As resistant to abrasion agate is, it is also brittle. Mounted and surrounded by soft, dentable nickel silver, it could and did crack. Once cracked, pieces could and did fall out. The round guard frame was soldered in place. Replacement was difficult. The second problem with it’s primary asset was that the small size of the round guard (a larger agate would have been even MORE vulnerable) and it’s forward placement to eliminate line contact going directly to the stripping guide unnecessarily magnified the angles when line was stripped from the reel.
But tradition is tradition, and a winner is a winner. While at times attempting to “solve” the problems of agate fragility and guard size/ placement with the Perfect and every other reel it made in the next 110 years, Hardy was pulled…or pushed…back to maintaining unchanged the agate guard, on the Perfect at least. One of the shortest lived “solutions” on Perfects and a few other reels was a small, round agate-less guide made of a "hardened metal"!
Fig 8. A modern Hardy Perfect
Fig. 9. 1930's era Perfect with metallic line guard - short lived.
