Reconditioning a Pichney Darter - to fish

[WoodyCT]

I've got a Pichney darter in fished but good condition I want to recondition to fish. My main concern is that the sealer has dried out and won't keep the water out, resulting in the plug splitting.

Thinking I would:
Pull the wire, pull the hardware, heat gun the paint off, redrill the through hole and belly holes to clean away dirt/salt etc., hand sand with 120, soak in Helmsman/thinner mixture for an hour, and then repaint and clear coat, and re-rig.

Any suggestions?

[pbadad]

Thats what I do Woody. Should have no problems.

[numbskull]

You could trade it to me for a couple of copies. What does it weigh without hooks?

[BigFish]

George does beautiful work Jon! Then you would have 2!

[WoodyCT]

6.5"
75.9g (2.67oz.)
1" wide at nose
Slope extends 2-7/8" back from nose
Maple
No apparent belly lead

I've been told by a LI Musso-Pichney guru that it is the "...rarest sized darter...".

George, I'll take you up on that, because, as Larry so correctly points out, you do make great plugs.

Check your PMs.

[numbskull]

Sounds like one of these (the mackerel one).

Interesting story on these two plugs.

The white one was sent to me by the most active and knowledgeable collector/seller on SOL as a Pichney in trade for an old school BM small darter new in bag. It is the crudest built plug I have ever seen (the photo hides the ridges in the body), and the tail wrap is opposite every other Pichney have so I think I got jobbed and got a Lupo (maybe built on a pichney body) instead. I was too naive to question it at the time. Whatever it is, it is painful to look at. (I did get two Pichney SS for two large BM SS in the same trade so not all was bad).

The mackerel, on the other hand, was bought for short money along with a mackerel gibbs also on SOL. Initially I thought it was a very classy homemade and I was pretty ho hum about the deal, but the more I look at it the more I'm sure it is a Pichney....and a very sweet one at that.

You never know.

[Grapenuts]

numb..I have the very same two,should have had an all yellow too, but it never got here...yes..pichney's.

[stripermaineiac]

Be carefull how much wood you drill out of it. I tried doin that with a couple older screw eye darters an really messed up how the plug worked. Took it way out of balance that's needed to keep a darter from corkscrewing. Ron