I am brand new to this having just finished my first rod. ( With lots of imput from this site) Theonly thing left is some cool threadwork on the butt to finish it off. So I'm looking for a good book, dvd,or whatever , that covers this in detail. I' understand there is a highly regarded book by Clemons - is it a basic tutorial - a to z type of book or is it more advanced and geared to someone who has already done several wraps and is looking for more complex work. I have found two books by Clemons. One is titled Custom Rod Art, and the other is Advanced Custom Rod Building. I'm not sure which one would be the best for me. If anyone is familiar with these ( or any other for that matter) I'd sure appreciate the imput. Thanks for all the help I've already gotten just by being here.

Get the book I wrote for Amato called Rod Building Guide. I made sure to include what I think are the best photo and text instructions done for the basic diamond and chevron wrap (the wraps which all the others are based upon). The book is very inexpensive and has over 100 color photos. It will walk you through each and every step of the decorative wrap process in about 15 of those photos.

And no, I don't get the money when you buy a copy. I wrote it, but it's not my book. Just to clarify.

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Tom, where would I goet a copy and you should get the$! Also does it cover things like single trim wraps, color changes etc?

It covers a ton of material. Trim wraps included. Most any of the sponsors to the left will have it. Amato published it, so they get the money. Fine by me.

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Jerry: I did my first butt cross wrap using Tom K's book, and it is really all you need to get started. I did have a few beginner-type questions as I did it, but I just posted Qs here and got answered pronto. You can get the book from many of the sponsors, mine was from Mudhole. Someone gave me advice that the best thing to do is to watch someone doing it, and I was lucky to have a very talented builder (Hugh Miller) nearby, he taught me a lot, but I had actually finished the first one before that. Since then, I've also bought both of the Clemens books, you don't need them to begin if you get Tom's book, but nice to have, either one, one covers butt wraps only, but both give the fundamentals. Tom's book gives a bit of info about trim wraps, but not single bands. Trim, single, color change are actually actually separate but related topics to decorative cross wraps. (You can make a great rod without a cross wrap, in fact my first several rods were done relatively plain, just with some trim bands.)