Well, my addiction is in full swing.

I'm building a 6'6" UL spin rod on a 2003 Forecast blank - it is the blueish/greenish/tealish colored blank. Anyways - I figured I might as well bite off more than I can chew right away and try a feather inlay. I have some pheasant feathers that are nice, but was wondering if anyone has suggestions for other feathers they have used on this blank and gotten good results. Also, would you recommend and underwrap, and if so, what color would look nice? My trim wraps will be Blue Dun w/o CP and sulky silver metallic trim bands. I was thinking maybe the same for a feather underwrap, or go the other direction and use a burgundy/garnet sulky thread that I picked up - maybe a nice contrast? Guides are alconites, reel seat and winding check are brushed aluminum. Thoughts?

Just a final comment - I cannot BELIEVE the quality of this site - the people on it and the information so freely given. What an awesome cyber-place. I cannot even begin to list all the things I've learned from this site. Of course, it is all costing me alot of money in compenents and tools, but, well, it's worth it! Thank you all!

Rich, I have one of these rods in work at the moment and the customer wanted a "butt wrap" of feathers from her parrots. The feathers are all yellow, all green and some small white ones with reddish orange tints. During a trial run with no thread, most of them vanished against the blank. What I ended up doing was an underwrap of HT silver and gold, layed down next to each other and wrapped at the same time. Then started laying down feathers. They are all various sizes so there's no real pattern. I just keep adding them here, overlapping. It's just about done and all the feathers would have worked nicely by themselves. Now it looks sort of like autumn leaves. I don't particularly care for it, but my wife thinks it looks great.

Thread color is going to be yellow or green, with the other used as inlays. Not really sure yet.

I've used other feathers on these blanks and they all look pretty good. It's really up to you for what look does it for you. Do a test run on the butt end with both thread colors, add a feather and see what you think. Personally, I would probably go with the garnet, only because it's one of my favorite threads.

Take a look at the photo page. You can see them there. I have done feathers over a base thread and don't like it. They look more classy with the right color right onto the blank

All depends what your after. I like both looks and they both apply for different looks. I personally like the contrast look and recently did a feather inlay on a pale green underwrap bordered with garnet and a lime green 3 band metalic trim. Looked great. I have a couple of the same blank you are talking about and on these I think I will try and stick to the blue/green/silver color scheme. Blue Dunn will go beautifully with this blank but why not look at combining it with a lighter blue or even a Teal blue. Your idea with the garnet sounds nice but if your looking for contrast I would probably go for the blue dunn underwrap with a garnet trim. Too much garnet may also be overpowering for the look you want to achieve. The fun is in seeing how the combinations look. You can always put a razor blade through it if you don't like it. I go through plenty.LOL.

Ya wind up with a pile of thread on the side of the bench LOL

Thanks all for the replies - Mark, I like the Blue Dun with Garnet trim idea - I'll be playing around with that one for sure. And you are right - if I don't like it, I can snip it off and start over!

Rich , try some peacock body feathers , they have an erridesant blue green to them that goes with that blank nicely .Boarder the feathers with black trim wraps , looks nice . Have fun , JHD

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