The new Issue of RodMaker mails on Monday. Included are:

Homemade Rod Lathe - Scrapyard and hardware store parts combine to form a beautiful and capable machine. You'll have to see this to believe it.

Spiral Wrap Demo Device - Plans for making a similar unit to what I had in Charlotte last year. If you sell spiral wrapped rods this is the best sales device you'll ever have.

Pricing, part 2 - An very extensive article on what rod builders around the Country are charging and actually getting for their rods. A set of sample rods is priced and discussed by 20 builders plus more pricing ideas from another dozen or so builders.

Easy Rod Building Bench - This is an easy, quick and inexpensive bench you can make for your wrapping jig, lathe, etc. Only costs a few bucks but makes one of the best benches available.

Reverse Taper Spinning Grips - With this basic ratio you can fashion good looking and very comfortable grip sets for any spinning reel seat.

Full Color Photo Gallery - More of Joe Emig's beautiful reel seat work, this time in wood. A couple more as well.

Rod Building News, New Products, Q&A and all the other stuff as well.

The issue mails on Monday and is scheduled to be delivered around the 28th of August. Some will trickle in sooner, most will get it the third week of August.

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Tom, If I place a subscription on Monday will I get this issue as my first? Thanks for the notice. Mike

You'd have to do it before Monday to get it in the regular scheduled mailing. You could still get it, but the mailing that goes out on Monday wouldn't have your's in it.

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3 more weeks!! be still my beating heart!! Elisabeth, I'm comming to join you honey !!
LOL !
Thanks Tom, can't wait for my first issue.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

As always I\'ll look forward to it. I let my subcription lapse by accident this past year but have picked back up with all the back issues. I also learned something and so found it funny to follow a thread on another site recently. The gist seemed to be that anything you can get out of Rodmaker mag can be found on the internet anyway so why subscribe? I wonder if people really and honestly believe that? I take the magazine and follow a half dozen rod building internet sites so I know what\'s what here. You almost never or extremely rarely would you find anything along the lines of a new technique or idea come off any internet rod building forum, and I include this one in that statement. Almost ALL the new ideas and techniques in rod building are born in Rodmaker mag and then trickle down to the internet sites. Too bad that the information often gets diluted but you can\'t do on a forum what you can do in a full size mag.

For instance, where did all of Ralph OQuinn\'s great info on surface prep, rod repair and making and repairing ferrrules come from. The internet? Of course not. They first appeared in Rodmaker mag. Where did Dr. Bill Hanneman\'s Common Cents System first become known to the public? The internet? No, it was in Rodmaker. What about all the very complete and indepth articles on building surf rods? Musky rods? Great Lakes Trolling rods? Stand up Trolling rods? Where did those come from? The internet message forums? No, Rodmaker mag. What about Emory Harry\'s stuff on rod efficiency and resonant frequency? Again they were in Rodmaker mag. The good stuff on rod balancing? Again also from Rodmaker. The sportfishing excise tax as it applies to rod builders. From Rodmaker. Grip flocking for the do it yourselfer? From seminars or the internet? No, it started in Rodmaker and trickled down. These are just a few of hundreds of ideas and techniques that first saw the light of day in the magazine. Photo Etching, cork grading scale, feather inlays, guide systems and dozens more. Yes they trickle down and get discussed on the internet by readers and non readers alike, but never in the sort of detail that the magazine gives them.

Sorry for the sort of rant. I had a conversation with someone the other week about this and I was amazed that anyone could think any of the rod building forums are the place where new techniques and ideas are born. It might happen once in a while but for the most part most new ideas or updates come from the magazine and then trickle down, not the other way around. I\'d pay $100 a year for the mag if that\'s what it costs. I didn\'t realize what I was missing until I missed a few issues. It won\'t happen again.

It's not worth arguing about. The magazine won't be for everybody. Most specialty craft magazines never garner more than about 5% of the available market. But yes, RodMaker probably benefits everyone in the entire craft in some way, eventually. And that's fine with me. But I would agree that RodMaker subscribers probably have access to more and better information than non-subscribers do - at least on a continuing basis. But as I said, it's not for everybody. No magazine ever will be.

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Jonathan nailed it!! I don't think that there is any way that a builder can stay up with out a subscription!!!

Tom, On another note, Is Joe by any chance scheduled for a seminar at Charlotte? It would be an instant hit!!!

Mike

Jonathan nailed it!! I don't think that there is any way that a builder can stay up with out a subscription!!!

Tom, On another note, Is Joe by any chance scheduled for a seminar at Charlotte? It would be an instant hit!!!

Mike

Yes, Joe has already agreed to be on the program in Charlotte in February.

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Internet message boards are very helpful when you find yourself up a against a problem that you need solved right away. So I will not throw off on any forum, including this one. But when you come right down to it, they contain very little information beyond the most basic stuff. If you took all the messages posted on all the various rod building websites in the last 10 years, 90% or more is just the same answers to the same questions asked over and over and over again. How do I spine a rod blank? Where do I find where the guides go? Why does my finish not level? You would probably find that less than 15 or 20 questions and answers cover 90% of everything that has ever been posted on an interent rod building forum.

On the other hand, a complete set of RodMaker magazines is the closest anyone will ever come to having a true rod building encyclopedia. No reprints no redundancy. Just new and fresh in each issue and covering a wider range of topics than any simple internet forum could in a hundred years. I know such a full set is probably well over $200 by now, but that would still make it a bargain for the kind and amount of information contained within. My .02.

As I said, the magazine won't be for everybody. Many if not most builders just want to build one or two rods and want information on the basic aspects or rough spots. Anything beyond building a simple, functional type rod is information they're really not interested in.

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Richard, while I agree with a lot of what you say, I disagree on the type of questions posted and info gained from this board! I feel that there is a lot of good (non-beginner) info available here What about all of the various methods of doing thins from applying epoxys to the various characteristics of the various types/brands? What about the many methods of making everything from reamers to dryers to drying boxes? The many ways (and products to use) to paint a blank. The various methods/products used for marbleing.? These subjects benefit experienced builders. I could go on and on. I agree 100% on the value of the magazine and I can't imagine being without it.
It is often the average builder who takes what he gets from the magazine who experiments/adapts/adjust the info and shares their results on this board that results in many innovations. A case in point is the article on marbleing that I did for Rodmaker. It was very basic and there have since been many new tips/products/methods, etc that have been widely accepted due to this forum

It is fairly common to see some of the long time rodbuilder (and RM subscribers) on this forum make the statement that they just learned something that they hadn't learned in X number of years.

Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2005 02:45PM by Mike Barkley.

I agree, but most of the time when such subjects come up, it is because they were in Rodmaker and someone was commenting or asking about it here or on another board. But for the most part, most forums are limited to the same questions over and over and over. If Rodmaker had never come into print, I do not think that the information making the rounds on any of these boards would be even as extensive as it is.

I do not wish to underestimate the importance or helpfulness of this or any rod building forum. But the idea that Johnathan put forth where many believe they can pretty much get the same info from these sites as they can from the magazine is silly. There is very little I have ever seen on one of these forums that has not been covered in depth and usually better in Rodmaker, and yet there are tons of topics and information I have seen in Rodmaker that none of these forums has ever touched on. A complete set of Rodmaker issues has many times over the amount and variety of rod building information that all the rod building websites put together have. It is almost never redundant. The websites usually are.

In case you were wondering, I do use both. The magazine and the websites.

Again, I feel the magazine is, and should be, the main source but also, things like marbling were heavily discussed on this boar BEFORe the Rodmaker article and while Rodmaker has had articles on every topic that I mentioned in my last post, they did NOT always cover all of the variations.

The magazine can do a much better, more thorough job of explanning how to build a dryer, paint a blank, etc. but it can't possibly cover all of the various ways to do it. Individual builders do this and this forum gives them the venue to do that!

I am in no way taking away from the magazine (I would gladly pay $100 a year for it!!!) but this site, standing on it's own, is a great benefit to any rod builder - beginner or expert.


Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Can you only get it with a subscription or is it onsale at places like Barnes & Noble. I have never checked

Hi Al,
Only by subscription. Also, you can order back issues from Tom Kirkman as well.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Tom,
Got my first issue of Rodmaker today ( volume 8 # 3 ).
You have a customer for life I assure you!!

A special thanks to every one involved in RodMaker magazine!

Back to the articles now!

TTYL.


Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Glad you liked it. I think you'll like the 8-4 issue even more.

Guys, this is all pretty silly to argue over. The magazine is available for those who want it. This board and its features are available to all at no charge. They are two entirely different mediums. This site cannot possibly desiminate the type of information the magazine does. But the magazine cannot possibly answer your question at 10PM this evening, or tomorrow morning, or whatever. Two different mediums, two different purposes.

I posted this only so readers would know the new issue was preparing to mail. Never intended for you fellows to argue over it.

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I'll grant you that point on the marbling. But that is just one topic. My main point is that most new ideas and techniques come from the magazine. Not all granted, but most by far. Very few see the light of day originally on any message forum. Also, I'm not knocking this forum in any way. It is always good to see the magazine topics discussed and enlarged on here. But most of what I see is just a very brief in a nutshell posting. So often the inevitable questions would not be asked if the person asking had read the magazine article in the first place.

They both have their place and compliment each other. I can't imagine not having both!!!!

Mike