my interest is generally in light fly rods for small stream trout and i'm in the middle of two 7'-6" 4 pc fly rods, one forecast, one tiger eye for friends. i've got the hardware figured out but my mind is wandering over future cosmetic matching possibilities and with a recent dangerous chance beautiful collision with a nice little 6'6" dickerson bamboo rod from a probable supplier of a blank in the future, the idea of bronze guides intrigues me. i think i would go traditional in my future venture, using snakes despite the modern benefits of what is often talked about here.

of those who make/wrap bamboo with bronze colored guides, what kind of cap and ring reel seat hardware do you find looks good? nickle silver? black anodized? blackened NS? other? i guess with this being the first day of cool weather for me, my thoughtful meanderings of winter projects has been tickled a bit. the 6611 i used had bronze guides i think with nickle silver reel seat hardware, slightly tarnished. i also wonder if there is a way to "bronze" NS like some blacken NS.

thanks.

eric
fresno, ca.

cortland line co. had some "brown" aluminum cap and ring reel seat hardware that matches bronze very well. The stamped, hooded butt cap model is cheap looking but the machined one is pretty nice. I'm making a birch burl with exposed cork mortised insert for it. Will use it on a tiger eye 6' 2/3 blank.

Tony

I recently came across bronze and copper seats in Neal's on-line catalog (at left on the supplier's list) under Tiger Eye seats. They look nice. Check them out.

Good luck,

Tim

Check out the Pac Bay website. They list a new line of Bronze wire guides (single foot and snake) for fly rod builders. Didn't see any reel seats to match. I've actually been looking for bronze hardware, as well, for a smallmouth (bronze back's, get it) rod for my dad, but it doesn't look like bronze is a popular color in spinning guides or reel seats.

Ben

REC has a champagne color anodized finish on their aluminum cap/ring reel seat. I have a couple of REC rod tubes with champagne color hardware and it would probably look good with bronze.

Found Neal's Tiger Eye site, looks like it has not been updated in awhile, is he still in business?