Thank you all for the suggestions and comments. I found a great book by Art Scheck Fly Rod Building Made Easy and also signed up for a rod building class that starts in January can hardly wait. I found as per your suggestion a great rod wrapping jig in this library. Is a home made thread tensioner as good as the ones that come off old sewing machines. Do you have to use a color perserver on your wraps and i plan on using snake guides sould I use higher priced guides due to line wear or doe's it matter. Thank you again Chris Colome

Chris,
Hi, just curious which class you signed for? I've been contemplating taking a bamboo rod building class sometime in the future. Randy.

I received that book for Christmas about two years ago. Sorry Chris, I think the author is all wet. He's not as much rod builder as he is fisherman so I guess that's why. It'll help but if you can find either of the Flex Coat books or Toms book I think you'll be on a 'better' path. These people are actual rod builders.

Snake guides will work as well on your rods as they do on factory rods. Ceramics would be better in my opinion but for your first attempt I'd take it easy and just worry about getting a nice solid rod to use. When you start building more than you can spend more and do more and branch out a bit.