I need some help about a book. I received a Christmas present of Dale Clemens book, The New Advanced Custom Rod Building. The dust cover said The New Advanced Custom Rod Building, but when I opened the book it had the title: Adavanced Custom Rod Building with a 1987 publishing date. This is a 30 year old book. Is there a new edition other than the 1987 book? If any of you have info on this, please respond here on the forum or drop me an e-mail at mickgylblm@earthlink.net.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Mike Blomme

The "New Advanced Custom Rod Building" book was last published in 1987 as far as I can tell. But that only makes it about 18 to almost 20 years old not 30. It is VERY outdated in some respects with respect to blanks and guides and stuff but the techniques in it should still be good to go.

Very little difference between Advanced Custom Rod Building and New Advanced Custom Rod Building. 99% the same except for newer and more color plates in the "New" version. I think 1977 was the date of the first edition and 1987 was the date of the second edition. If there is a newer version I have not seen it. Dale Clemens pretty much retired from the custom rod building arena sometime around 1990 or so.

Mr. Clemem's book might be a little out-dated, but it can still be a source of new ideas. Stan.

What's old is new ! Don't let the date fool you. It has plenty of things in it that are now a days.
Like the spiral, bumper, whatever wrap, been out many years and just coming around again.

What's old is new ! Don't let the date fool you. It has plenty of things in it that are now a days.
Like the spiral, bumper, whatever wrap, been out many years and just coming around again.

Marry Christmas

At times I have gone further back in time, to Dale Clemens Book on Fiber Glass rod building. Tom K's Book is a great reference book also. May I suggest RodMaker. Also, try the search section in this site. If you post a question here, someone has the answer that may help you out. Like Bill said what is new today was old yesterday. No matter what you are looking for in rod building the basics are the same.
Good Wraps Bob

All books suffer from the same problem with age - if you delve too far into products, such as guides and whatnot, those items are going to change or disappear over the years. It's tough to keep a book truly updated unless you revise it every few years. Few publishers can afford to do that for what amounts to a fairly small readership. The book I wrote for Amato has been out for about 5 years now and has sold somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 copies. So as you can see, the numbers just don't allow these books to be updated as often as we might like. However, the chapters that deal with techniques and methods aren't nearly as prone to becoming outdated as those on particular components.



Bill,

I've read that book cover to cover, as well as many others, and the Simple Spiral Bumper Wrap has never been written about in any form or fashion until it appeared in RodMaker. Same with many of the other topics we introduced. Yes, a lot of things have been around longer than most imagine, but there are some very new things that have appeared in the past few years as well.



..............

Bob Balcombe: Will the real Bob please stand up!! You have been caught. Either you have gotten a spell checker or you have been "putting us all on". There is not ONE misspelled word in you answer on this thread. Commas in the right place and words like "May I suggest" - you been kidding us all this time?

Gon Fishn

Pssst - I think his wife wrote that for him...... Not possible to have an entire post without a strange or 'uneeke spleeling'

Thanks all for your comments. I bought Tom's book last year and am reaching the point I can almost quote from the book. I also bought Clemens' book on Fiberglass rod building. When I heard that there was a new Advanced Custom Rod Building book, I had hoped that there might be a good reference to not only some modern techniques, but more properties of materials that are now used in rod building materials. Tom is right the part on property of materials becomes dated rather quickly.

I spent most of Christmas evening searching for all of Clemens' books and am now convinced that the 1987 book was the last revision. I just find it interesting that the title on the dust cover inckudes the word New while the title on the book itself does not. Perhaps that is a bit or marketing. Scanning through the book last night I decide there is enough stuff that is new for me to keep it. There is even a section on introductory weaving, which I may never do, but I am still interested in learning how all of the threadmasters do it.

I also use this forum quite a bit. Each morninh I bring a cup of coffee, a copy of Rodmaker (in case the loading is a bit slow) and surf the forum site and read everyones's responses to questions. A very pleasant way to spend an hour or two each morning (one of the advantages of being retired with only my wife to give chores to do). Once again thanks for the input about the Clemens' book.

Best regards,

Mike Blomme

Tom

The idea has been around, no matter what is is called.

Advanced Custom Rod Building,
by Dale P. Clemens. Copyright 1978.
OUT OF PRINT.

The NEW Advanced Custom Rod Building,
by Dale P. Clemens. ~ $30. Copyright 1987.
Hardcover, 370 pages.

CUSTOM ROD THREAD ART
by Dale P. Clemens. ~ $30. Copyright 1982.
Hardcover, 235 pages.

Bill,

I would challenge that statement. The idea behind the Bumper Wrap has never "been around" nor been written about prior to it appearing in RodMaker. Same with so many other things that we've covered. (Of course, if you want to take that mindset, everything ever done to a fishing rod was just a variation on the old cane pole theme. So from that standpoint, there hasn't been anything new in fishing rods in several hundred years now.)

When I started the magazine one of things that I heard over and over was that there was nothing to write about - that everything related to custom rod building had been covered. Yet here I am with about 5 year's worth of excess articles on things that have never been discussed anywhere in any rod building book, magazine or website.

There is plenty of new stuff going on in rod building. The trick is to keep your eyes open for that next advancement and never get the idea that we've gone as far as we can go.

...............



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2005 05:07PM by Tom Kirkman.

I think Bill is simply talking about spiral wrapping in general...yes I know he spelled out 'bumper' in a sentance above, but sometimes you have to read between the lines. With that said, the spiral wrap was around even before Clemons put it in his book. And yes I have that book and also Tom K's book...the first (and only) two books I've ever purchased on rod building.

There is an infinate number of ways to accomplish the spiral wrap...the bumper method is but only one of them.

Jay

If at first you don't succeed...try epoxy