so if you build a custom rod for a certain person,then they flake on the deal.now to recover your losses you sell it to a different person. is it still custom or is it semi custom / production?

It's hand crafted

This issue has a lot to say about our craft. All rods, even those $ 39 production rods we all refer to are hand crafted. There are many shades of quality. Quality can be good or bad. Many customers do not connect quality to "custom" or "handcrafted". Very few rods hit on the Doc Ski level from an artistic and quality of build standpoint. The ones I build certainly do not. I have built a lot of rods for a specific task, salt water popping, and have never glued up any of cork rings. I use only poor quality preformed cork. I do a good job on the cork available and use premium blanks and components. The thread work and customer personalized decal art is tip knotch with no weaving. I think the real issue here is simply the definition of the word "Custom". I have not established a perception in the mind of my customers that "Rod By" is of as much value as "Rod For". My main objective is to get a customer into my shop and show him the choice of things that alter the price of a rod built for him. He ultimately has the choice of blank, grip surface, seat, and guide sets. I kinda wish we could find a better descriptive term for our work product than Custom.
That word is really worn out!

Gon Fishn

Definitions:

cus·tom-built (kstm-blt) KEY
ADJECTIVE:

Built according to the specifications of the buyer.


cus·tom-made (kstm-md) KEY
ADJECTIVE:

Made according to the specifications of an individual purchaser.

cus·tom·ize (kst-mz) KEY

TRANSITIVE VERB:
cus·tom·ized , cus·tom·iz·ing , cus·tom·iz·es

To make or alter to individual or personal specifications: customize a van.

I use "custom crafted" for mine. It may not be built for a customer but it is built for me. I wish I had more customers that wanted one completely custom styled and built, but I don't and If someone comes to my shop and sees a rod there that they like, I'll be glad to talk dollars. I always get a kick out of person that picks up a quality rod and says "I've been looking for something just like this for years". Bingo...happy customer, happy builder.

I am now curious as can be. How many builders use only customer and rod type stuff such as line and lure weight for display on the rods built for a specific customer? I wonder if Doc Ski puts anything at all on the rods he builds from the "built by" side of the issue. I do not use any thing of "built by" on the personalized rods at all. I feel the guy paying the price is the one that deserves the advertising.

Gon Fishn

Bill,

I always have my Logo decal on the rod (you've seen it) as well as Custom made for xxxxxxxxx with the line/ lure info below it. All on a metallic gold or silver decal from Decal Connection
When the customer is showing off his rod, I like to have my name on it! Good PR

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!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2006 12:55PM by Mike Barkley.

I choose to prominently feature the name for whom the rod has been built. Then, in smaller type, the rod specs to avoid confusion in years to come; and, finally, my name or marque to designate this rod as having been built by me. As a labor of love I feel I have invested more of myself in the effort than whatever money I may have received for the job. I attach my name or marque to signify that I am pleased to have created this fishing rod for the new owner.

If, in years to come, my work becomes highly regarded, the marque will eliminate confusion by providing provenance. It is not a matter of boosting one's ego but of being as informative as possible.
Dave

Yesterday I sent a long, wandering message. Last night I sent a reply to one of the people who had wriiten a response to Mary Lou's question. In the middle of that e-mail, the last of my two brain cells rubbed together for a moment.

The simple definition for custom found in Webster's Third International Dictionary has several meanings for the word, but the one that is germane to our discussion relates to having some thing done for a specific individual at that person's direction. Hence a rod is either (as Doc mentioned) custom or not custom. If you build a rod for a specific person at that person's directions, it is a custom rod. If it is built in any other way, it is not a custom rod. The word custom is like dead you are either dead or you are not dead. The word custom does not convey quality or the presence of high quality and/or expensive components. from this we can infer that the term semi-custom has no meaning.

Now the important question for each of us is whether to accept a commission to build a custom rod that does not meet our criteria and to have our name appear on that rod. I believe that Mick McComesky, Bill Stevens, Bil Boettcher, and others alluded to that in their responses above.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we ought to use the word handcrafted to denote rods that were not built for a specific person. Unfortunately, "handcrafted" does not convey quality either. I think quality is a far more ephemeral idea than either custom or handcrafted. Tom's article on Fit and Finish addresses the quality issue fairly well for me.

As an aside, I love going to the photo page and looking at the tremendous thread art. I am in awe of the creativity, effort, and attention to detail that gos into that work. However, I would not want it on a rod. My sense of aesthtetics is much more subdued. I did like Mark Crouse's May Fly weave and I thought that Michael Joyce's Green/Black/Green guide wrap is the ideal of guide wraps. After all these years, I still haven't mastered single thread inlays.

Mike Blomme

Ninety nine percent of the public figure any rod without a manufacturer's label is a "Custom Made Rod". Jesse

I agree with Mr. Gilbergs priority of display. If you look at the master works of fine china you will see the markings of the maker somewhere out of sight. This provides the provenance that establishes later value due to the ability of the maker to produce quality items. I use the method that fine cue makers use to identiy their pool cues. A simple condensed figure of initials placed on the bottom of the rod will make all of my stuff traceable. I do not feel that a large label with my identifier will increase the value of the rod at time of sale.

GF

Well here is a prime example. I made a rod for a co-worker for her husband for christmas. I sat down and talked with her and found exactly what he fished for and how he liked to fish. I selected a blank to suit those needs. I then brought in Custom Rod Thread Art and had her select the pattern. Being that I somewhat know the guy I was able to come up with a size and length of handle that would suit him well. I turned the handle assembly out of a single piece of Red Cedar including the reel seat insert. Hand fitted everything tested the guide spacing and adjusted accordingly. Wrapped the guides, added the trim wraps and did the thread art.

As I was delivering this rod, I showed it to a guy who has built some rods for himself in the past and other than that is one beautiful rod, his comment was that is truely a custom rod, not just some components hand assembled.

I agree that for the sake of the buyer/seller and general advertising purposes, it's a bit unfair to call something "custom" that's not been made for an individual.

That being said, every single rod that comes out of my rod room has the same workmanship, no matter the amount of contact with the eventual owner. I try to get as much info. from the owner as I can, but regardless, the following things occur every time: all grips (both wood and cork) are turned by me, with many, many, measurements from the calipers; installation of all grip components is preceded by proper blank prep (i.e. water break free surface); all guide feet are ground to my expectations; all guides are carefully wrapped (with Forhan locking wraps), then burnished; and finally, all wraps are coated with just enough finish epoxy where individual threads can't be distinguished, but there is no "football" or unnecessary drop of finish anywhere. (And, this doesn't even take into account many other time-consuming activities like thread color tests, etc.) I definitely still make mistakes on rods, and no rod has ever completely satisfied me, as there's always room for improvement, but I guarantee that each rod that comes out of my room is immeasurably better than its factory counterpart. So, it does seem strange to make much of a distinction about something being "semi-custom" versus "custom," because the quality is the same.

But in the end, "custom" vs. "semi-custom" is something I don't really think about all that much. I mainly just worry about making this rod--the one right in front of me--the best it can possibly be. Other folks can judge what it should be called.