Preparing for Charlotte, I have a few test wraps, a few old rods I'm putting a fresh coat of epoxy on, and 2 new rods which I have doen the wraps only on. Working on 8 rods at once, putting fishin on 4 at a time fromteh same epoxy mix.

The older rods had fish scales on them, I had to sand and wipe with alcohol prior to finishing. Teh test wraps, I did on spare blanks, put my hands all over them transporting to and from my parents house in my bookbag. The 2 new rods, I was very careful with, wrapping, tying off & CPing in one shot, then finishing the next day.

How is it possible, the ONLY rods which I have fisheyes on, are the 2 I was the most careful with? It's almost as if the epoxy knows I'm trying to be extra careful and I want these to look teh best, so it punishes me be fisheyeing on only these 2 rods. From now on I'm going to mishandle my new rods, maybe punish them by locking them in the closet for a week, maybe I'll spank the rods - anythign so get a nice coat of finish.

lol.

When you stopped at that deli and ate the pastrami on rye you should have at least washed your hands. Whatever you do do not blame your parents. Just keep your greasy hands off MY custom wine glass!

Gon Fishn

Bill, your custom wine glass not only looks great, but works great too. Had to field test it saturday night. No fisheyes but I tell you, trying to get a decal on a cylindracal, AND concave object is incredible fun, about as fun as putting a decal on a marble.

Somebody say "marble"?
Glad yer havin' fun, Billy!

Putter
Williston, ND

I'm having fun 75% of teh time, so it's not all bad, lol.

I thought it might be the Propane torch touching the epoxy, teh brush having solvent on it from the epoxy cleaner - the only logical conclusion I can come up with is the epoxy knows these rods "count".

I sent a few wraps to Andy, and I couldn't have done a WORSE job. No matter what I did, somethign went wrong. I finally gave up and just sent him the stuff the way it was, hopefully he'll bring them to Charlotte, you'll see what I mean.

i beat all my stuff with a stick
tests the durability and shows it whos boss
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm maybe try the wife an kids next
any one know where i can get some really big sticks

Billy,
I know what you mean - 90% of the time when you're just building rods everything just "works". Then when you try to get something exactly the way you want it to be - at the highest level Nothing seems to come out the way you thought it should. I made up a cedar rod case that I was going to bring to the show and I just can NOT get it to come out "right". It's ok - but not exactly what I wanted. I made the case, sanded, finished the outside, flocked the inside but it just isn't what I saw in my head. Now I'm going to start pretty much all over again - because I'm thinking about marketing these things out of red cedar either oblong display boxes or hexagonal for fly rods. I'm sure the Joregensens can knock these out in minutes without really thinking about it but I'm having a devil of a time!

Its fate Billy, ...or the finish gods are getting back at you for some reason. I know the feeling.

Allen - It has been said that the old adage of "rule of thumb" came from a law that allowed a man to use a rod equal to the thumb size of the offender as a rod of correction for his slave, his child or his wife. ... So, that's why fishing rods are tapered - one size fits all ...!!!... LOL, ... Just a joke, ... -Cliff Hall+++

Billy , taht reminds me of teh time I had to do an "easy" decal on a $700 brand new factory Scott fly rod for teh owner of Westport outfitters . Teh rod must have had wax on it ........even after I cleaned it with denatured , it still fish eyed ................. drove me nuts thinking that I had ruined such an expencive rod .
It will all come out in the wash ...... Only a few days left !!!!!! John Henry

Got Fish ?

Billy, maybe the oil spill has something to do with it, LOL. Maybe we need to build you a clean room.

Mr. Dow must have made it up to MJ's to feather up the global; he caught teh dreaded "Billy" virus that MJ got earlier this month; hope it's not catching...

Putter
Williston, ND

Billy, I've only been building for a little over a year now, and I've come to realize that this whole epoxy thing is a mystery for sure. I'll use the same epoxy on the rod wraps (that turned out great), go to apply some on the wood handle and it fish eyes like crazy. The rod is still turning on the drier, I wipe the handle off with alcohol (which I also did the first time) mix up another batch of the same epoxy, immediately re-coat the handle, and it comes out perfect. Of course this still isn't as bad as going to sign the last rod I built.....break out the old silver metallic paint pen......remove the cap.....then decide the pen needs some shaking. Paint all over me, the work bench, my new Renzetti, and of course the finished rod. (Guess where that pen went). Ah yes! The joys of building custom rods.