if a man wishes to underwrap a fly rod for cosmetic purposes, can you compensate for
performance using a blank of different specs?
e. g. - to build a rod for a 5-weight line, how would you think a six weight blank with underwraps compare performance-wise? don't laugh guy's, my mom told me i was a little slower than the other kids. just a thought.

i see ware your coming from but you forgetting the main point .. that being a 6wt rod would be "meatier"than a 5wt look down at a 4wt with underwraps but they are going to add weight and compromise the action drastically
you dont need to be a nasa engineer or brain surgeon to build a rod just a basic understanding of what a rod is for and what looks good

Hi Chuck,
Decoration verses performance is a "no brainer" don't get caught up in the decoration
part of rod building in leu of good performance!

That being said, if you wanted to add something like underwraps to a light blank where
added weight would adversely effect perfomance. You could do "fake underwraps"
(the wrap only covers the area between the guide feet and not under them) then fininsh
the completed guide wraps with something like spar varninsh or permagloss as they are
lighter that the 2 part epoxy fininhes.

This is just an educated guess on my part as I have not done any testing and I haven't as
yet learned the art of fly casting so take this with a grain of salt.

Hopefully others will post some more educated thoughts.

Good Luck!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Chuck , You can underwrap anything , it just adds weight . I would immagine that any rod will be effected by the addition of weight , how much will depend on what you started with . You are looking to get a visual effectby adding an underwrap , and you are looking to keep the same "feel " or recovery on the rod , I would think that you would have to start with a "faster" action rod . I'm not sure on the proper terms and I may not be stating this right , but that's how I would interpret it .
One thing you may concider is doing a "false" underwrap which is just longet trim on the outer ends and a short wrap between where the feet of the guides will sit , that will save some weight . Another thing is to tint some epoxy and just put a light coat on the blank and wrap over that . Again it's added weight .
I hope this helps out some , have fun , Jhon

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Chuck; I might suggest that if you really want to underwrap use something on the order of 00 or 000 silk and keep it as short as possable. In that way depending on the finish you normally use the additional weight will be at a minimum. Depending on how much adornment you want you may be hard pressed to feel the difference.

Jim , I was thinking about that also , it came to me after while I was eatin' corned beef and cabbage(OCD) , silk then Permagloss, wrap a guide over . John

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