OK, all. I finished my first fly rod: a 9-foot, 5-weight Five Rivers FT from Dan Craft.

How did it turn out? I'd give the worksmanship about a C-. I'm sure it'll fish like a dream, but it's not a rod I would buy or put up for sale, so I'm going to keep it as my "practice" rod.

Lessons learned:

1) When reaming or otherwise handling the grip, wrap it in cling wrap or some other covering to preserve the new, pale look of the high-quality cork. The cork grip looks as if I had been fishing the rod for a couple seasons, and I've barely taken it outside yet.

2) Don't try to finish more than 4 or 5 wraps with each single mixing of wrap finisher. I mixed up a bunch of lite build finisher, and "powered through" all 10 guides, ferrule wraps, and butt wrap. By the time I got to the 3rd section, the epoxy was starting to become thicker and wasn't leveling out. As a result, my tip section guides look very pregnant with a ton of epoxy on each wrap.

3) After fine-tuning the guide feet, paint them back to the original color. After wrapping and then finishing the guides, the bright metal of the filed guide feet started showing through the translucent wraps.

I'm having trouble posting pictures to the Rodboard member gallery (can anybody help with that?), so I've included links to a couple pictures (Note: I only have one coat of lite-build on there until I can figure out how to salvage the rod...any ideas would be very appreciated):











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Picture 1: View of the butt wraps. Gudebrod size A thread (light gray and red...in honor of my alma mater, WSU...Go Cougs!)

Picture 2: Closeup of the butt wraps showing the hook keeper feet shining through. Any ideas on how to minimize this?

Picture 3: 9-months pregnant and bubbly tip wrap. How would you fix this?

Picture 4: Closeup of stripper guide. Notice guide feet shinging through.

Picture 5: Closeup of rod information. BTW...this thing casts like an electrified cat...very quick to load (and unload), so you better be on your toes at all stages of the cast.

I like the colors, Brian. I'm a Coug as well, although I've only moved 8 miles away to Moscow...

I think you did a very nice job wrapping for your first rod. As for the hook keeper and stripping guide feet shining through, did you use a color preserver product? If you didn't, the wraps will tend to be translucent. The pregnant tip wrap seems like a case of over-application of finish. Nice work. I wish my first rod had looked that nice.

Jake

Jake Smulkowski Wrote:
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> I'm a Coug as well,
> although I've only moved 8 miles away to
> Moscow...
>
You and the previous Cougar defensive coordinator... :) :) :)

LOL.

Brian

You can slice the pregnant finish down with a new razor. If you have some way to turn the tip top, lightly sand with increasingly finer grades of sandpaper to blend, and apply a light coat of fresh finish to blend the old to the new.

It looks as if you put to much finish on the tip and not enough on the guide wraps. It appears that some of your wraps are showing through the finish on the guides. What I's do is "fillet" the preganant areas down as close as you can get to the thread and put another light coat over the tip and guides.

The cork can be sanded down with a light sandpaper and will look new again. After that you caould seal with cork seal of tru oil to preserve it's natural look.

I would treat this as a repair and get it done quicklyl

1. Remove wrapping and finish on tip and redo with less finish. You can easily
redo in less time than sanding cutting and taking a chance of messing up the
blank.

2. Go back on the guides that do not have enough finish - lightly scotch brite and add another coat.

3. Use a toothpick or dental pick and get some finish in the guide tunnels and be sure the end
of the thread on the inside of the double foot guides is covered - keep water out.

4. You know your finishing problems and they are easily fixed.

5. Now fish it hard and see if you build quality is the way you want from a performance
standpoint.

Your rod looks fine for the first one - fish it and get all in the can before you start number two.

Looks a whole lot better than MY first rod. Take pride in what you've done and learned...and you'll find it to be most fishable!

gary

I wouldn't worry about the guide feet shining through the wrap. Many use black guides and never bother to put black back on the areas that are ground in preparation. I don't bother to on my own and have never heard any criticism or mention of it. I agree with Mr. Stevens about re wrapping guides that have excessive epoxy. In my experience it is easier to remove and replace than to attempt to remedy with slicing and sanding.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

Yea,
The finish issues are easily remidied! If you got the itch to fish it go ahead!
The extra epoxy may slow the performance down a tad but you should be
able to get a good idea weather you built it ok. If any issues pop up durring
use you can address them when you remove the guides that are overly epoxied
to wrap them again.

If you try the sanding rout to remvove the excess epoxy cover the exposed blank
near the guides with masking tape so you won't scratch it up by mistake!

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

i like the filed feet showing through look. it shows workmanship has been accomplished.

individual threads showing through the first coat of finish is near perfect as far as i'm concerned. it's the second thin coat which will cover the ridging. that's how i do it. thin coats, 2 in all. and the thread's edging shows through on the first coat, although the thread IS covered.

how long did it take you from the point you mixed the finish to when you started the first guide foot and to the point you reached the end (tip top)? it shouldn't take very long per guide foot, but the speed and craftsmanship comes with practice.

eric
fresno, ca.

Good job Brian,,,A lot of folks like the translucent effect, especially with the guides you used. I agree with Bill and Ray. Take the tip wrap off and redo it. And as Ray said, be sure to tape the rod to prevent accidental scratching. Good coat of CP will stop the translucent effect on your next one If you dont like it. Seems like you got to use CP on everything but black thread, or thats been my experience.

Good job for your first one.
jbh

Brian, first of all, don't be too hard on yourself. Your first rod looks better than my tenth.

Second, I won't be able to improve on the advice above, but I will pass on one tip that has worked well for me. Go to a costume shop and pick up a couple of bottles of black nail polish (you can try to find it in a beauty supply store, but they usually don't carry black). After you're done grinding the feet, cover the grinded and exposed portions with the black nail polish. It'll look like new, and the silver metallic color won't bleed through your wraps.

Othewise, stay with what you're doing -- especially your attention to detail. You'll be doing better work than me in no time!

I agree with Chris. You need to decide what really bothers you about the translucence. Is it the color of the wraps, or is it the guide feet shining through. I personaly like the translucent wraps and sometimes color the feet black to blend in with the color of the blank so they are not seen. That is to say if the blanks is black. One thing to mention about the advice to use CP to prevent the translucent effect, is that if you choose to use it, the thread will pretty much look the same as it did prior to adding finish. It will seal the threads preventing the finish from penetrating and darkening the thread. Just advice from another beginner. Hope it helps.

TJ