This is a follow-up to the Custom Rod Market Thread.

I am a hobbyist rod builder. I have built about 50 rods over the past two years. About half have been for personal use and half have been for others that I have built for free or barter. I have sold maybe a dozen on @#$%& to partially recoup some of my expenditures. I rarely cover the costs of materials. I advertise them as "custom". I have no desire to give custom rod builders a bad name or detract from their business.

If I don't call them custom, what should I call them? Handmade? Hand Assembled? Any other suggestions?

Handcrafted

William, if you designed and built them yourself, didn't copy factory rods, you should call them custom if you wish. Like Tom said in one of the Rodmaker articles on pricing rods, pricing does vary for many reasons, including skill. If you are pricing your rods according to your skill, I see no reason not to call them custom, so go for it.

Good Luck,
Marc

Custom, implies that you have built the rod to a customers specifications. Though a rod built by you, to your own specifications, and for your use is also a custom rod. In the case you describe perhaps Handcrafted might be better.

William,

Regardless of what you choose to call them, I don't think you're the type of builder who gives the craft or other builders a bad name. I strongly suspect that part of the conversation was really aimed at folks who do shoddy work and thus bring down the entire image of custom rod building as a whole.

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

I like it when people say that a rod is custom only if it is built to a customer's specifications. I build rods for a living. My customers pick out the components and specify how they want the rods built. One of my customers is Lamiglas Rods another is Burkheimer Rods. Can I call the rods I build to their specs custom? Sometimes I build rods for people that don't know exactly what they want and leave a lot of the specifications up to me. Since these rods are made mostly to my specs does that mean that they are not custom but the rods I build for Lamiglas and Burkheimer are? To the rod factories if they change the color of the thread but keep everything else to factory specs or just put your name on it they call it custom. The definition of custom is open to interpretation. Saying they are not custom but handcrafted is a term that means nothing, all rods, factory and custom, are handcrafted. Call your rods what you want.

I agree with Jim Upton except I'd expand it to say that its build to a customers specifications or for a specific customer.
I've come up with this based on the definitions of custom in the dictionary
if you call it custom its not sweat off my back, fact of the matter is, most people consider a custom rod if its not "off the shelf".

A couple months ago, I had Decal Connection make up my rod labels. Considering this discussion, it's ironic and kinda humorous that my label says:

Performance Team Rods
Handcrafted Customs

I knew I was addicted, but am I also "conflicted" as a rodbuilder or what? :-)

William...

I know what I'm about to say may ofend some people, I hope it doesn't, butI MHO you call them what you like. I think custom is very fitting since you built the rod regardless specifications. I think the difference between custom and handcrafted is sematics and it's cutting hairs.

And more power to ya for wanting to make a buck or two in the meantime. God bless Capitalism and the USA.

Respectfully,
Paul

What is your definition of "custom" then I guess that will answer part of your question.

Been building rods since 1985 and don't have any idea how many have passed through my hands in that time. I am pretty sure that none have ever been "labeled" as custom, but each has been identified as built by me. If the fit & finish of a build is good enough for me that's all that really matters. Frankly, I could care less what anyone else wishes to call the rods I build or how they perceive its impact on the overall public view of "custom" rods. Do what you like, build as you see fit and call em whatever makes you happy. The views and opinions of folks on an internet message board means very little. When others start paying my bills, then I may start paying attention to their opinions on my work and the difference between custom, handcrafted or any other label.

If it is a hobby for you, it ought to be fun and don't ever let anyone who's a "professional" rod builder take that away from you!

"I rarely cover the costs of materials"

There is the problem. I have never inspected your rods so I can't speak to you directly but there are dozens of other rod builders currently peddling they're products on @#$%& and other on line markets. Some are good some are shameful. If you are doing shoddy work your damaging the reputation of the craft by calling the junk "custom" , if you are doing great work and selling to the highest bidder at a loss, you are even more damaging to the trade because now you just made it more difficult for every other builder , hobby or pro, to sell his rods at a valued price. More and more often we have to spend time justifying the prices we charge to customer because of "I saw a rod just like this sell on @#$%& for XXXdollars, why are you charging XXXX dollars?" It's all great to try and make the guy feel better and give the old "do what makes you happy" pep talk, but in all reality selling a hand crafted item to the highest bidder and many times at a loss, is damaging to all of us and shame on you if you can't grasp the concept.

my .02 cents.

I am green and probably don't earn the respect of many on this board, however, I do have my own opinion as many....... They are custom IMHO. They are not factory, they are not all the same as far as color wrap etc, they are made individually and customized to someone's standard regardless...... that is probably custom.

That being said.... custom doesn't mean jack...... because any yahoo can build a rod and call it custom. I recently went to a boating/fishing store on the coast and saw a bunch of rods in various sizes and the guy told me they were "custom" made by someone locally to the store's specs. They were only $39.00, solid glass blanks with stainless guides. They store has a 20lb lead ball you can pick-up with a demo rod to show you how strong they are, and I actually picked up the ball and the thing was doubled over. It was very heavy as it was a solid glass blank. The wrapps and finish looked horrible IMHO, but for $39.00 what do you expect??

Second story, my friend bought a "custom" rod off of @#$%& for a cheap price that you can barely buy the components for..... maybe it was one of yours? Do you make and sell Seekers? Well the first time we fished it after a couple of fish the foregrip was separated from the epoxy at the base of the thread wrap. Whoever built this rod obviously needs a lesson in applying rod bond to a grip and installing it correctly. Measure before you install and return it to it's original length, secondly make sure it fits the blank.... I think it did not have enough of the bonding agent and he used a 5/8" when he should have used a 1/2" so you had a nice snug fit and bond......

Then there was the custom rod builder that was on the long range fishing trip I went on and one of his rods that another angler was using and the but cap fell off to expose a big ball of masking tape??? Brand new rod should not fall apart..... it looked like he didn't even use anythin but tape not bond.....

Custom does not mean quality and unfortunitely there will always be a small group that confuses the two. There is custom jewelry, custom art, custom cars etc..... most of us all think we are great, I have met many people who do a hobby or art of some sort that was not near as good as he or she thought......

Call mine what you want, but I go for quality and longevity!

The customer decides on what - I build them - they are all personalized - my name or logo never never appears on them - the paying customer has the right of naming type of the rod and defining personalization - depending on circumstances they have been called everything in the book - if someone far off has one and it breaks the thing I hope they find you before they locate me for a repair or replacement! To me the big deal is getting a good rod in a fisherman's hands and has very little to do with what it may happen to be called.

Ditto ! Robert Smith !!!

Hand Crafted sounds appropriate but how 'bout you call them what you want - you made em.

I've seen so called "custom" rods on @#$%& and have never actually seen a bid on one!

However - I get irritated when people infer that only a rod sold for a profit can be worthy of admiration and a "custom" moniker. I build for myself, friends, family. For myself, every rod I build, I sell to myself at cost :-), for family it's for cost of materials, for friends, it's basically the same, but with a bit added in to support my "habit" :-) Each rod I build is for designed for the particular angler and for the application they will be using that rod for. I use good quality componentry, and sound construction techniques to maximize each rod's performance - aesthetics are also important, but run towards the spartan side of things - I don't do deco wrapping, I just don't care for it. I do enjoy custom handle work and believe it can be aesthetically pleasing as well as performance enhancing - so I incorporate it into my work. Are my rods custom? You are darn right they are, and I label each one (thank you Decal Connection) as "Custom Built for Joe Smith".

However - selling a rod on @#$%& and labeling it custom? That's not a custom rod, don't label it as such. It's not semantics, it's not splitting hairs, and it is important even on an internet message board. And if you don't see the value in the definition of custom, then why are you building rods in the first place?

Truthfully, I would label them as handmade or handcrafted rods.

There, I probably irritated BOTH sides of this conversation now :-)

Maybe they should just be called : "ASSEMBLED RODS" since they are just parts that are assembled why bring in custom, handcrafted, handmade, etc... they are assembled. All of them are assembled rods.

Maybe "Custom" is in the eyes of the beholder. I've only built 13 rods now, only two of them for myself. I try to decorate them up some, but I don't consider them "custom", but all the people that have one of my other rods do consider them custom and are proud of them. So what does it really matter what they are called. If you are fortunate enough to have a hand built rod, or have the skills to build one, then you should be able to call it anything you like.

Good Wraps..
Russell C.
Bastrop,Tx.

99.9% of the public call a rod "custom" if it does not have a factory logo etc. on it. Jesse