Hi Guys,
Debated for a while on whether to post this but there is a couple of things that might help some people and some stuff I've needed to get off my chest for a while. A lot of years ago my eldest son, who was also a keen fisherman, came over for a visit and the topic got to fishing and rods as usual. I mentioned that it was about time I built myself a 50lb game rod, come Christmas and I get a nice 50lb blank for a present. At the time I had just gone back to college and the work required for that was fairly large. I was also secretary of the local sportfishing club as well as writing and publishing the monthly newsletter. My youngest son was into playing rugby league, a game similar to your gridiron, and as no one else was interested guess who got elected as coach. Also got roped into serving on the junior league commitee as well as working in the canteen every weekend during the footy season. My life was full up to the eyeballs and I barely had time to wet a line let alone build a rod. He knew how busy I was but kept asking if I'd started to build the rod, to which he got a sheepish no. He and his girlfriend finally decide to get married, so he and his mates go out to celebrate and on his way home mananges to get himself hit by a car, gets killed, leaving two young boys without a father and the rest of the families devestated. For a lot of years I couldn't even look at that blank let alone do anything with it. About 18 months ago I ordered the bits for it and started to build it. The gimbal, grips and reelseat went on without a problem. After some static testing I was ready to bind. Did the underbindings for the first three guides when I noticed some dark stripes in the underbindings, checked the spool and found the end of it had a lot of dirty marks on it. After a bit of swearing I started to take them off. Got one off when I thought to myself "what's Madeira thread?, embroidery thread to be used on clothes that need to be washed." Had nothing to loose so got some warm water, liquid soap and a tooth brush and washed and rinsed the underbindings. Next day they were all clean and looked good so if you get dirty thread you can clean it. Don't know how that would work on rodbuilding thread but I've done it a few times since on Madeira with very good results. When I started binding again I had more things go wrong and made more stupid mistakes than would happen on twenty rods. Couldn't focus properly as my mind was elsewhere. Put that rod in the corner of the workshop more times than I care to remember. Built heaps of other rods without many problems including my youngest sons 20lb game rod, which was wrapped with a similar design to the other rod. Had no problems with this one so I went back to it. Things continued to go wrong and it was like he was watching and was upset that it had taken me so long to build it or he didn't like the colours that my wife picked. Fortunately it's a short rod and there was no room for a butt wrap as who knows what sort of mess I'd make if I had to do one. Finally got all the bindings finished but I was terrified that there would be all sorts of problems with the finish so I left it in the corner for another couple of months before I worked up the courage to put finish on it. Fortunately two coats went on without any problems and its now finished, only took me about twenty months to build it. All that's left now is to see if this old farts body has got what it takes to use stand up 50. Think I'd better dust off the harness and re-adjust it because if I manange to hook anything decent on it I think I'm going to need it. It didn't turn out quite as good as I'd hoped but no matter what I'll love using it. Will post a few pics in my file.
PLEASE NO SYMPATHY REPLIES as I hope I'm past that and I'm sure enough of you guys have lost people close to you and realise how hard it is to deal with. Appologies for the length of the post but it was never an easy topic.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

From one old fart to another......a good harness makes all the difference. Things have come a long ways and choices are personal. You really need to find a good shop with a selection. One who will take the time to fit you up correctly and explain pros/cons of each. It isn't the easy choice it once was.

There was a post a few months back with some good info on them, including name brands.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.