Hi guys, I bin building rods for about 20 years, I would like to do a feather inlay never did one before. Can someone let me know if there is a Vito to watch or can someone enplane to me on how to do it. Thanks Larry. Tight lines.

Larry

Do a Google search for fishing rod feather inlay and you'll find lots of links to this and other sites on the topic.

Do the same for a YouTube search.

Feather inlays are super cool and relatively easy to do with a little practice. Don't expect to get it perfect the first couple times you try so do a couple practice trials on junk blank or dowel.

Thanks for the info, is there one feather better to use than another.

No. I'm fond of the smaller jungle cock feathers whose size is suitable for mid to light weight fly rods, they require no special cleaning to remove oils, and easy to trim. But there is a world of feathers out there. It's usually a matter of feather size and color.

You need the softer feathers and narrower ones. First to stay wrapped around the blank, and second to fit onto the blank. If you are doing graphite colored blanks, guinea fowl, small peacock "pieces", narrow white "hackle" feathers, and candy apple with black trim wraps look very good.

Many pheasant, including ring neck, feathers look and work very well. Some black and white ones work well with the guinea fowl feathers.

You want to get the max contrast between the blank and the inlay, and light blank colors work out better than dark ones.

Here are some of my early attempts which show how colors work out. [clients.criticalimpact.com]

Michael, Nice work.I am building on a 7 foot MHX rod.Copper in color Thank for your help. tight lines