Hi,

I'm new to rod building and seeking advice on the best way to get custom text onto a rod blank. I am planning on building mostly for others, so I would like to add text such as "Custom Built for John Smith" and messages of the like. I really think they add a personal touch. My question is what is the best way to achieve this? My first build I bought a decal from mudhole and it worked well, but it cost like $10 or something, and having to order one and wait for it to ship is another inconvenience.

I've done some reading on this forum and some suggest writing these messages on the blank with specialty pens. I'd love the convenience of having the ability to write whatever I want on whatever rod I like at any time. But I haven't looked too much into it and I'd be worried my handwriting would be so atrocious that I wouldn't be able to make it look presentable.

If you have experiences with adding messages such as this to custom rods and have any advice, suggestions, or past experiences to share I'd love to hear them and learn more about this.

Thanks

Chris,
If you have poor hand writing - use the services of a good friend with excellent hand writing - if you want script on the rod. Then, just use acrylic ink and a pen and nib to do the job.

If you don't have access to a hand that does good writing buy a printer and make your own labels.

Or, just have a logo made and order a hundred labels at one time.

Thanks,

Do you have any preferencess for ink, pen, and nib? What brands/styles, colors, sizes, etc should I be looking at?

Chris,
From your post, I could not tell if you are against the decal approach. I too have used MudHole for one-off decals and bulk decals with my logo as well. While the quality was OK, the price was high and the shipping time pathetically unacceptable. There is an immensely better choice concerning quality, price and prompt shipping = DECAL CONNECTION!!! They are a site sponsor to the left. They have numerous fonts from which to choose to aid it making the decal look custom (MudHole only has three), they can do color decals (MudHole only offers white, gold and silver), it is very neatly and closely trimmed so you don’t have to (MudHole’s is not), the actual decal sheet is thinner which assists one coat coverage of thread finish (MudHole’s is thicker), their shipping is very prompt at 3-4 days (shipments from Mudhole can take as long as two weeks), they are very knowledgeable, pleasant, and accommodating (MudHole, yah, right!) and if that isn’t enough, Decal Connection’s single decal price is 40% less than MudHole!!! Does it sound like I have something against MudHole? Pretty much and for other reasons as well. Does it seem like I am glad I found and totally pleased with Decal Connection? Absolutely YES!!!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I second Decal Connection! I have been dealing with Debbie there for years, and as Mark said, their choices and service are outstanding.

My wife uses a nib pen with PH Martins ink to write on blanks. I can't do it.

Maybe you should have been a doctor or maybe my doctor should have been a rodbuilder.Just kidding,Your handwriting is unique as should be your finished product. Let your customer sign it and you clear coat it. That way it becomes a truly personal rod.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Another vote for Decal Connection, get a set of two different colors. I usually go with white and gold..

Ray Zarychta
Glastonbury, CT

If you need 1 or 2 or so, email me, i can probably help you

Decal Connection x 5. You can also get a Brother label maker like a PT 700 that uses white on clear P Touch cartridges. You are limited to white or black on clear clear tape. You have to mess around with it a little so the edges don't become visible. You can use any kind of font or take a JPEG image and put it on the label. This is about $80 bucks + the cartridge. There is more expensive label printers that have gold and silver letters but they are about 360+. Another alternative is that there are a lot of local print / advertising type shops that do banners and decals that are larger but you can usually have them print some letter or legal size pages with your logos or writings on clear film with an adhesive back . You will need to provide them with your logos or writings on a PDF document type file. I had about 20 legal size pages done for about 30 bucks like this but I still have most of my logos from the Decal Connection.

I have a cricut, it cuts vynl... Ive made multiple logos for my rods, and lettering smaller then a newspaper.. You can use them as a stencil.. Flood them with alcohol ink, seal with permagloss.. I write most things in by hand, but sometimes its beneficial to use the stencil approach.. And it looks great..

I have dozens of labels printed from an ink jet printer, and in the early days, it worked quite well. At some time the ink for Canon printers may have changed because the UV stability of my decals was not good. Nothing compared with the professionally done decals. If you need a bunch of the same, then Decal Connection will work with you and the price is not that bad for a quantity, like a "sheet."

Regarding your atrocious penmanship, do some practice and it will go from atrocious to being "your style," and that has value. Experiment with the pen nibs available at art stores, and the Dr Martin India ink is good, although I've had trouble with the regular variety running with both CP and epoxy, so have to spray with a thin coat of fixative. I've been told that the Dr. Martin iridescent inks do not run, but I have not yet tried them.

I had to "buff" the nibs to keep them from digging into the basecoat of wrap epoxy. It's not that hard.