Okay, so on my first go around. While I felt I had to make some compromises in designing and building my first 2 rods. I still feel like I more or less achieved what I was after. Some of the visuals I was trying to achieve didn't work more due to my lack of experience with doing threads wraps. I can admit I was trying to achieve something that my skill set wasn't quite ready for. I also made a bad estimate on color due to a website image versus in your hand. From a performance stand point however. I achieve what I was after.

Here I am a year later and I know what I want to achieve and once again I'm bouncing threw several different web retailers and I am frankly struggling to find the combination of components to achieve the look/theme I am shooting for. RodGeeks appears to no longer carry the St. Croix I used last time and to be honest. With the great Black Friday deal NFC was offering, I just couldn't pass up the blanks, but like what seems to be the norm on all Blanks anymore. It's black, black, and black.

I have decided to go with a Smokey and the Bandit type theme. Black and Gold. Well, finding the components to achieve my goal, feels like I am moving mountains. Lots of chromes and silvers out there and your typical Blues, Reds, and Greens. I would also like to try something I haven't seen tried, but I am unsure how to achieve that as well.

Now 2 of the rods I am building I am going for sensitivity. Going for either a 2 piece reel seat or reel seat with as much blank exposed as possible. Now I have found several options, but none with a gold hood. I have seen a couple I can get that has a Carbon Fiber thread hider, but the carbon fiber in lays are either red, blue, or silver, but no gold. Finding gold wind checks and even bait keepers seems very available.
As another goal, that may seem different. Is I would like to find either a fore grip handle or correct method of mounting the bait keeper to the thread hider or fore grip instead of the blank.

As far as rob guides go. There all polished chrome, silver, or black. Would love to find some torzite guides that are gold or bronze platted. But I can live with the polished chrome.

Now as far as the handle goes, I would like to find some 2 piece handles with either a flat or gloss black carbon fiber inlay out there like these.
[northforkcomposites.com] with the gold inlays like on these reel seat inserts.
[mudhole.com] Again, I'm striking out.

The 2nd options is the one I wouldn't know how to achieve, but I think would be extremely unique and kewl.
I prefer a 2 piece handle and fighting butt, but I could also go for a 1 piece and I would like to wrap either a sturdy eva or cork in a tan letter close to matching the interior of the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am. I've seen snake skin wraps, but not sure I've seen leather and when I do see the snake skin, it's typically on the blank and not on the handle.

As always. I appreciate the guidance and direction continues to provide. I use my first 2 built rods a lot and get lots of praise on them.

Schneider's to the left is chuck full of black frame gold ring guides and always have been, they also have casting and spinning reel seats with gold accents.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2022 08:55PM by Spencer Phipps.

pac bay makes minima black frame/gold ring guide

ya can look at voodoo rods for matagi metal parts which have gold options and i believe they may have a gold inlayed carbon fiber tube for reel seat hoods.

seen some pics of leather wrapped grips so its doable. or ya could do stacked leather rings like an estwing hammer

If you want gold Titanium guides try Black Creek custom rods, they are one of our sponsors. They can anodize titanium guides different colors, including gold.
[www.backcreekcustomrods.com]
Fuji perfect fit trim components include black and gold as an option.
Norm

You can use a single foot fly guide, about size 6, for a keeper. But I would recommend taping one onto the thread cover or wherever other than the blank you plan to put it to be sure you like it. I've tried all kinds of locations and 180 degrees from the top about an inch in front of the front grip is as good as it gets. Some locations, depending on the keeper design, tend to catch line when fishing.

Light wire fly guides as keepers (in black) tend to disappear from view, very unobtrusive. I would prefer that to gold.

Lots of seats come with black or gunmetal hoods and would fit a black/gold theme very well. Be careful of skeleton seats on spinners as they lack the diameter needed to provide good all day ergonomics.

seaguide makes gold frame guides

I find 2 pc. seats to be very uncomfortable on spinning rods.

Thanks for the mention Norman. Would be glad to help out with custom gold anodized titanium guides - can do them in several shades of gold to match other components.


Norman Miller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you want gold Titanium guides try Black Creek
> custom rods, they are one of our sponsors. They
> can anodize titanium guides different colors,
> including gold.
> [www.backcreekcustomrods.com].
> html#/
> Fuji perfect fit trim components include black and
> gold as an option.
> Norm

some reason cant quote lynn's post...keeps coming up with a banned word..strange.

anyway x 2 on split reel seats for spinning. IDK how anyone can fish with those in comfort.

Spinning reel seat comfort and tennis elbow were 2 of the reasons i got into rod building.

Matt,
I won't discount the obvious - but what were you doing to get "Tennis Elbow"?

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Matt,
> I won't discount the obvious - but what were you
> doing to get "Tennis Elbow"?

roger
should probably call it carpenter/fishermans elbow. lol

im a carpenter by trade and id say years of estwing hammers tends to trash an elbow. when its inflamed it affects the tendons running down from elbow into the wrist and hand making holding things like spinning rod grips and hammer handles painful after long hrs. baitcasting rods werent as bad. There were days i had to stop fishing when we were on fish and just run the TM for my buddy on the back of the boat.

turning larger dia. grips/seat inserts for my spinning rods and going to a wooden handled titanium hammer at work helped alot. i also wear a forearm band when it starts up.

First, thanks for the responses. Once I receive my blanks and lock down some of the other components. I believe I will reach out to www.backcreekcustomrods.com to order some colored guides. This is only my 3 through 6 rod builds. So I don't have a lot of the tools to build or make some of the more advanced things I have seen. As such, I am limited on what I can build based on being able to purchase the components to achieve the look I am shooting for.

To cover a few questions, I am building 4 casting rods. While using spinning reels are great for certain techniques and specific applications. I primarily bass fish and rarely use Spinning Rods.

I have used every search term, wording, and phrasing I can think of to attempt to locate away to achieve leather looking handles and fighting butt and gotten no where. Now ironically, I was going for a light tan color for the handles, fighting butt, and for grip/thread hood. While Kitt/Karr from Knight Rider has a lite tan interior, the Smokey and The Bandit Trans Am didn't. It was actually black. However, I still think a light tan color would look nice, but I can't find anything close to achieving the look of leather. Now I am a fan of the look of a gloss carbon fiber Fuji makes a nice looking Carbon Gold Inlay hood cover. But of course, nobody makes a matching handle or fighting butt to match. I have found a picture that represents more or less what I would like to accomplish. Here is the link. [www.resilurecustomfishingrods.co.uk]. But I can't find any other carbon look other than Black, Gun Metal, or Silver.

Any tips or help on find these items would be appreciated. I'd even be willing to pay to have somebody make the parts I'm looking for.

I do have another inquiry. I may go the cork route. I'm not a fan of cork due to how it absorbs skin oils and looks ugly over time. I prefer the feel of EVA/Composite, but I have seen a sealer you can put on cork now. Does it really help with with the life span and over all aged look of the cork from continual use. I have very oily skin and my cork handled rods look like I change oil in vehicles for a living. Does the sealer really help with that.

Tony,
You may be referring to the U40 Cork Seal. While there may be others (Birchwood Casey’s Tru Oil?), it is the only “sealer” that I know of, hence use it on all my cork grips. I will stop short of claiming that it is a cure-all / fix-all to every cork concern, but if it is a U40 product, I trust and employ it nonetheless.

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

Tony, cork will clean up quite easily if you scrub the grip with a llittle dish soap after use. Cork does not absorb! It is a closed cell structure, so all the oil and dirt are on the surface. Cork seal will help but a little clean up diligence is still good.

I wish I could offer you some advice, but I'm new myself - that said for your leather grip idea, could you remove the grip from a golf club and epoxy that onto some cork or carbon grip? I've seen used golf clubs crazy cheap at savers or salvation army.

ALso thanks for sharing that link to that site, I've found a whole new inspiration for building looking at their stuff, freakin crazy and beautiful are some of the rods they have showcased on the site.