Made two recently, first was wrapped in dark green with CP with silver trims and a green and silver reel seat on 9ft 8wt. It looked suprisingly sharp. Second was Chestnut with cp, two turns of gold in the beginning of the wrap and one turn of black 6 turns prior to the end. This is more of a subtle eye catcher. good luck
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Wow- I guess I will quit now! The little guy does good work and grandpa gives good guidance! Good Job.
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I was thinking of painting a blank to look like our native spawning brook trout(fire red, dark purple, dark green, and med gold worm patterns). Then wrapping in the same colors to blend in. Painting the guides and reel seat to match, then getting an anodized reel done in the same color scheme. Man, that would be the loudest thing on ths stream that the fish may run and hide!!! Not that they don'
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IMO- losing heritage and history are as important as losing the rods to production overseas. The high prices these rods demand are in relation to the skill of the craftsmen who build them. I would not expect to charge anyone those prices unless they were buying the skill and the knowledge of those craftsmen in there unique finished product. I do not believe that this decades worth of skill can b
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From what I can tell most builders make rods to fish with first and foremost. This is there intended purpose and are only useful as a tool in this respect. How you arrive at the final fishing tool is part craftmenship and part art. I have some ugly rods that fish poorly and some pretty rods that fish great and vice versa. In my limited experience and opinion it doesn't seem probable that most bu
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I too build mostly fly rods for short casts as Jim also mentioned. I feel that by not test casting a rod I would be doing a great injustice to my skill as a caster or for the friends I make my rods for. I understand the different casts that I must make while fishing and there are many! What I am at a loss to figure is how a different cast is going to make the line flow out of the guides any diff
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Seems a bit of a long shot to me. I use 6x tippet all the time with 2-4 wt rods and have never put enough pressure in them to break a blank. I have however broken lots of tippets on fish, rocks, trees etc. The only one I have seen broken was on a hang up on a rock, it was a 2 wt I made for a friend. He said he only flexed it about half way down and it snapped. Then I remember him telling me that
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The farther you place you butt guide away from the reel the less steep of an angle the line has to make on the way up the the guide, usually this gets you a little smoother line flow out. The closer then the line has more of an angle to contend with. Do as Billy says and test cast that bad boy, moving it a couple inches forward or back and you will soon find the ideal position for you to cast an
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I use the timing motors off of surpluscenter.com I have 3 dryers motor set-ups 2-4rpm and 1-18 rpm. For the motors and the wiring for the 3 about $25. You could make a single motor set up for probably $10 max. Use the same PVC chuck as all have mentioned before.
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I agree- Tom book is good for beginning. It sets you up for success.
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I build only fly rods and also use metallic trim a lot. Most people love it if you stay classy with it. On my own rods I have used only metallic, but I march to the beat of a different drummer girl. The gunmetal with no cp will turn a medium gray, on a dark blank. It won't stay that bright silvery color you see in the catalogs. I did a rod finished with garnet and gunmetal trim, no cp and it
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It would be great for the guys around here who catfish at night. Most guys here paint the rod tips with reflective sign paint. Not pretty like a little lED light. Plus the rods aren't excatly high performance so little would be lost by way of the battery and wires....Some of those old catters are stuck in there ways though!
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Berkley used to put a little book with there spinning rods that said, "No Ninety" on it and talked about not putting the road butt more than 90 degrees to the line. So what did it do? Got hung up on a rock and decided to test the books correctness with some 20 lbs braided line(way more than the rod was rated for). I buried the rod butt on my hip and leaned back hard on it. It flexed and
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I like to move my rod supports closer together and use lighter tension on the thread and it works, even for little flimsy 1 and 2 weights. Is it easy? Not as easy as wrapping the guides closer to the butt, BUT that is the nature of the beast. I also have extra supports that can be used to brace the rest of the rod. I stunk at it for a while but practice and with each rod the tip wraps will look
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Gatti makes a 11 ft 9 wt 3 piece in there progressve action rod series model number FR119-3PA. It's spendy though.
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Be careful if it has a screw in removeable fighting butt if you mount the butt to the cap it will not let the screw in fighting butt fully seat without running into the blank. Dry fit the piece first them glue. I actually do enjoy learning the hard way : )
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Happy Birthday Tom. Many wishes for today and into the future. Jason
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Like Eric I found it to be longer. I usually wait at least 12 hours to apply the second. I will do the first in the evening and the other in the morning. Got to work. Come home at lunch and the dryer is ready to be turned off. Since you are applying such thin coats you maybe OK, but I usually have no rush so I choose to wait. But Billy is right about the colder temps, I wait a bit longer whe
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I often use only one coat of FC lite on lighter flyrods 0-4 weights. I just make sure the tunnels are filled first. After I apply the coat to the thread and usually to the point of a good sag then remove the excess, turn over 180 let sag and remove in the same fashion- then let it turn. Haven't had a issue and the wraps come out glassy without too much weighty buildup.
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Bill- yours are underpriced because you are going to saving all that money using snakes guides like Orvis instead of those peformance hampering SIC guides. Pass the savings along to the consumer!
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Eijiro- I have noticed that also, interesting! No sure if they are dead or not. I am guessing they probably do a bang up job with the fish. I highly doubt the lovely Nancy in her sparkling clean Orvis Silver Labels and Battenkill vest caught the big brown fresh from the river........ My funny story from Orvis involves a young boy(whose dad had too much money) about 12 yrs old with his brand
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I use tru oil and it only darkens regular cork a little, like Mike said burl is a different story. Last night I did a cork grip in minwax polyshades, it was a pecan color and darkened the grip to match the brown blank and chestnut wraps, put 2 light coats of tru oil over that...turned out quite nice.
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Two turns not intergrated into the wrap I use a nail knot and a dab of cp to hold. Two turns in the trim I put in the piece 4-5 turns after the wrap has begun and just hold it along side the main color until two full turns are completed then wrap back down the blank covering the trim tag. Takes a little practice but it easy once you get the hang of it.
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I like the FC arbors, they work great for fly reel seats. I just use one piece and glue it in the reel seat prior to reaming. They are very light and I can't imagine the you would be able to tell a difference in weight between the two when mounted to the rod.
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Sounds like you need to place your rod supports closer together? Even with a 0 weight rod you shouldn't be snapping them while wrapping.
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I use MicroSol and MicroSet and no more cloudy decals. I just follow the instructions off of decalconnection.com.
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Being a novice also one thing I learned so far is to mix the proper amount every time. Epoxy is relatively cheap so it is not wise to risk screwing up all your time and effort for a small 'cheap' batch of epoxy.
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Good info Jim- I usually only make light fly rods sot his is handy, thanks for the work you put in on this.
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All the debating aside. I build mostly light weight spring creek type rods for myself and always use single foot ceramics or light wire single foot guides. I must say for my own preferences and style of casting the single foot ceramics are probably the best casting out of the two. I have rods with traditional snakes on them and they in my opinion are junk.
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LOL Billy- that was pretty dang funny. Sounds like in a few months she needs to get you a supply of blanks and components to match that new "metal thingy that makes fishing rods."
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