Is it just me having bad luck finding components, or is there really a shortage? Guides and tip tops in particular are driving me crazy. ( I know… short drive.)
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Thank you for the info.
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The late Johnny Kuehn of Angler’s Roost had an informative web catalog and was a very interesting guy to talk to for bamboo beginners. If you asked the right questions, or perhaps in the right way, he was willing to give detailed help. I miss him. Has anyone come along in recent times to fill the void by organizing, explaining and offering the offshore beginner level bamboo blanks in one eas
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I am down to my last 1/2 bottle of Casons non water based CP. Great stuff for silk, Madiera, black thread and as a fast drying 'glue' for two thread trim bands. What might be a similar product? I'm familiar with the usual water based white CPs. Thanks,
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Yea!
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Hex shaped winding checks are one option available to transition from cork to blank. When using a round winding check, the gap can largely be obscured with a trim thread wrap up against the check, or one end of the winding for a hook keeper started directly ahead of the winding check. The residual gap is very minimal with either of the last two methods. Proceed with caution as playing
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I experience the same problem, so I run my wrap a couple pattern repeats longer than I actually want it to be. Then tie down the wrap before I get to the troublesome repeats.
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Would these guides be too heavy for use on a 6'6" 2 Wt fly rod? I don't want to put good looks ahead of function.... Thanks,
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When I ship rods south to the lesser 48, I put them in a pvc tube inside the cardboard box. Cuz after 40 years of having stuff shipped up here, and seeing what condition things arrive in, ya don't really trust any shipper.
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I have round rod making pretty well figured out and have now built four bamboo fly rods on blanks from a sponsor to the left. They have been a great and affordable 'foundation to learn from'. I have been searching the internetwebatron for blanks that are more expensive and hopefully higher quality now that I know more about what to look for than the $150 blanks, but not as expensive as the hi
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Good idea. The thread spirals off the foot to make a trim ring, but I can score right at the beginning on the spiral as I have a great thread match, and with cp it ought to blend well. Thanks for the tip.
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I have a bamboo rod to spruce up. Brought home by a friend's GI dad after WWII. The rod has a very nice but beginning to flake paint (lacquer?) finish. Tho the thread is dried out and needing to redone for the missing guides, the paint comes off with the thread. Any ideas how to encourage the thread to let go leaving the paint intact? Thanks,
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Donald, I hear the wisdom in your message. Bill, thanks for the link. Gary, I will go to work straightening with a hair drier. The rod came to me with some parts removed, some parts missing and some initial varnish scraping already done. The poor old rod has nothing to lose by becoming a learning tool! Thank you all, BR
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I am playing with a 'restoration' of a bamboo rod, just to have the chance to play with a bamboo rod. More a learn on the fly than an actual restoration. The question is, on the tip section, there is enough twist that the tip top and first guide at the ferrule appear to be twisted one flat side out of true. Do I move the guide over one flat to make it look good or attach it where it belongs?
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True story!
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A tip I learned from this site is to wrap turns of masking tape around the male section right at the junction to catch any accidental epoxy overflow that might 'glue' the sections together. After you have done a few and your confidence builds you will likely eliminate this step.
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Thanks for the detailed answer. Perfect! Love this site and the knowledge folk who share.
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I picked up the 50% off blank to play with but know nothing about the double handed rod world. Should I build this blank with a Spey grip or with a switch grip? Thanks for your help!
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Very Cool. Next year I gotta go!
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I reuse the little plastic mixing cups when mixing up new batches. Seems like there ought to be a use for the hardened epoxy. Too soft for making grips from, but are there any good ideas out there?
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I have made maybe 15 dec wraps that turned out successfully and another 10 that looked like a dog's breakfast! Was rather lost at first. Reading on this site was very helpful. Buying Billy Vivona's book from a sponsor to the right was a real help in my over all understanding.
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Thank you Raymond. A very helpful answer I think. If I understand, the top pattern starts at 1.0. The bottom at 0.5. The side patterns to fit in between would start at 0.25 and 0.75. Am off to give it a try.
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Making my first multi-sided wrap. I understand the 0 and 180 centering / taper adjustment measurements. For the 90 and 270 chevron, does that share the same measurements or is there an initial offset for that different from the 0 and 180? Seems odd the top and one side would match and ditto the bottom and opposite side. Thanks for the help.
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Is wonderful.
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Thank you for your replies. What a great site- personal attention from the best of the best! It is much appreciated.
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I have a persistent flaw in my dec wraps. I have Billy's book and can make great pinwheels and spiders.... except for how the spider or pinwheel centers wander off the center line mark on the blank toward the thread carriage. At first I used a white thread with pencil dots to mark the center as I didn't trust myself to permanently mark the blank. Now that I do know wraps will close, I do scri
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First learned this trick from this site... Go to the fingernail paint section at the store and pick up orange wood cuticle pusher sticks. Fabulous for thread work. Reshape the working edge with sandpaper from time to time. They last forever. Perfect for burnishing, packing and general thread fussing around!
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Golden Retriever tail hair twisted into thread for trim.
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I had one of these blanks near a window for display cuz it turned out so purty. Noticed after a year without moving it that the sunny side was not very pink.. well on the way to all white. But I chalk that up to being my fault for not seeing it coming.
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Cason' s says it is flammable so probably not water based. St. Croix blank. I am sorry I wasn' t more clear. I was trying to avoid sounding like I was bashing products as I like both. I was rather startled tho..
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