Forum: rodboard

These are pool cues built by Jim Stadum and Dave Doucett of Samsara Cues, world renown cue makers. I can just see someone using this tecnique on fishing rods.
Forum: rodboard

Dick French gave me a set of these back in the 80's when they were plentiful. This set is on the prototype Rhino Rod for Zebco.
Forum: rodboard

This is the patented double triggered reel seat I sold to Zebco in 1987 and later became the RHINO ROD available in every K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Sports Authority across the country. Too bad I didn't accept the royalty deal instead of front money. Can't look back and it was fun at the time.
Forum: rodboard

These rods were made for Gordon Houser and Dick Genth who was president of Donzi Boats in Miami. Late 1980's. They sported a weave of the Donzi Logo.
Forum: rodboard

The zebra wood was not the best choice in handles. It had too much open grain, was sort of oily and hard to finish. I only made a few because of this.
Forum: rodboard

Just more of the different combinations used in handle construction. The diamondwood was easy to work with and didn't require a finish like the natural woods, plus it looked and felt great.
Forum: rodboard

I like to use the combination of diamondwood and custom grip. It gave new looks and feel to the handle. The wooden handle seemed to better transmit the vibrations to your hand when worming for bass. At least thats what I told the guys buying the rods. The all seemed to agree.... ;-) Sensitivity was the magic word for the bass fisherman
Forum: rodboard

There were many different variations to the single thread wraps and this is one of them. I actually did a couple pool cue with this wrap and created a little excitement in the industry. I will post a pic of the cues later on.
Forum: rodboard

By this time in my career, I was grabbing for straws to do something a little different. I could tell I was running out of ideas and when that happens you know the time is getting near to move on to something else.
Forum: rodboard

The diamondback and whitesnake wraps became very popular in the early 80's. Whith the trims it gave a new and different meaning to butt wraps.
Forum: rodboard

Sorry the pic is not the best quality.
Forum: rodboard

This handle was made for the Fuji Graphite baitcaster frame and could be made for right or left handed casters. I would have the caster make his hand grip in clay and then transfer the dimensions by carving the teak handle. Personally, I prefered the rubberized grip that came with the handle but this is all about custom rod building to suit the buyer.
Forum: rodboard

This checkerboard seat was for a spinner but most of the request were for fly seats.
Forum: rodboard

I had an old 9" Southbend lathe that turned most of the wooden parts and a high speed wood lathe to do the custom grip.
Forum: rodboard

Cork looks great when it's new. but most fishermen I know never took very good care of it. Pretty soon it looked pretty ratty. ;-)
Forum: rodboard

Storm Boats were and still are considered the premier bass rig and Burt Crowell commissioned me to make some rods to match the muriel painted on the front consol. I loved challenges like this and everyone was happy. It was on the cover of some boating magazine in the 80's but forget which one.
Forum: rodboard

Mr. Roberts, Lawrence,KS was the inovator of this design. Some called it the spiral wrap. I think the spacing between the original design was about 4" but I tried a lot of different spacing and I think they all worked pretty well. I always like this design on baitcasters and built around 30.
Forum: rodboard

A variation of this is used in many different designs
Forum: rodboard

One of my customers had just spent a ton of money on a set of worm rods and to smooth things over, he had this one made for his wife. What could she say?
Forum: rodboard

Here's a couple different style hosels that were popular in the late 1970's. About 75% of my customers were bass fisherman and they liked the glitz. I don't think its very important today.
Forum: rodboard

I did about 20 of these handles in the late 70's for top water bass fisherman. You wanted to make sure you didn't have any fish slime on your hands before casting....LOL. Actually, they felt quite secure in your hands with the carved finger grip.
Forum: rodboard

My technique for this is listed on pages 58-59 of "CUSTOM ROD THREAD ART" bu Dale Clemens. This type of wrap is hard to look at and I really was never that fond of it.
Forum: rodboard

Anyone ever tried to do one of these? I did several spinning rods back in the 1980's with the single foot Fuji guides actually coming out of the center of the diamonds. They received a lot of attention at the time.
Forum: rodboard

These were the first rods I made for Paul Elias who was sponsored on the tour by Zebco. He was known for his "kneel n' reel" technique that won him a Bassmaster Classic tournament. Notice the double triggered reel seat which I hold a patent on and later sold the rights to Zebco. Yep, you guessed it right....it became the Rhino Rod available in every K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Sports A
Forum: rodboard

These wraps were very popular in the 80"s and really looked nice on the larger rods. It showed the spread wings nicely.
Forum: rodboard

Or as my good friend and developer, Joy Dunlap use to call them plaids...
Forum: rodboard

Not sure on the exact date but my memory says this set of rods were made for a guide in the Florida keys in the early 1980. I found several albums that I had forgotten about til just recently. Hope you enjoy.
Forum: rodboard

This is another of my handles made back in th 80's. I have been away from rodbuilding since 1993 but still have an interest.
Forum: rodboard

This is from one of the rods I made back in the 80's for a good customer here in Florida. Thanks for looking
Forum: rodboard