Tom; Why not a Special Expo edition of the Rodmaker Magazine; in addition to the regular scheduled edition? I'd buy one in a heartbeat to be used as a reference manual of who does what, and put faces to many of the names with which I am familiar. I'm coming to the next one, if I have to hitch hike.. Bet on it. C2
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I refurbish a lot of rods and one rule that I have is to avoid using sharp bladed instruments as much as possbile. JMHO. C2
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IMHO, sometimes rebuilding or modifying his present rod is the only way to satisfy him. Rebuilding a rod isn't brain surgery by any means. You just have to take care not to create damage. Avoid the use of sharp bladed tools as much as possible. After it's completely torn down and the blank refinished, the process is no different from building a new rod. I wonder why his aversion to Gato
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After some cases of 'fish finger', I devised a method of holding the hook while pulling the rod back into the 'casting' position. I took approximately 6 inches of heavy mono fishing line and tied a bead on one end. I hold the bead between my ring and little fingers then run the line around the hook then hold the end between my thumb and index finger. I pull the rod back then release
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We called it 'sling shot' fishing and is very effective in the holes in the swamp where there really isn't clearance for any cast. Like the poster says, be careful of what you grab hold of to pull the rod back as it it very easy to get a bad case of 'finger-fish'. C2
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Glad the WD-40 worked for you. Funny that the squeak never returns after many rod cleanings. It worked and I just accept it. IMHO; it's the 'old fingernail on the blackboard' phenomena that drove the teacher bonkers. Getting into rod harmonics: Steve Gardner and I 'talked' briefly about this when I mentioned that some rods 'feel good' while others feel discordant. I discovered it while wrap
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I'll go with Spencer on this one. If you can't pull the rod straight with just the weight of the guides, send it back home and ask for something better. JMHO C2
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Steve; I'm sure that your remark was somewhat tongue in cheek, but it's truer than thought. I have sprayed my guides with WD-40 to stop the squeak and it worked(or so I thought). It probably quit by itself but I feel good about it. I use my machine to flex the new builds. They are flexed 20-30 times before the customer sees it. I also turn up the shop radio when delivering. Have a ni
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Tom is right, as usual. Some guides will squeak until used a few times. Resist the temptation to use too much thread tension to try to correct it. This will cause the rod to 'go oval' during stress and invite breakage. I have also found that shortening the guide wraps themselves to just a few turns prior to the beginning of the guide foot helps for some reason. C2
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I have to agree with Tom that it's hard to follow the act if you don't 'take' the program(magazine). I subscribe to the Magazine and am waiting for it to get out here to the wilds of West Florida. I know that it's a long way from NC to Florida and do try to be patient. So far; i have heard about the 'Story Pole; and the decals so have a limited view of 'what's happening'.
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No; Walt; the West Coast of Florida is the last. C2
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I use the line through the guide method. Tighten up the line until the rod is in a slight bow. Check to see where and how the line contacts the guides. Use a brightly colored fly line for this. It makes it so much easier. I got this from Tom Kirkman many years ago. C2
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I may have asked the question wrongly but I'm talking about a long piece of stock which probably extended the length by a few inches, but actually extended up inside the rod blank to stiffen and strengthen it. The rod butt was open for casting but when a fish was on, you jammed this long piece of stock inside the blank. The reason for asking is that I have an old saltwater flyrod used for ta
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I'm confused here(Again; still) I see 'fighting butts' described which are merely butt extensions to get the reel out a bit to aid in reeling. We used to call them 'belly butts' The fighting butts that I'm used to were a long piece of stock that extended inside the blank. It was removed for casting,but when a fish was hooked, it was pushed up inside the rod butt to make it more rigid. I
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High speed photographs reveal that reel upsweep doesn't have that much effect in the first place. The line is already straightening out when it meets the first guide. After passing through the first guide, there is less line movement than was previously thought. Shimano and Daiwa deliberately upswept their reels at 4 degrees to meet the 120cm intersect point for the first and only guide on th
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This happened some time ago when I heard about Tom Kirkman's 27X Method. I decided to compare it using standard methods of locating the intersect point(choker) on a rod. This occurred before my double cataract surgery so measurements may be off a tad. I went out into the shop and took a rod without guides at random and stuck a reel on it. The rod was 96 inches overall. I measured the face
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Delete this post. We were typing at the same time with Vol 6 Issue 5. C2
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I'm waiting rather impatiently to see how Tom has managed to improve on his first. A hard act to follow IMHO. I will buy the book when it becomes available. Put me down for a signed copy C2
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Everyone knows that you can't spiral wrap a surf rod. Right? I heard that until I got sick and tired of it and decided to wrap a surf rod with the wrap. I tried several version transition methods. I had already learned the Roberts Wrap from Joy Dunlap who lived in Destin at the time. This method worked on the 'short' rods but is ill-suited for long surf rods. It will work, but not well.
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Is there a rod shop/builder near you? I'll bet that if there is, you can ask them for some fiberglass scrap. Tell them what they're using it for and they'll either give it to you or charge a nominal fee. JMHO C2
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The stripper guides on my flyrods aren't double footed, by any means. In fact, all guides, including the line tamer(if used) are single footed. C2
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I learned to do inlays from the Bernie Cohen tutorial that Mudhole published many years ago. I use an Xacto knife with a piece of masking tape as a 'depth gauge' It works.
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I have an old spinning/fly rod in my stash that was built many moons ago. I made it on a fiberglass spinning blank and used small, equal sized, singlefooted fly guides with a larg(er) stripper. It works fine still. I made the handle from a piece of fiberglass blank with a spinning seat installed, I put an EVA grip on it and flared both ends to make ferrules to match blank. I reinforced the
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First the math/trig on guide placement: I think that someone asked? The calculation is: the cotangent of the reel upsweep angle times the heigth of the reel spindle; equals the distance(A) from the intersect point to the reel stem. A=cot(angle) x a. For example; a 4 degree upswept reel would have an intersect point of the cotangent (14.25) times whatever height of the reel spindle
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I build my 8 foot pier rods on Gator Glass blanks. They are practically indestructible and will survive some really rough treatment. I have had no returns except for damaged guides which have been literally beaten off with contact with bridge/pier railings. JMHO C2
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Most of you will be glad that I will finally shut up about it, but my Volume 11 Issue 6 of the RMM came today. Tom said that it wasn't due to the 28th and the 28th was Sunday, so not too shabby really. Got a subscription renewal out of it. My expiration issue was 12-1. I was anxious to read what I had read by email from Tom and his parallel effort to make a rescue device for fishing rods. T
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I was looking through the archives and found the following post by TK to answer an obvious query re "RMM Subcription" by me: Quote' The next issue of RodMaker will be Volume 11 #5. That leaves 3 more issues on a subscription showing an expiration of Volume 12 #1. Unquote. Tom did say that the issue wasn't due to the 28th, so I may be a victim of premature panic. The Post Office
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Thanks, Tom. Meanwhile, I will fend off questions and suggestions until I get access to the issue. It won't happen again. Barry; appreciate the offer but it's the law. C2
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I think that the reason that I didn't receive my Rodmaker Magazine was that I pushed the power curve and let my subscription expire. I renewed my subscription but would like to see the current issue about the Rod Rescuer. I tried the back issue thing but the latest available issue is Volume 11 volume 5 and I already have that one. What will be the next issue that I receive? How long do I
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I just use a single footed guide. Wrap it as usual with a locking wrap and finish. Somewhere in my travels, I saw an article where Ken Preston published directions for bending one foot of a double footed guide back under and wrapping each foot individually then finish. I have used it on a heavy surf rod but use the single footed guide for light(er) applications.
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