Mark, I took no offense to the correction. Back in the early days of tube jigs,there were several styles of jig heads used with tube jigs,in addition to the standard style jig heads. Of the tube style heads,one was a simple round core with the eye of the hook at one end of the head. The other Style had the eye of the hook in the middle of the round lead core. The former was used for a more tradi
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The Kencor rods were labeled with a decal that said Tenu Magnaglass. I don't believe it had anything to do with the S-Glass of the day. However,I could be wrong. They seemed to have a great deal of flexibility compared to other S-Class rods of the same time frame. Occasionally discussions pop up on bloodydeckoutdoors.com around the Kencors.
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Something that has worked for me is to join and finish 2 sections together at a time. I cut a narrow strip of wax paper and wrap that from the tip of the male section backwards. The rod is then inserted into the female section. It's not a tight fit but it can be snug. It will hold them together nicely and prevent the two sections from adhering to each other. That should speed up your finishing p
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Russ,you are correct. Those are chrome plated brass. Joe, yes they did. At least if you are referring to the frames. I can't attest to the makeup of the rollers themselves.
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As you didn't define clean them up,I will give you the overall picture from my perspective. First,I remove the rollers,cleaning any epoxy that may have gotten on there during the original finishing process. Then I clean any epoxy off the guide frames. I use an exacto knife with a #11 blade. At this point,I will remove the rollers sleeve. If the first few prove difficult to remove,I typically
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The only guides made as far as I recall that had white shock rings were discontinued in the 80s. Maybe the early 90s. The manufacturers were Mildrum and Perfection. I recall the old Clemens catalogs saying to use Rit Dye. I had good success with that. If you want actual red rings, you could see if Batson or AmTak can do a run of what you want with a vapor deposition coating in red. Otherwise,hit
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You are welcome Dane. I don't know why they are so expensive compared to Calstar or Seeker. Frankly that had me quite shocked when I looked at their blanks sometime last year. I do not know what, if any differences there are between any of them. I would think the Seekers are more like the Calstars. I believe that Seeker had bought their mandrels from California Tackle when they closed their doors
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Count on Cousins to put out a high quality product. Having said that, I am not trying to imply that Calstar does not. Wade Cunningham has been around the blank building arena for many decades. He knows his stuff and knows it well. He may be using old Sabre or even Fenwick mandrels.
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Pier rods can get some pretty rough treatment. With that said I would get the Calstar BT690J. Unless of course you really want to go with the composite blank you chose. If you decide to go with a 9' blank, have them trim the blank from the butt to fit the shipping requirements.
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Why not do it over a JT Dragon Scales wrap? Then do the gold spot. Then add a coat of finish over it. Then add the black portion and coat over it. It could give the false eye a 3D effect and create a unique looking butt wrap. Like you actually used a section of fish skin to create it. If I got the colors in the wrong order,just reverse them. As Robert mentioned,let the finish set up a bit before
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Eric, you can reach me at foremax@msn.com
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As Matthew said,the earlier series used Mildrum Carbaloy guides. In later years I believe they transitioned to Fuji chrome framed aluminum oxides. If they are the carbaloy guides, I have some of the smaller ones that were used. I even have a carded set with the Fenwick logo. If you like,I could send you one of the small guides.
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Early 90s I believe...maybe 1989 even.
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Robert, I have never heard of anything along those lines. It seems as though there are many variables to consider,to even start. I would think that a 1oz spool of A,B,C or D ought to cover all your guide wraps. Assuming you are using 2 colors, one spool of each color should suffice. That isn't even if you keep your wraps to a minimal length. If you want longer guide wraps and want to cover yourse
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Owen, you are very welcome. One reason I went with my lengthy reply was not just to answer your question,but to inform other readers as to why they might have troubled obtaining certain guides and other components at times. Just as we,the end users don't have crystal balls to know what our favorite manufacturers are up to with their R&D for upcoming product lines. Conversely,they have no real
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I understand your pain Owen. Tackle Specialties has lost a fair amount of business over the last few years,perhaps longer. It started with QC issues,then spilling over into the issues of available stock. I would like to add another perspective for rodbuilders to consider. Over the last dozen or more years,the manufacturing industries have converted their production runs to something they refer
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Eric hits the nail on the head, without saying why. The bottom line for me would be why settle for old school? I would prefer to take advantage of newer designs,or at least more current materials. I still like old school for my west coast saltwater gear,day in and day out. There has been a great change with newer stuff put out by the likes of UnitedComposites,Rainshadow/Batson,Calstar, and othe
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Saverio,were you refering to the video or the wrapper?
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There is a member of a site(bdoutdoors.com) that goes by the handle Capt Richie) and he has done some of this work. He is a custom builder for a shop that I believe is in the NYC area. Maybe NJ. Perhaps he could enlighten you as to what works for him.
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You might try checking with Utmost Enterprises or Schneiders Rod Shop. They could have a single or two in stock not shown on their website. Contact Batson Enterprises as well. I may be wrong but I believe the RX6 lineup has a new designation. The great people at Batson will be more informative than I can.
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I have seen leather dyes used successfully on cork tape grips. I don't know how well the effect has held up though. Maybe a sealant was used however I can't recall. Email me and I can tell you where to find the info.
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You might have more success contacting Mudhole and asking them. Tell them what you hope to accomplish and perhaps they can help you. As stated above,the stripper and transition guides are sold as part of a set. Perhaps an alternative set can be worked out from another manufacturers products.
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Ben, why not figure which size reel seat best fits your hand size and build your handle around that? Unless you are set on a Tennessee handle. There is certainly nothing wrong or terrible building that way. Many anglers actually favor them over using a reel seat. It can have benefits over a standard handle.
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Rick, as you already have the blank for your future build, you now have a way to measure and order things such as winding checks if you decide to use aluminum ones on a split grip rod. That is if you choose to build it out that way. Smart move!
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Yes Scott,you are on a good path with your thinking. I am not sure of the method you intend to soften the epoxy to remove it. Just use caution when doing so. Gently warming it with a cigarette lighter would probably suffice,as would hot,not necessarily boiling water poured briefly over the old epoxy. Another option for the cork is sanding it down far enough so the reel seat simply slips over bot
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Madeira Polyneon 40 wt. is most often used in our craft. It usually pops back close to the spool color.
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My apologies for the double post.
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A new thread supply. Just make sure you do some test wraps on some scrap blank material,and use your favorite finish epoxy on the wraps. You may find you need to coat the wraps with color preserver to prevent fisheyes in the finish. As with Madeira,you could use a few short strands of the thread in the finish when mixing it up. I have a dear friend that goes to various quilting shows and brings
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In my experience, fur and feathers tend to not last very long in comparison to the heads of flies. Which in actuality does not mean much for rodbuilding useage. I would only use it for emergency repairs.
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Yes,they were discontinued years ago. Sales weren't what they had hoped for. The USG guides followed shortly thereafter preceding the arrival of the newer HB series guides.
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