I find the titanium frames on the gold cermet guides to be very easy to prep(I use a Dremel tool and the side of a thin cutting disc most of the time). I would rather prep these guides than any of the coated steel frames.
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The Diamondback Classic Trout blanks are wonderful medium action rods,with a very unique and beautiful finish on them.I have a 3pc 7ft6 3wt and it is one of my favorite small stream rods.The Scott G and Winston WT(or older IM6) are also incredible,but pricey,blanks.My 8ft 4wt Scott G is my hands down favorite rod to fish with. The Dan Craft FTL sounds like a great choice as well.I haven't buil
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Thanks for the input guys. Regarding amboyna burl,how does it look when it's finished with Tru Oil or other types of finishes compared to being stabilized ?
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Thanks for the insite so far. I guess I probably should have mentioned that I've had the seats for a couple of years now and they are all glued up so I guess it would be difficult to find out the actual weight of the inserts. I'm assuming the amboyna,dark maple burl,and black ash burl are probably all stabilized,but does anyone know if spalted ash is a wood that normally requires stabilizat
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I have several nice reel seats(most are Venneri or Bellinger,but a couple are unknown),that I would like to make matching grips for,using flor grade cork or birch bark for the majority of the grip,and then adding small wood ends to match the seats. I know finding an exact match isn't going to happen,but I figure if I can somehow get wood that looks close enough then it won't be too noticable g
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Has anyone built a rod on any of the Schneider's 10ft 2pc 1-4wt blanks? I can see a 10ft 4wt being a good nymphing rod or for float tubing on lakes with small to med size fish,but really can't imagine what a 10ft 1wt would be like.
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Check out the 6ft6 2wt Rainshadow/Forecast RX6 blanks,6ft6 2wt American Tackle Matrix,as well as the 6ft 2/3wt Tiger Eye to name a few.
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Dan Craft makes an several blanks(0wt,1wt,and 2wt) that would fall within your size range for your needs.
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I have small hands and find the reverse half wells,western,and cigar shaped grips to be comfortable on lighter line rods,provided they aren't too thick for me.I also think these styles of grip tend to look the best on light fly rods so I am willing to give up a tad bit of comfort for a nicer look. The Fenwick style is very comfy in the hand,but I've never liked the look myself. On heavier f
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The Gudebrod purple thread looks nice,but Angler's Workshop has a few colors of purple that look much better IMHO.The color Grape(with CP) looks absolutely fantastic when matched with the holographic zirconia ring guides and some thin holographic trim. I built a rod with the holo guides and used this thread,along with Gudebrod's size A gold colored Electra Holographic Thread and the result was
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If I had to limit myself to one brand of fly blanks it would be Dan Craft Five Rivers(FT,FTL,SIG III,and SIG V blanks),no question. Performance that rivals the best high end rods(Sage,Loomis,etc) on the market at 1/3 the price.Great selection of models,from medium action/low power to extra fast action/high power blanks.By far the best performance for the dollar on the market IMHO.
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As mentioned,virtually every color looks good on a grey blank.On flyrods I usually try to match the thread with the coloration of my seat insert(if going with wood) or guides. I am partial to deep earth tones,like Medium or Chestnut Brown and Olive,as well as Garnet(this color goes great with almost any color blank) and Rust(without CP this color becomes an orangy brown that goes well with woo
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The FT and SIG V are VERY different blanks so I would be quite surprised if the same spacings would be ideal for both. The FT has a very stiff butt section,with a soft tip so it is a very fast action,while the medium fast action SIG V bends further down the blank.I haven't built a new 4pc SIG V yet,but have a couple of the previous 3pc 9ft 5wt SIG V's,as well as a 4pc 9ft 5wt FT and the spacin
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Email Dan for the spacings he uses. It's always a good idea to use these kinds of spacings as a starting point and then do your own tests,but I think you will find Dan's spacings awfully close.
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The Esopus came in 2 sizes.The smaller one would be OK(although it's still a bit long nd heavy for a 2wt IMHO) but the larger one would definitely be too big. I have quite a few of them in both sizes and tend to use the smaller one on 4-5wt rods,and the larger one on 6-7wt rods(although it still looks good on a 5wt).I absolutely LOVE these seats(that's why I tried to get as many as I could,LOL
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I found grinding the titanium frames on my Fugi guides to be much easier than grinding any of the plated stainless steel frames.No sparks or anything with the Dremel. Recoils are easy to prep too,but the material comes off quickly.
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From what I was told(although I can't remember exactly who it was that told me now,LOL),the Batson folding keepers are similar in size to the large size Fugi. Can anyone else confirm this?
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I've been wanting to get some small size Fugi style keepers in gold and TiCH as well for lighter fly rods. Does anyone know if the Batson models come in a small size like the Fugi's,or are they only available in a larger size?
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Wal Mart usually carries it in thier sporting goods area.Just look where they have the gun supplies as it is a gun stock finish. It's available out here in BC,so I would think it should be available in Ontario as well.In my area it is available in a spray can or wipe on container.
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Pac Bay makes a Channel Lock seat that would probably make a great choice. Might be worth considering.
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If you want the lightest,crispest feeling rod possible,keep the first 2 gold cermet casting guides(If you want to cut a tiny bit more weight you could replace them with the even lighter titanium frame SIC Concept guides which have thinner,lighter frames.Personally,I would just use the Gold Cermets though.) and replace the rest with a set of single foot Recoils(the heavy wire model is better IMHO
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On all of my rods,one thin coat of the U40 Cork Seal has made the cork feel MORE grippy,not slippery.Extra coats do change the feel of it,and in a negative way IMHO.I put on a thin coat with a small disposable brush,wipe off any visible runs or areas where I put on too much,and then let dry. With a thin coat on the grip,even with wet,fish slime covered hands I find the grips much easier to han
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If you are talking about U40 Cork Seal then I don't know how anyone could say that it's "more trouble than it's worth".The stuff couldn't be easier to apply(brush on one thin coat and let dry....that's pretty much it),it's inexpensive,one jar does MANY rod grips,and it works VERY well. I have coated almost all of my rod grips(around 40 or 50 fly rods,plus a few drift rods) now and ha
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Shortening the heavy wire guides is easy with a Dremel as the feet are much more solid,like a typical single foot wire guide,but the light wire ones are a bit tricky.Cutting too close to a solder spot will create enough heat to melt it and the guide foot can spring apart. In all honesty I don't really like the light wire single foot guides.The feet are inconsistant in length and shortening and
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As an EXTREMELY envious Canadian who REALLY wishes he was reading a copy of the magazine right now(especially the one with the birch bark handle tutorial that I so bafly desire),instead of always reading how others were ejoying reading it,LOL,I find myself once again wishing there was somewhere up here to get this great magazine,or someone down there who would send some backissues up here for tha
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I have that same rod(3pc 9ft 9wt).It's a CANNON! These blanks are definitely well suited to heavy salt water conditions,where durability and lifting power are of the upmost importance as opposed to feel and light weight.They are VERY fast action,VERY fast recovery blanks and a tad heavy due to the Quartz coating,which was added to the original Nano Ti blanks to help limit the frequent breakag
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I have to agree with Herb on this.The Recoil guides,especially in the heavy wire version,are not anywhere near as noisy with a wet or dressed flyline.It is mostly when you are casting a dry line or stringing up your rod that you notice the noise.They are definitely a bit noisier than regular wire guides,and certainly noisier than ceramics,but it's not anything to be truly worried about. Person
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These guides don't wear like ceramics by any means and they certainly wouldn't be my choice for heavy fly rods or especially spinning/casting(I can't imagine not using ceramics for these kinds of rods),but they should be more than adaquate for light to medium weight fly rods IMHO.Just keep the flyline clean to minimize wear. If a person really wanted to they could add a small ceramic tip top(t
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Thanks Andy,that is GREAT news!
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Hi Andy,will your "Lathe In Rodbuilding" DVD and tools like the Buffing System or mandrels also be available through your distributors? What about your high quality CG2 or CG1(if available) natural cork rings?Would these still be available along with your various burl cork rings,or would they be phased out and replaced by what ever the retailer currently sells as thier current brand
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