I personally soak my inserts for a couple of days in a very thinned varnish or danish oil finish. Stick it in a jar and put it in a window sill so it gets warmed and colled. Then I take it out, wipe it down, and dry it. Final finish is usually a few coats of Tru-oil.
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I have built flyrods using snakes, single foot wire, SIC, Cerment, REC alloy, and combinations. I am pretty sure that guide slickness makes little difference in the maximum casting distance for a flyrod. The reason: The limiting factor seems to be how much line the castor can effectively straighten out at the end of the cast. It does not do any good to shoot another 10 feet of line that is pi
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My biggest blunder was probably thinking I was going to build a couple of rods to "save money". Yeah, right.... Now I give away rods and pile rods that I don't use in the corners... but I don't think I have "saved" any money.
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A fresh white ceramic bathroom tile works fine too.
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Tru-oil is a good place to drop a little cash. Try it. You will probably like it. Whatever you do, do not believe the directions on the bottle. The secret for me is to put each coat on thin and let it dry between coats. I like the clarity of the finish it produces.
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I have bought Struble skeleton seats from Custom Tackle in the past. Great service. And you are gonna like the seat.
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Just be extremely thankful. Much worse if it had hung together until after you built it and then snapped on the first long cast. I know from experience. Now I wrap the ferrules, tape on some guides, and flex a blank pretty good before I build it.
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I like the ceramic guides on fairly light rods. Imporoved performance to me does not necessarily mean increased casting distance, because with a lot of line out and using the full power of the rod the guides have little effect overall anyway. But what is improved is the ease of making the little short shoots with little line out that making fishing easier. And shooting line on the back cast.
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gbg is about a 8 wt. Not a whole lot of people are looking for a 8.5 foot, 8 wt bamboo rod to actually fish with. (A few might be). Mostly a rod like this would be bought because someone thinks they might use it a little for bass, or because they can get a Orvis for a low price. A good caster might be able to cast a 6 wt line on that rod. It is generally thought that Orvis rods sometime carr
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Yeah, I have some experience with that. I built myself a nice spinning rod with a 3 piece, 7' allstar blank and burl cork with slip rings. I thouht I was pretty smart, and in the yard the reel locked down so tight and nice, and I could move it up and down the handle for adjustments. And it did not dig in the cork. Great. Then I took it fishing. First fish I caught the reel popped off during
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I like Sears for air compressors. If floor space is at a premium, the 2hp, 33 gal vertical tank model has a fairly small footprint. Bigger is much better if space is not at a premium or if you want to paint with it.
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I built a similar All star blank, I think. mine is 7' and it is one of the 3 piece blanks. All star advertised it as a "Peacock Bass" rod in the finished rods. I used a combination of burl cork (rubberized) and natural cork to keep the cost and weight down. I used double foot Alconite guides on mine and did a spiral wrap. I like it pretty well. But it is an awful light blank for s
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Not a lost rod, but a deliberaty thrown over the side rod on a head boat trip fishing over a reef. Captain came down and collected the money for the rig from the customer. About 20 min. later another fisherman succeded in snagging the outfit. He sold it back to the captain on the spot. I hope the customer that threw it overboard felt as stupid as he looked.
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I think the Rikon mini lathe is a great little lathe for not much money. And with an extension bed you can make it pretty long. I like the indexing and spindle lock features it offers. I have a Delta midi and it is good. Also the Jet. I think they have pretty much perfected these things now and you are safe with any of the above. Look for a bargin.
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Not sure what the question is? The older GL3 blanks were adertised as the "best blank buy on the planet" and in my opinion that was about correct. I have not used one of the current GL3 models because I still have a couple of the old ones to build.
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I built several of them before I even heard about "cleaning" the inside of the seat. Never had one come loose. I just would not worry about it. I am sure the brick foam arbors will come apart before the rod bond joint fails.
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I have never put anything on a cork grip. After 20 years or so it gets brown and dark. Cork is "sealed" naturally against water. That is why it floats.
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I have used both. The only advantage I see to the lite is that it fills the guide tunnels through the threads easier. I think I get a little better final finish with the regular build, so I tend to use that now and do like Bill suggested and brush it out thin. And give it time to soak through to the tunnels.
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I made a little wooden saddle that slides along the lathe bed. It holds a dremel tool mounted so that the point of the bit cuts. I use a router bit in it and rough out the groove for the insert while the insert is still mounted in the lathe. A little sanding to even out the little flat spots from each pass of the router bit finishes it. A little slow, but it also works very well with figured
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My understanding is that the term orginally was applied to rods by a bamboo builder in a conversation in which someone asked "what if we just put a 2x4 in a vise and bent it"?. Answer: you would get a parabola. And I think that is correct. But what we have to realize is that the "bendy" part of the parabla would be at the butt, and the tip would be relatively straight, i
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I think that any weight added to a flyrod anywhere is "bad". I just do not go with the "balance" theory. So my advise is to try it first with some type of removable weight that you can take off if you don't like it. I also don't fish 10 foot rods so I have no direct experience with that. I make the handle a little longer and hold the rod at the "balance point" w
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I have little slips from several manufacturers that came in the bag with the blank that say to be sure to wrap the ferrule even before you test or flex the rod. I wrap them. On a light rod I use a very narrow wrap at the edge of the ferrule and another wrap of the same diameter up the ferrule a ways.
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Start with a 7 wt.
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I just can not see snake guides holding up to tossing and winding in line very long. I would try low profile, double foot ceramic guides instead.
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What I do on rods for my use: I use single foot ceramics on the 4 or 5 guides and then on rods that I want very light I switch to recoil or pac bay wire single foots. I find that the tip top is the most important guide to go light on. For a 3 or 4 wt, relatively low cost setup, I use the REC recoil tip top. For a 4 or 5 wt that is going to see a lot of use I use a SIC or cerment top. I migh
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titanium frame SIC second choice: alconites
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How many cerments are on the rod and what size? Perhaps too many and too big are also factors here. what size and type is the tiptop? Generally with ceramic guides I try to use less of then than I would with snakes or wire guides. Try a recoil tiptop and putting recoil single foots on just the tip section (3 or 4 guides) and see how it works from there. Unless there are a lot of ceramic g
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The heaviest guide on the worst place for weight in a light rod will be the standard loop tiptop that is generally used with snake guides. The SIC and cerment tiptops are generally lighter than the standard wire loop. The lightest top top is the REC, with the fine wire and the aluminum tube. By all means use a light tip top. The top of a rod bends easily so there is not a lot of loading on t
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I bought a used rod that was supposed to be a Heddon. But it had the dowel extended butt as you describe. I turned the reel seat insert and the dowel under the handle from one piece of maple. I drilled the end and inserted the bamboo and did a tight wrap over the outside of the dowel to keep it from splitting. Then I built the cork directly on the dowel, covering the joint, and a couple of c
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The stock sheen and conditioner is a wax with a little abrasive in it. It does not leave a "coat" of finish. Just a little wax. It works well. Finish the Tru-oil applications to your final satisfaction, let it dry throughly, then let it dry some more, then use the stock sheen. No, don't scuff the Tru oil. Try to get as glossy and smooth a coat of the True oil as possible, the knoc
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