Cannot find you a good photo, but I would describe the color as a medium graphite gloss color. If you want a nice, rich, color for windings, take a look at Gudbrod garnet without color preservative-It comes out a "black cherry" color that is very handsome on the carbon pearl blank. I'll keep looking for a good photo.
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I have used Papillo white vinyl decal material and find it generally very easy to use. Only issue I've had is that it is hard to match a rod blank color exactly with it as the color seems to change a little when finish is applied. I've used color preservative without success. Am thinking that until I understand that issue better I will use contrasting colors. I have printed photos on it with
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Check the rod refinishing article in the library-it has very good instructions. I just did just what you are proposing and got most of the old finish off OK, but it took a lot of care and time. If you end up taking too much of the old finish off and have spots where it is going to show up poorly when finished, I suggest just puttijng a thin coat of similar color finish on and top it off with Pe
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this mode of failure sounds a lot like two that I have encountered. First one is not having rods tied down well while motoring through rough water and having the rod tip jam against a carpeted bulkhead in my boat-failed one about 10 inches down from the tip this summer. Second occurred mulitple times before I figured it out after I changed boats/trailers. The mnew rig's rod locker ran longit
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Something to keep in mind about spinning rod ergonomics is that as anglers age and encounter arthritis in the hands, a larger reel seat is much more comfortable for long hours on the water. An 18mm straight seat is very good, in my opinion. I would think that the minima seats would be the wrong way to go-while they may have advantages in sensitivity, they are ergonomically the wrong way to go,
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No on the rubberized cork; I am familiar with it and use it on the butts of my rods. It is burl, was ordered as burl, and looks like chipboard as Tom mentioned. My older burl is the kind you mention with uneven size chunks that provide the appearance you suggest, which I like better than the very uniform appearance. The stuff I don't like has very uniform and small chunk size with absolutely n
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I am confused about burl cork- I used to buy burl cork rings and always got a product that looked good, had some character from graining/the borders of the chunks of cork/some variability in color throughout the piece. I had to be careful not to mix rings from different "batches" as they might be lighter or darker, but it was pretty uniform and good looking. Treating it with cork pres
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One of the challenges with printing decal rod labels is printing without wasting a lot of media. One way that I've found to help this is to 1. Design the label with a graphics program in the size you want. 2. Open Dennison Design Pro label software from Avery-Dennison (free download) and open the template # 5661(this brings up a label 1 x 4 1/8 inches which can print 2 across-should accept m
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I have used the AT titanium guides on a number of rods and have had no problems. Never used the Fujis, but have used Fuji titaniums on spinning rods, and they seem to be tougher, more rigid than AT titanium spinning guides. I would give the Fugis a try-by using the alconite ring instead of SIC they can drop the price a bunch. And alconite is hard enough. Even with really cheap guides, I've ne
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Check out the photo at the link below-it was designed for salmon, but should also work well for muskie. You would want to set locations of the components based on rods he likes, and if he plans to use it on rod holders, you don't want to do a split grip. Main issues, as I see it, are to make it work well for two-handed casting by using robust and comfortablly shaped grip components. The shapes
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Also check page 4 of the feather inlays group for one by Terry Henson. Note that both of the ways you mention are used, one in each photo.
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If your line or leader is nylon, then along with light and heat, it really doesn't like lack of moisture. Don't keep it in the pole barn or garage, keep it in the basement. If the freezer is low humidity, and I think it is , then it's not the best place to keep nylon. If you have a copolymer which is some percentage nylon, same trend to a lesser degree. There are a few grades of nylon that ar
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If you still need the dimensions, try: For Pac Bay dimensions: For Fuji dimensions:
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Since any screwups with cardboard and masking tapes may compromise my rods, and since the foam arbors are very light, easy to form, and said to last very well, that's all I'm using. If I need one turned down, to fit a reel seat, they turn down very easily. Why bother with paper products?
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If you have not made split grips before , let me caution you about an easy error-speaking from experience here. If you use winding checks against the grips, don't forget to put them on the blank before gluing both grip parts on. If you forget, you can carefully cut a neoprene check and install it after, carefully gluing it into place, then building a little epoxy over the check so the slit doe
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I've found that the foam plastic reel seat arbors, turned on a drill press to the desired shape, work great and are for me much easier than an epoxy ramp. Since I add feather inlays I leave enough room for about 5 coats of finish on them. The ivory color shows off feathers and decals nicely. They should be lighter than epoxy, but I'm sure the difference is small. Only down side is that they
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I think you should let it lie for about two weeks, work it over in your mind for those two weeks, consider the ethical and moral issues for two weeks, and when you come back to the issue in two weeks, you will have it all figured out. I'll take your place on the hunt, so don't worry about that.
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Casting lures? Bait? Jigging? Depending on what you want to do, and if you are willing to compromise on 1 piece, you can make a terrific UL spinning rod out of a 2 or 3 weight fly blank. But the action will be fairly slow, which is ideal for casting tiny spinners, spinner baits, and cranks. I built one on the American Tackle AMF 763 ( 7 12 foot, "moderate" action) and have found i
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I really don't expect to be able to tell the difference, but still don't know why it makes any difference if the line revolves in a large circle on retrieve. It is stated that the objective is to keep it from doing that, and one writer states that if you don't "control" it the line might slap the rod, but I have rods that work both ways (line stays put at the bottom of the ring and l
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"The people who do the best with multiple piece rods are the manufacuturers" I do the best with multiple piece rods because they are a heck of a lot easier to wind than one piece rods. And I really cannot tell the difference in performance. The only advantage I can see for one piece rods is that you never have to align the guides. Once wound, they are always right. Small advant
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Why would having the line revolve around the entire ring reduce retrieve effort? Why would it not? Where's the data? Maybe it would reduce the effort because it would minimize the force on the guide by keeping contact constant and at low force and make the overall effort less than forcing the line against the guide at one point. I'm still looking for data. Or the results of tests. Why h
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Tom, why is the idea to have the line contact the ring at one point (on the retrieve)? In this string of posts we have one posting that says that having the line go all around the ring makes for less retrieve effort and another that says if it goes around the ring you aren't controlling the line and you likely will experience line slap on the retrieve. On my rods the line goes directly from the
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Most people when talking ultra light spinning rods talk rods of 6 feet length or less. What a new world of fishing pleasure you'll find when you make an ultra light out of a # 3 or lighter fly blank, 7 12 feet in length. Yes they are fragile, but if you want to make a tougher one, go to glass. I made one as a sort of experiment this spring and it has come to be my go-to rod when the fishing ge
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The American Tackle Matrix blanks are described as "emerald green," but in the light they appear to me to be quite dark and more blue green. Go to the American Tackle web site and click on the images to get bigger images, and the color is fairly representative, although I think the blanks are a little darker. They are in my opinion quite handsome, and if you will take a little
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It's hard to beat Fuji titaniums. I had to bend one once due to a mistake I made, and it was almost impossible to bend it (30 size spin guide). I have had a little trouble with American's titanium seeming somewhat soft in comparison (small size titan spins and cast guides). If I were going to build a new rod with titanium frames right now, unless the cost difference was really significant (you
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Eugene, I have checked your numbers and find no problem with them. However, I don't know if 720 grams of force on a guide is significant relative to the other forces at work. Keep in mind that you are talking about friction on the guide which will slow the line. To find that force you have to multiply the 720 grams times the dynamic coefficient of friction of the line with respect to the guide
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RE: Even on your cast, the line is not passing through the center of the ring. It is going as far as it can until being contained in some way. I don't think I said it was going through the center of the guide. If it were it would not polish the ring. I interpret what is going on is that the line path is being constrained symmetrically by the guide ring. If gravity were controlling where t
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I expect all the theories mentioned are in play, but I think the biggest advantage of micros is that they get the line moving straighter than larger guides. Consider that the line on a long cast has to be moving something like 120 feet per second. To move line that is perfectly straight (I know it's not perfectly straight, but it's straighter with micros than 6mm guides) at 120 fps is much more
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You've got to do the Davidor or Kirkman methods-there is no way that most people can judge when you have just enough heat. Those methods prevent you from applying too much heat. I also have damaged rods before I learned these methods, but have damaged none since.
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Tom, saw the same size for first two guides thing in my magazine today-interesting. I still think there is a lot to learn about what is going on. And the gravity thing, I still haven't convinced you that given it has only .o14 seconds to work and gets only .003 drop in that time, gravity is not the most significant factor in line motion. Gravity certainly didn't drop the line on my panfish rod
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