Try the Dr. Ph. Martin's irridescent white (12R). This is a calligraphy ink and flows well in the nib pens. It can be thinned in small amounts with alcohol. It doesn't require CP. When the blank gets out in the sun light, the lettering actually glows. I do have to say that I have not used the white, but have used some of the other colors. These inks can be mixed to form custom colors. I ha
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Tom: Congratulation, and thank you and all of the rest of the guys on this site, that help all of us learn and improve our craft.
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Larry: You are in the same boat I am in. I am sure you will get many answers to your question. One of the things I don't understand is the "pan fish/light salt water" question. Pan fish here in Idaho is crappie, bluegill and small trout. We fish 1/32 to 1/8 oz jigs, Mepp's 0 size lures for these. I can tell you that these rods would not be suitable for most things that live in
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Roger: I thought about adding this to the email. I simply forgot. I would would bevel both ends of the tube, and then polish the bevels.
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I have never seen one of these rods, so don't know the lay out. Having read the 2 replies, I came up with an idea. Go to the local hobby shop. They have tubing in small sizes. This comes in both brass and steel. Find a piece the will fit inside the tip. This can ten be cut to the length you need, and epoxied into the rod.
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Bob is right. I am very slow at applying epoxy. I bought some stuff that was supposed to be 1 hour cure time. I mixed up a small batch to do a reel seat (3cc's total). This stuff flashed in about 5 minutes. I only needed a small amount, so did 1.5cc of each part. Save yourself time and money, and mix a minimum of 3cc's each part. If you are slow like I am, you may need to mix more then one
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I was looking at some of the sponsors websites last night, and ran across reelseats.com . When I opened it up, I was amazed at the beautiful wood they had for sale. My mind kind of went into a skid, and I started thinking that this wood would make some great looking knife scales, etc. I sent an email off to the website. This morning I received an email from Steve Kincaid answering all of my q
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When my daughters were wearing dental braces, I used the rubberbands that hold tension on the appliance. Cheap, easy to find, and come in different sizes. I have gone back to the old tape them on method.
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I have used several different lighted magnifiers, as well as the head band type magnifiers. The thing that I hit on that works the best for me is the flip up magnifiers that fit on my regular glasses. I have a number of Ott lights that I can move around the bench for lighting. The flip up magnifier is the old style from Fisherman Eyewear. Unfortunatley they no longer make this style. The one
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I seem to remember an advertisement from the years when graphite rods first appeared. They were comparing the new graphite rods to the older glass and bamboo. I am going by an old memory stored in a much older brain, but I think they said bamboo was good for 15 to 20,000 flex cycles, and glass was good for some 60,000 flex cycles. Graphite was rated at above 100,000 cycles. I have no idea wha
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I start my wraps 1/16th to 1/8th inches in front of the guide foot. I am metrically challenged, so will let you figure out how many mm,cm,km, or what ever this works out to. I am building ultra-lite to light spinning rods, and fly rods. Once I figure out what wrap I am going to use on the rod, I set my dividers, and use the same measurement for each guide.
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Hans: I have done all of the trim wraps on the rod, and took it out to show the fellow I am building it for. He took one look at it, and said now that he has seen it, He is going to buy a new reel for the rod. So I am back to square one with the set up. I will post the new measurements as soon as I have the new reel.
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I am building my first rod using the "New concept system". This rod is a Batson SB720-4. The blank is a 6' fast action. I am going with the thought that this rod should have 7 guides plus the tip top (6' rod should be 6 guides plus 1) . With the reel I will use, the choker guide should be at 22" from the tip of the rod. I am using Fuji CLAG 6 guides for the choker and running
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I just uploaded 2 pictures to the guide wrap picture page. I am doing a rod with Metalic Black, and Cardenal Red thread. I can't figure out how to get the black trim to look like it is one complete wrap. I either wind up with an overlap, or a blank space. I did both of these wraps, and they were perfect before I started burnishing and packing. The pictures are at: . The second is at: .
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John: Depending on how deep the rust goes, I would start with an old toothbrush and scrub the parts under running water. I would then use Flitz for surface stuff, or Stock Sheen. If this doesn't get it done, Spray it with WD40, and let it sit for an hour or so. Then use the finest steelwool you can get. Soak the steel wool is WD40, and lightly rub the parts. Then finish with the Flitz.
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Bill: I would contact St. Croix and ask them if they can match the blank, and the cost if it doesn't fall under their warantee. I have delt with St. Croix on a number of broken blanks. They are very helpful with these problems.
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I just ordered the Batson SB720-4. I am going to build this rod with the New Concept Guide system. This will be my first rod with this system. I am an old dog, but trying to learn. I know these are not the lightest of guides, but I will be using the Fuji Alconite guides. I am sure that I would have been better doing the first build with this system on a 1 or 2 piece rod. Can anyone give me
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I have been asked to build a 3 piece 6' spinning rod. This needs to be a moderate to fast action rod. The line weight will be 4 to 6 pounds. My original plan was to buy a 6' 1 piece blank, and cut it into 3 pieces. Then add ferrules. I actually have an old Sila Flex glass rod that is an Ultra Light 3 piece with metal ferrules that feels very good. I know that the metal ferrules should sti
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I use an old toothbrush, and liquid dish soap. Rinse well with running water. Just make sure that you let the grips dry well before you put the rod in a case.
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Clinton: I use the S-L-X Alcohol. I haven't had a problem with it effecting FlexCoat epoxy.
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Mark: It is just Mike. Mr. Bradford was my Dad.
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I tried all of the above as well. I already wear bi-focals. They are the large shooting glass type lens. I finally settled on a clip on maginfying lens. These are hinged so they flip up out of the way, and have a fairly long drop down on the lens. With this set up, I have my regular power lens at the top, then 3 power from the magnifying lens, then 5 power with the lens and my bi-focal, and
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I think the old standard for fiberglass rods was Gudebrod color preserver and Gudebrod rod varnish. Back in the 50's my Dad called this "glass". Has anyone used Permagloss on a bamboo rod?
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I found a spinning rod I built back in 1986. I used guides that had glow in tthe dark shock rings around the ceramic rings. I think they were Fuji. It has been many years since I have used this rod, but as I remember, it didn't work very well. I will give it a try again tonight, and report back.
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Try Angler's Workshop.
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Bob: Thanks for your reply. These 2 rods are ultra-light. One is a factory custom rod that was made for my Dad. It is a 5'3" 3 piece that was made up from 3 different fly rods according to my Dad. The other is a factory 5'6" 2 piece that was inscribed by the owner of Sila-Flex to my Dad. Both of these rods have the Sila-Flex of Coasta Mesa decals on them.
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I just called Gudebroad. According to them, they are not going out of business, they have not filed for Chapter 11, and they have heard all of these rumors. They also said that they do not see any of these things taking place in the future. They have had trouble with shipments, but this will clear up shortly.
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My Dad passed away last month, and while going through some of his old pictures, I found one of him from around 1952. He was a demonstrator for the original Sila-Flex rod company before Browning bought them out. The picture is of him doing a trick cast at a Southern California Sportsmans Show. I remembered that he had 2 of these old Sila-Flex rods around the place. I located both of them. Af
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I have a new Bamboo blank in hand. Unfortunetly I ordered it before I saw the info on Angler's Roost. I did call and talk to them the day after I ordered. This is a 2 piece (with 2 tips) 7'6" 5wt. The blank looks and feels good. Just like most blanks, it will take a little work to get it ready to wrap. The blank is a little light color wise. There are a couple of "glue lines"
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I know that for the most part, we want our epoxy as clear as possible. I need to turn a small amount of epoxy flat black. Do any of you have an idea as to how to do this?
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