I just finished making my lathe,and turned my first reel seat insert. I am experimenting with different ways to final sand and polish. I bought my insert blanks from reelseatblanks.com while at the expo. The first time I just stepped down sandpaper until I hit 3000 grit 3M Trizact(think car painter here) then used 3M compound to bring up the shine. The next attempt I sanded even finer with Mi
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Knowing that I occasionally manage to complete a rod or two, my sister's brother-in-law got in touch with me this past weekend and wanted to know if I could do some restoration work on a bamboo Shakespeare Wonder Rod he owns. From looking at the rod, about all that is really required is replacing a number of wraps, however, since I have never worked with bamboo, I was unsure if the materials I m
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Hi, this is probably an old subject, but I am new, so I hope this question is okay. I have reamed 22 cork rings to make a fore grip for a switch rod. I want to glue them together. I plan on using U-40 Rod Bond. I understand that I can compress them together using an all thread "mandrel". How do I keep the holes concentric? and how do I keep the epoxy from cementing the cork to my a
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Do you think that some of you unbelieveable craftsmen might be willing to provide some suggestions on handle finishes? What works best, most durable, easiest and hardest to work with, etc. Anything the members of this forum are willing to provide would be appreciated. Thanks.
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I need to do some cork repair on several older rods, hence I need a good cork filler that will hold up well. Mud Hole sells a Rod Builder's Cork Filler. Has anyone had any experience with this? Are there other products that I might look into. Thanks in advance. Clinton
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Has anybody that turns their own wood handles tried finishing them using Hut Wood Finish? One of the features stated by the manufacturer is that it is formulated to give greater water repellency. I'm wondering how it would hold up over time. I turned a small sample of oak yesterday. I'm going to abuse it a little bit, ding it, get it dirty and the see if it can be polished up again. If reque
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Ok I just burned / torn the paper loose and off of 3 cork reamers, 2 dream reamers and 1 Mudhole brand, trying to ream some grips that are mostly natural cork, with a ring of burnt cork on one end, and a ring of rubberized cork in the middle. I know the burnt and rubberized corks are a lot tougher to ream than natural cork. I have had this same problem before. Now I am in a bind and need to get t
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Can someone recommend a lathe \ turning tool I can use the round out some blocks of cork (or rings glued together as well)? Someone in the past has recommended a Round Nosed Scraper. Thanks, Tony
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I am having problems with finishing a black ash burl handle. I have tried using a high build one coat epoxy and a lite epoxy. the epoxy does not seem to cure all the way and does not smoothly cover the wood (almost like there is some propery in the wood that is rejecting the epoxy). I am applying the epoxy to the handle as it turns. Once coated, I hand turn like I would for a wrap, clocking
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I want to let you all know of the coming Seminar in Woodland WA. It is free. It will culminate with a Potluck. You can bring food items or contribute what you can money wise to help with the cost of the meal. There will be a Door Prize drawing at the end. I will be contributing some wood insert fly reel seats I am in the process making. I will be giving more than a Pattern developement presentati
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I ‘m taking my rod building to the next step. I’ve turned a lot of my own reel seats and have worked a little with cork grips making modifications or resizing them, but I haven’t yet built one from scratch. I don’t think it will be too hard to build cork grips, but the one thing that I can’t seem to accomplish is to produce the clean sharp edges and lines I want. Anyone have some a
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I purchased one of the Matrix woven Graphite vetre handle at the expo and I failed to ask if i need to apply any type of finish over it so here I am now looking for help, also I just purchased a lathe and want to start making my own wood handles and I was what is a good finish to put over them.. thank you for your help.
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I've acquired a South Bend 59...9ft...3 piece...has anyone ever taken a rod like this, in marginal shape, and rebuilt to to a 7.5 foot trout rod? Is this well with the realm of "workable"? What are the pitfalls, and the advantages? What should one be aware of? Thanks in advance, John
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I'm curious what type cork rings are used by rod mfgrs like St Croix and Shimano that have such a clean cream colored, almost flawless look. Are they using cork that I have to pay $2.00 or more per ring to get that look, or are they using run of the mill cork with a really good filler? Generally I don't mind the look of a few pits that most cork has, I even think in some cases it adds characte
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I just noticed that my saltwater spinning rods' cork grips are looking poorly. I used pre-formed grips on them and it appears that a lot of the cork filler has fallen out of them. I am wondering what filler I should fill/repair them with and if I should coat them with something to make them stand up a bit better?
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I was just watching over Andy Dear's Wood Lathe DVD again and am planning on ordering some new wheels for buffing wood(been using my Dremel for this until now) as well as sharpening lathe tools.I have a rather large selection of very nice Bellinger and Venneri reel seats(most have stabilized wood inserts) that I've collected over the years so I probably won't be turning too many seats.Most of my
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How would I produce cylindrical grips of very accurate and consistent diameters from one end to another? This is for tennessee grip using a preformed ring so I really want the grip to have exact diameter. I normally use sand paper to shape. I can get cylinders with sandpaper. With shaped grips, it doesn't matter if the measurements is a bit off. However, with a straight cylinder that is for t
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I have my fathers old bamboo surf rod with separate wood handle and all I need to finish the redo is one of those old school round butt caps... Does any one still make these?? Have these anyone?? I have searched Versitex's warehouse and while they have a pile of wood handles.. no caps!! Go figure!!
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Trying to finish my first attempt at a birch handle with some wood accents. I plan to overbore the handle and use a foam arbor to get a good fit on the blank (5 wt sage tcx). My question is how thick does the birch and/or wood need to be? was intending to bore to 9/16th and insert the arbor but at it thinnest points the birch bark wall would just under 1/4" thick (maybe closer to 3/16&qu
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My son son wanted a purple handle for his purple rod. The handle is a piece of of the American Tackle green woven handle kit. We sanded down with 600 wet and dry and then painted it with some spray model paint (testors) I think. I then used the same brand clearcoat over the paint. We then wrapped a Fuji plate seat on and the next day the thread had sunk into the finish. So we sanded again an
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Hi all, I have made a few rods now and added my own yellow cedar handle to one of them. I have been using varathane classic coat spar varnish. I would like to know if using flex coat would be better. (I may also be incorporating some antler into my next handle.) Also, Is flex coat essentially the same is thread epoxy? Thank-you in advance, Matt
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I am building a heavy offshore spinning rod using the @#$%& rollers on a Boomer blank. (I know its hair-brained but Im experimenting) The first two guides need to be ring guides from what I can tell. Scott Throop uses 3 ring guides but the Boomer blank is much shorter than his. I have determined the ring guides must control the line before getting to the rollers, have enough stand off from the bl
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A few days ago there was a brief thread about durability of CA on wood and cork rod components. The thread died out with few CA users commenting about their experiences. I installed a few CA finished reel seat inserts on personal rods this winter so haven't used them on stream yet. While researching various finishes I've been using on inserts one individual I've been in touch with commented ab
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Hi all, Like many of us I've been toying with use of decals. See . The next challenge I came up with was to create a "wrap", much like you'd see on bass boats, trucks, etc. I turned a plain piece of pine into a crappie rod handle using care to ensure that it was cylindrical. I figured it would more easily accept the decal without air pockets. I used a close-up image of a crapp
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Hello gentlemen. I decided to use a 3/8 mandrel for turning my wood grips instead of trying to drill the holes to fit the the different dia of the locations on the blank. My question is what do you guys think is the fastest way to ream out the grips to fit the blank, a rat tail file just isnt cutting the mustard.
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Hello gentlemen. I have been turning domestic hardwoods for my grips, and i think it adds a nice touch, something different than the usual cork. I have been using tru oil for the finish and like the results, but recently have bought and turned some exotic woods including cocobolo. I would like to know how you guys finish these high oil woods as I have heard they resist the oil from curing. Feel f
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I have not used any Gudebrod NCP as of yet, but I'm thinking of using it on a gloss gray(graphite) colored blank to hopefully add to and or accent the purple heart and blood wood inlay's on the handle. What I'm using is red NCP 335 size A and would like to know how much darker it will turn once finish is put on? I don't have a scrap piece of blank in the gray color to do a test on. If it goes jus
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New on here but I've been reading/searching all day. I've built a couple of fly rods before, but it was back when I was 16, about 5 years ago. I used preformed grips for both of the fly rods. I'm getting ready to start a new fly rod here soon and I want to turn my own fly rod grip. My girlfriend's dad does woodworking and he has a lathe I can use for turning the grip. Now for my questions...
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Good Morning, I have been thinking of using a Florida State Quarter for the bottom 9of a 7' popping rod. (w/ the palm trees showing of course) I was wondering should I just epoxie it to the bottom and taper the cork handel to fit it or inlay it into the cork? Also, what kind of finish sealant would you suggest using to cover it? I'm sure some of you have used your own state quarters in this mann
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I have a question about these urethane inserts for reel seats that I am seeing in catalogs. In an effort to take weight off my rods (for sensitivity purposes not because I can't handle fishing all day without wearing out :-)..) I am considering making my cork and wood handles with urethane cores. I like the look of wood on my rods but it does add weight. The average weight of the combined
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