Monday, February 29, 2016

Rod #421601

Rod #421601

Here is the latest completed rod. Polished out a few days ago. It is a 6' rod for a Three weight line. I will be testing it out on some local small streams for Brook and Brown Trout. From test casting, it looks like a good rod to put on the taper list. This is a medium actioned rod just made for small Trout in small streams.



Koa reel seat with My usual shop made hardware. Snake brand guides and some very small 10/64th Hariki Ferrules. Wrapped in Vintage Black Gudebrod nylon thread tipped in Orange Gossamer.



Showing off My new old Hardy Flyweight reel on the rod.


Rod #421602

Here is the progress for this rod based on a Payne 98. This is a photo of the blank after the grip was turned. Great color on this one.


Shown here after the signature wraps were finished and before varnish.


Shown here with reel seat fitted and ready to be blued. All wraps are now varnished. This rod is just about ready to be dipped.


Nodeless Rods

The nodeless rods are coming along nicely now. Here is a photo of the sticks after the nodes have been cut out. I have already started splicing the sticks and gluing them back together. All I can say is straight. These sticks are already nice and straight and should be a breeze to hand plane. I will update with more photos of the nodeless process as I continue.


As always, Thanks for looking.















Thursday, February 18, 2016

So.........

     So I have gotten a couple of weeks behind

I have been working on a new project. That project is node-less rods. I feel like this will benefit me in the style of rods that I want to build, and also make better use of bamboo. Node-less rods are also a little quicker. This will help in making the longer hollow built light line rods. I will post some of the process once I get some photos together and get everything in order.

Rod #421602

I now have the blank cleaned up and polished. The ferrules have been mounted and the cork rings have been fitted and glued. The Spanish Cedar reel seat timber is ready and the rod bag is complete.


Above is a photo of the bamboo being prepped for the ferrule fit. The reason it takes so long to build a bamboo fly rod, it is because there are many steps in the process. Some of which are very tedious. Fitting very short ferrules takes a lot of time. The short ferrule leaves little room for error. The ferrule station must be checked to make sure it is straight enough to fit the ferrule before turning the station. If not you will end up with a ferrule that is not mounted correctly and then you have big problems. The rod sections will not line up etc.


Here is a photo of the reel seat area that has been turned down to the I.D. of the timber being used for the reel seat.


Ferrules are glued and then the tabs are bound with binding string.

Below is a photo of the butt section of the rod below the cork. It has been turned down to fit the reel seat. The writing is just to keep things in order. It will be covered by the reel seat. You can see all the power fibers in the rod. This is what we strive and struggle to protect as a bamboo rod maker. If this were above the grip it would look very poorly. Here the power fibers will be fine. They will be covered in epoxy when the reel seat timber is mounted.

As for signatures. I only sign My name on the bottom flat of the rod along with the serial number that I have in My log book retaining all the details about each rod made. I do not like to crowd rods with a bunch of writing. Especially My mediocre writing. 


Ready to turn the cork and blue the ferrules for tomorrow. The rod will be wrapped this week, and then varnish.


Not all bamboo is rod worthy

Tonkin cane is relatively cheap (besides shipping). Just like any other natural product you get some good and some bad. Some culms that take a little more work than others. You may have to cut out sections with water marks and bug holes. Then there are digs from it being dragged around China. Also the big dips behind the nodes. Those are no good at all. I built a blank recently and thought that I had discarded all the strips that were generally beat up. I do remove most of the enamel down to the fine haze that appears over the power fibers of the cane before deciding on strip use. Sometimes you just don't see a water mark or there is a dig that you think will have a good chance of sanding out when removing the glue. Sometimes you just mess up and use strips that are marginal cosmetically. I did just that with a blank I just sanded the glue from.


Here is the end result of a bunch of work down the drain. One water mark is not bad, three in the butt section of the rod is no good. So in the trash it goes. Sure I could have kept it but, I already have the taper for My own use. Give it away? Well, I only put out rods that are made with the best of My ability. I take pride in giving away or selling something that I made personally. To put in all the time and effort to finish out a blank that I did not like just seems crazy to me.

We learn from our mistakes. It won't be the first and it sure as hell won't be the last. I still strive to improve on anything I can and learn something new with every rod. 

Time for a beer and a break.

Thanks for looking.





Tuesday, February 2, 2016

6'3" #Four Weight 2/1 - SOLD

6'3" 2/1 #Four Weight

This is the latest rod completed and is for sale. This is a nice crisp small stream rod for a Four weight line. The usual components. REC Stripper, Hariki Xshort Non Step Ferrule (size 11/64th). Wrapped in Black nylon tipped in Orange Gossamer silk. Same rod as in the casting video. This is My go to rod for small stream fishing. Includes Duck cloth bag and aluminum tube. Shop made reel seat hardware with spacer turned from Cuban Mahogany. Rod weighs in at 2.4 oz. completed.










Rod #421602

This 7' #Four rod is coming along now...The strips were final planed...


...The apex removed...


Shown here ready for glue up


Keeping the strips straight after gluing


Heat setting the glue


Ready for the string to be removed


Thats the progress for this rod as of today. Will be finished within a month. Still need to mount ferrules, straighten, wrap and varnish.

Thanks for looking.