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My first rod!
I finished my first rod last night. Except for the name, specs, etc... The rod was a H&H IM6 7'6'' 5WT Charcoal color. I used red thread without color preserver. The rod actually turned oout better than I could have hoped for! It casts extremely nice for me. Thanks to everyone who helped me on my guide spacing thread, and everything else. Here's some pic's, I will post more when I get the name on.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...17/flyrod3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...17/flyrod2.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...17/Flyrod1.jpg
Feel free to give me any suggestions too.
I am looking into trying a bamboo rod for my second rod. Should I do a few more graphite before I try bamboo? Thanks you for any input
- David
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Game fish are too valuable to only be caught once.
-Lee Wulff
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Rod looks nice -- I like the red color you selected for the wraps. Good job. Did you use the light epoxy for the finish or the regular epoxy?
I was also going to get into Bamboo until I looked into what it was going to cost to buy the jigs to make the bevels and all the other stuff needed to do it right. I found the book by Maurer and Elser to be a good one to read before you start. Good luck whatever you do.
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Orthoman, I used felxcoat for the finish.
I was just looking at some of the bamboo stuff...I agree pretty spendy.
- David
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Game fish are too valuable to only be caught once.
-Lee Wulff
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Nice Flytyer. I think you should try bamboo. What I would suggest is that you either buy blanks or take an old rod all the way down and build from those blanks. the costs associated with getting into splitting bamboo, planing, heat treating etc...is pretty hefty. You can buy good blanks from a number of builders in prices ranging from $200 up and go from there. Boo will not get any cheaper, it will only go up as the good tonkin begins to disappear. There are a ton of older production rods and rods that need restoration or rebuilding that will give you hours of pleasure. To me, bamboo rod building is a real pleasure and when you are working on one of the oldies...you can almost feel the soul of the rod talking to you as you nurture it back to life.
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Nice rod you got there. I've just begun building my own rods as well, but I've started off with bamboo because A) I've wanted a 'boo rod for a while, and the cost of the new ones seemed prohibitively expensive and B)I like the idea of being able to make any length/weight/action rod that I can think of, and being able to repair any of my rods when they break (which can't really be said for graphite). I was able to get my set of planing forms made at a local machine shop for about $400, I've made a heat treating oven for about $20 using some cast iron pipes, and I've just recently made a rod wrapping device using a couple mouse traps for the thread tensioners. Altogether, my first rod is going to run me about $700-800 including all the supplies and tools, and my next one will only be about $250 for just the supplies. Not too bad considering even the new low end models run around $600-700. Starting out just by refinishing an old South Bend, or Granger would probably be a good way to go as well (actually, there's someone selling a Granger Special here for about $165 I believe, might want to take a look on the "For Sale" board). The best advice I could give would be to keep asking as many questions as you possibly can, and keep posting here on FAOL. Oh, and if you do get into the 'boo thing, find a local rodmaker (check on the ABRA website- goabra.com)- I've yet to find a rodmaker who wasn't happy to take the time to help a new rodmaker learn the craft. Best of luck.
Joe Martin
Salem, OR
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Flytyer317;
Nice job, looks a lot better than my first rod!!
After building a couple of rods I learned here and from talking to rodbuilders that I can start my guide wraps closer to the guide foot saving some time, weight, thread and epoxy.
I did a demo wrap in orange to show the "Forhan" wrap to secure single foot guide. (I use all single foot now) After seeing your red wraps I may just use orange!! It may even have less efect on the action too.
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Wait 'till you catch your first fish on it.
About the cane, I keep my $ by refinishing older rods. If you choose to go from culm, I'm sure there's more than one way to go about it frugally.
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God Blesses!
A wing & a Prayer! ----*<(((><~ ~ ~ ~
Quinn
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Nice job David. I'm sure you're going to have a ball fishing that. You might want to work on your finishing technique a bit when you do your next rod. You can apply finish just up to the end of the wrap, or you can let the finish go on to the blank just a little bit, maybe a millimeter or two. Try to get a nice even line all around. If you go outside the imaginary line you are shooting for, you can carefully wipe off the excess finish with the straight edge of a piece of coffee filter paper.
I like low-build finishes myself - either low-build epoxy or varnish. I use about 4 thin coats rather than 1 heavy coat. It's mostly about aesthetics, as anything that completely covers the thread will do the job.
