Balsa Bodies
Here's one way to make balsa bodies.
Take a short (6" to 8") piece of copper pipe or tubing and file the outside edge as sharp as you can. Then use the pipe to round off square strips of balsa you can get at most hobby and many craft stores (Hobby Lobby, Crafts2000, Michaels etc.).
After rough rounding the balsa, sand to a more uniform cylinder(balsa dowel). I then sand to shape starting with tail of the body being the tip of the dowel. When I get the general length/profile, I cut it off and final sand by hand. (in the picture the top left body has been turned around after cutting off and finishing. you can see the angle I cut it off is the general angle of the face.) For a slight cup face, wrap sandpaper around the appropiate size pipe and sand a 'cup' in the face.
Using a thin kerf x-acto type hobby saw, I cut a shallow slot in the bottom for the hook. For kinkshank hooks(reccomended) to deeped the slot where the kink shank bumps up press the rounded end of a small paperclip straight in. Between the kinkshank and epoxy, the body will never roll on the hook. Here are some stages of the rough rounding, and some finished bodies, flies and kinkshank hooks.
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