Thanks for all your help.

[jw healy]

Well - it's done. My first fly rod, an 8'6" 3wt 4pc built on a Rainshadow RX7 graphite blank. The final coats of epoxy cured last night and this morning I took it out to the back yard to see how well it casts. Wow! 60 ft straight as an arrow, 20 ft soft and gentile. It casts and shoots line better than either of my store bought rods (an Orvis 9? 5 wt 7pc travel rod and a BPS Classic 6?3? 3 wt 3 pc) both of which I like a lot.

I couldn't have done it without all of the helpful advice I received from this group. I really appreciate your help with securing the reel seat, handling metalic accent thread, and fixing epoxy finishing errors. This information was not available or was incomplete in all of the literature or videos I studied before beginning the project and your quick responses allowed me to keep going and end up with a real gem.

I am already planning my next rod and have a couple of new questions. The epoxy I intended to put on this rod was supposed to be "lite" but appears to have been "one coat". I like the "old school" look and would like the thread wraps to show a bit of their texture through the finish like the 55 yr old Philipson my dad gave me when I was a kid. Are there any finishing materials that would work on a graphite blank that are thinner than Flex-Coat? I want to put alignment dots on the segments and plan on using auto retouch paint. Will that damage the graphite? I also want to inscribe the rod and thought about using Sally Hansen to clear coar the inscription. Will that work or is it likely to peel off or damage the graphite?

Thanks again for all of your help.