Thanks for taking the time to post your pictures and document the build. This will be fun to see it all come together. I like your idea of the trim rings of burnt cork. I went steelheading last week and ended up doing a lot of single handed spey type casting with the 9' 6" 7 weight (the new Scientific Anglers steelhead line works good for that). It made me want to build one of the Batson swich rods, too.