kabuto 7033 build (photo heavy)

[sagebass]

I just finished building this Kabuto 7033 in white. I'm very impressed with the quality and action of this blank. One of the nicest rod blanks I've handled. Of all of the white Kabuto builds that I've seen two stood out as being the most attractive: Matt's build with pale yellow wraps and antique gold accents and Vlad's build with gold wraps and red accents. I thought long and hard about my options and decided to follow one of these two color schemes.

I was originally going to go with Vlad's color scheme and use antique gold wraps tipped in red. I turned an osage orange insert amongst a few others, and I had difficulty matching a wood insert with my test wrap.

Then I happened upon a nice piece of spalted box elder burl that I really liked. I turned it and immediately knew that it would match the pale yellow wraps that Matt used on his build.

I finally settled on the following components:

SEAT: Lemke down locking darkened nickel silver slide band
INSERT: Spalted box elder burl
GRIP: REC cork rings
STRIPPING GUIDE: REC Black Pearl #8
GUIDES and TIP TOP: black nickel snake brand
THREAD: 3/0 YLI Pale Yellow tipped with 3/0 YLI Antique Gold
FINISH: PacBay two part epoxy finish. One coat.

Here are some photos with a few different reels.

[Betty Hiner]

Beautiful!! But you know you had me at "down locking"!

[bobbyg]

Excellent build!! I particularly like the handle shape.

With the white Kabuto blank I would have opted for more contrasting colors as to guide wraps.
Yours seem to get lost in the overall build. I would have gone for a darker wood reel seat insert also.
Just me and nothing against your aesthetic opinion. I'm sure most would find it very appealing.

[kbproctor]

I love it, guide wraps and all.

[sagebass]

bobbyg: Thanks for the comments. The first insert I tried was ebony (very dark). I was not a fan...although I thought I would be. Then I tried a few maple burls. I was going to go with gold wraps (which turn pretty bright orange) exactly like Vlad's build here: http://ultralightflyfishing.com/foru...4&hilit=kabuto

I turned an osage orange seat which is pretty cool looking (it almost glows), but it didn't look quite right (to me) on the blank. I finally settled on this more simple and classic look.

But having a translucent white blank opens up a lot of interesting options and forces creativity. From my experience doing test wraps, I think it would be very easy to go "over the top" and making the rod look tasteless.

I would say that Vlad pulled his off nicely though. And he did another with red and clear wraps which is even riskier.

Kbproctor: Thanks.

[hardhat]

Ahh another very nice lighter weight rod build. As usual the builds you have dispalyed are well done and thought out. How long did you have to wait for the Kubuto?
I must also add that I like the blanks that you choose to build on.