Quote Originally Posted by tkidder View Post
It looks great! Where'd you get the blank? Were there any other big differences between boo and graphite?
There are a number of places out there that sell bamboo blanks. You can find them from rod building suppliers and some rod makers will sell blanks.
The main differences are the wrapping with the finer thread and the finishing procedure.
The thin silk I used is very, very thin. It takes just over 100 wraps to make a wrap a half-inch long.
It's not as strong as nylon and it is very fragile until you get varnish over it.

With graphite, you coat the wraps and let the rod spin on the dryer. Repeat that once or twice and you're done.
With varnishing a bamboo rod, you varnish the wraps with several coats. Then you varnish over the entire rod a few times.
Between varnish coats, there is some sanding and cleaning to be done. It takes a while for the varnish to dry.
(Some people prefer to varnish the rod completely first, and *then* wrap the guides over the finished rod blank. Either will work.)
Once all of the varnish has dried hard enough, there's some final fine sanding and polishing to do.

Quote Originally Posted by herefishy View Post
Did you mark the tips just so you could keep them both in use, or do they have different actions? I think I remember, some tips are dry fly action and some wet?
The tips are the same. You are correct about some 2-tip rods having different tips. Often called a "wet tip" or "dry tip".
Orvis made a rod a long time ago called the Midge/Nymph with one "midge tip" making it a 7'6" rod and a "nymph tip" making it a 7'9" rod.