"Sweet Justice" 9' 5wt 2pc

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

This rod is a rod a group of guys that went in on it together as a "thank you" to their Lawyer friend for the use of his cabin. I was pretty much given free artistic design and just told it should be a 5wt and they'd like the "Scales of justice" incorporated into the build some where. They should have known better than to give me free reign to do what I want hehe. Blank is a Amtack 9' 5wt 2pc Matte black blank. The reel seat & butt are some pretty heavily burled maple with some birds eye in them. Seat hardware is BUL5 Nickle Silver hardware and grip is rev half wells. Wraps are Brown/Black Classic twist, with antique gold trim and multiple single turn metallic silver trim. Added some inscriptions over about a 6" long base layer of black thread and a few other details as well such as some Jungle cock feather inlays and Diamond II finish over the seat insert.











Steve

[farleycat]

Steve Your choice of wrap color and the burl for the reel seat is outstanding as usual !!! Hope to see you at the Pa Fish In.
Bernie

[herefishy]

I always admire your rods, Steve, have meant to ask if you do the writing on them? Do you just put them in a groove and what pen/ink do you use?

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

I have an Alps printer and I make all my own decals for my builds herefishy. They are done in microsoft "word" and then printed out on water slide decal paper and applied between two coats of finish.

Steve

[kglissmeyer]

Steve, outstanding as usual. You have the 'touch'. Thanks for sharing.

kelly.

[herefishy]

Oh, you can buy decal paper? Interesting. Probably not something I could do with my little HP printer, though. Is Alps a brand?

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

Yep you can buy water slide decal paper. You can do it on a inkjet printer but the results aren't as good because inkjet ink is transparent and it does take a special series of steps to do it that way so it's best to do it with an Alps printer. Alps is a brand of printers that print in Thermal dry inks and the best thing for rod decals, problem is they stopped making them about 5 yrs ago so they are hard to find and expensive. A good one like the one I have (Alps 2300MD) will run you about $400+ on ebay if/when you can find one there. I lucked out and found mine right before they started going up in price a few yrs ago.

Steve

[herefishy]

Since I'm in this for my own pleasure, I think I will try the decal paper on my printer - maybe put something opaque under it? Thanks for the advice.

[mediger]

Wow...I have seen several of the rods you have posted, and this is by far my favorite. Classy, creative, decorative, but not over done in my opinion.
Well done!!!

[Greg F]

Nice work, Steve, your thread work is very crisp. I really like that one.

Greg