Wood strip-built rod pictures

[Royce]

Over on the fly fishing board some of us were discussing the strip-built fly rod I have started. Some people wanted to see some pictures of the process and my progress so here are a few.

#1- The top section of the 2 pc. rod mounted on the lathe and ALMOST done tapering. When done this will taper from slightly less than 1/8" at the tip to 1/4" at the ferrule.

#2- Another shot of the top section (lying beside Mr. Bett's GREAT book)

#3- The bottom section of the rod glued and wrapped.

#4- Shot of the end of the bottom section after glue-up. You can see the 6 strips that form the hexagon.

More pictures in the next post.

[Royce]

More pictures of my strip-built rod progress:

#1- Bottom section of rod mounted

#2- Got a good taper going now. At the moment the taper is approx. 5/8" at the far end (ferrule end) to 7/8" at the butt end. Eventually this will taper from 1/4" to 1/2".

#3- Some of the tools used to sand the blanks down to size.

I'm "cheating" to a point. In his book Mr. Betts describes how he makes his own ferrules and guides and he turns the blank down to make both the handle and reel seat an integral part of the blank. I am buying my ferrule and guides and will be putting a cork grip and conventional reel seat on mine. I have to wait now until I get my "hardware" before I finish turning everything down to its final size.

Thanks for looking. I'll keep you posted.

[JohnScott]

Royce -

OUTSTANDING.

Maybe you could put together a tutorial on the whole process and submit it for a Readers Cast ????

John

[Kathy Scott]

Great pics (thanks for posting them). John Betts would be proud.

Can't wait to see the finished rod next week.

Kat

[clarkman23]

very nice!!! can't wait to see the finished rod...

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Royce,

Looking very good!! I'm enjoying the pics of yours in progress and reading the book as well.

Nice companion piece to the book.

REE

[Wildnative]

One question: Does the book say anything about finding the spine so the eyes get placed on the right side?

[Royce]

One question: Does the book say anything about finding the spine so the eyes get placed on the right side?

Doen't go into too much detail about finding the spine. What he does discuss is trying to get the guides attached to the rod so they are oriented corrctly to the wood strips.