Well, I just finished my 2nd wood-strip rod. Some of you may remember, about a year ago, I made a 6 strip rod out of ash. That rod turned out reasonably well. Casts a 4 wt. line pretty nicely. A little too much of a "noodle" but overall didn't turn out too bad.
This time around I made a 4 strip rod out of Purpleheart. (In his book, John Betts said he has found no difference in performance between the 4 strip and 6 strip rods he has built.) In addition to the 4 strips instead of 6 strips, I made a few other changes as well. The forst, obvious change was to use Purpleheart instead of Ash. I fussed with the taper to try to build a stiffer rod. I used epoxy to glue up the blank instead of wood glue and used double foot guides instead of single.
For the most part I think it all worked. The rod is certainly stiffer with a faster action. It seems to cast a 5 wt. line very well. I can cast 40-50 feet without much trouble. And it looks nice too!
It turned out a little heaver than I would have liked. About 5 1/2 oz.
Attached are some pictures.