Thanks for all of the nice words everyone. It was really a fun rod to create, and one I wish I could keep for myself too!
Jeff, yes I do all of the hand engraving myself. The leaping brown trout was done in the "bulino" style of super fine line push engraving. It's kind of like drawing in 3D. The dark area inside the fish's mouth, for example, is made up of a couple of hundred cross hatched lines which deepen, and darken, the shaded areas. I actually hid a little mayfly perched in the scrollwork on the opposite side of the cap. I figured a fish like that needed a good reason to be leaping from the water. The mayfly is about the size of a match head and boy did those details get small in a hurry!
Bill O.
www.oysterbamboo.com
Here's a couple pics of the President Carter rod Mike was referring to. The first is of the Presidential Seal I engraved in the butt cap and the second is a close-up of where he signed the rod before I varnished it. This rod WAS heading for the Carter Center charity auction, but after he fished it for an hour or so, he told me I was going to have to make him a second rod for the auction because he wasn't giving this one up! The second rod is on the books.
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