This is a sweet little rod I built from a mismatched tip and mid section of who knows what tapers. The reel seat is an American Tackle DL5 with an Oak Burl insert. The grip was made from some much less than perfect cork wrapped with rattan. I used thread and epoxy to smooth the transition from grip to blank. A former local rod builder gave me a bunch of stuff that included the stripper. I had a set of nickel plated ferrules that had been left in the cleaning solution too long but fit both sections perfectly and were nice and tight so I just wrapped them to hide how I had screwed them up. The guides are wrapped with garnet tipped with black. Everything finished in polyurethane.
He recycled sections of two different rods to make up one rod. I have sections of four rods ready to do this with if I ever get the time/guts/money/space to attempt them.
What is the angle of taper on a fly rod, 2, 3, 4 degrees? The taper will likely be withing a few minutes of each other although the two pieces originally came from two different pieces of stiff grass. The fact the two section originally were not part of the same stalk of bamboo does not automatically mean the rod will not cast like a dream. I think our friend in Colorado has put together enough rods to do a little preliminary testing and flexing before investing the energy, time and expense of adding seats, grip and hardware to the rod.
I think its a matter of matching the correct two sections to make a rod that cast well. No an easy thing to do in my book. Kevin puts a little more research into a build than he lets on. Great job as always Kevin.
Actually what Kevin did here is fairly common and called a “banty” rod. take the tip and mid froma 9’ rod and turn them into a 6’ rod. don’t want to ruin the integrity of the original? then make a removable handle and you have the best of both worlds. pieces from 2 different rods? this isn’t as big a deal as it seems. look at almost any production rod and stat to measure the tapers. you would be surprised at the similarities
between a Montague and a Heddon. i don’t see a problem with this since i figure Kevin measured the two pieces to get a nice match up. Guess I won’t post the pictures of the Banty I’m working on.
Well, I would certainly be surprised in the similarities between almost any Heddon taper and a Montague!!
I feel most of us are aware of what comprises a banty rod. Even the use of sections from the same rod
will not guarantee a good taper, resulting in a good bamboo fishing rod. As I understand it, this rod was built
from “who knows” what builder’s sections?
I was under the impression, that a Banty was something totally different. A short bamboo rod built with a Thramer, or Payne…etc taper, not parts of a bamboo rod, let alone different bamboo’s …sorry
And like already mentioned, if it fishes good, great!
The set of ferrules fit both sections reasonably well. That was the extent of the measuring. I did spine them both and then ran the CCS on them as well as a static line test. There was a nice smooth curve to the rod and it casts a 3w line quite nicely. I have a hole I want to try it on as soon as possible.
That was the extent of the measuring. I did spine them both and then ran the CCS on them as well as a static line test. There was a nice smooth curve to the rod and it casts a 3w line quite nicely. I have a hole I want to try it on as soon as possible. 