I just finished this one. Had to try that maroon thread with no CP!
2pc, 9ft, 5w on a Fly Logic blank. Cherry grip with rosewood seat, TiCH hardware and snakes. Maroon thread with no CP and single turn gold trim wrap.
Looks great
Kevin, excellent looking results! Thanks for sharing. I haven’t used CP on any of my builds, just my preference. I really like what the finish does to the thread wraps as far as muting the colors. Do you turn your own handles, or do you have a source for them? Anyway - well done.
Kelly.
I want to start turning my own, but got this one from Merrick.
I like CP sometimes. There are times that the colors just need to stay true. I do like the deep garnet this came out, though.
Nice job! If you really like that deep garnet color, try garnet thread with no CP, really deep dark color.
kb, do you fish rods with wood handles often? How do you think one would work with an ultralight (1 wt) rod?
A wood handle would have two disadvantages for the 1 wt.
1.Even bored out and arbored would be a little heavy
2.the wood front end on such a light rod would not let the rod flex there and could be a site of blank failure if the rod got a full bend (oops where did that hog come from!)
I make and use a lot of wood handles and 3 wts down or full flex rods I don’t recommend on just because of that.
For a dressed up grip on an ultra light rod, I think I would do the fancy cork grips similar to what Yonks is doing in this switch rod thread, a rattan wrapped cork grip, or a combination of the two. A cork grip has the advantage of being able to flex a bit to avoid the problem Baitwaister mentioned.
There is no end to the different things you can do with a grip. Wood and cork are just two natural materials that can be used.
One of these first days (maybe after I figure out how to do a rattan grip) I can have you show me/us how to do a feather inlay!! Beautiful!!
Thanks guys! Missed out on a decent opportunity to get a used 1wt, so I’m starting to think about just getting one of my own built :).
I see multiple Disadvantages for wood handles almost regardless of weight.
- NO wood handle is going to be AS LIGHT as cork. Guys talk all the time about wanting the maximum “lightness” in their flyrods…it wont be achieved using wood grips!
- If the wood used isnt “stabliized” then sooner or later its going to suck up enough moisture to make it SPLIT. Then you have a real mess on your hands.
Ever see the magazine pics with people laying their rods IN the water posing with some super catch 'bow or ??..etc. Its wont take many dunkings to get the wood itself wet. - “Figure”…?? Ever wonder why ONLY the small inserts for reelseats have REALLY NICE looking grain in them? Run down to your local woodworking store ( NOT some lumberyard) and start looking at HIGHLY FIGURED slabs say 2" X 2" that would make a beautiful grip ( unstabilized of course!!) and look at its PRICE. Hopefully you’ll have someone with you to prop you back up again!
I think baitwaister has it spot on with the problems for a 1wt. The nice thing about wood is that you have endless possibilities to be creative as there are so many different species and no two pieces look the same.
I see a lot of guys like to stabilize their reel seat inserts I’ve always thought it was probably an unnecessary step. In my mind the inside is completely sealed off from moisture by being coated with epoxy. The outside also has a protective finish (unlike cork). If the right finish is used that wood is also protected from outside. You may develop nicks and scratches over time, but thats what maintenance is for. I’ve never seen a split reel seat and I know not all reelseats are stabilized. Anyway…my thoughts. Anyone got a good stabilizing step up at home? Might be worth exploring just to be safe and avoid the possibility that Sully has described.
Sully you arent kidding! The price on some of these burl turning blanks can make even the deepest pockets start to tremble. I was looking at getting a 1.5" x 1.5" x 12" turning blank of highly figured amboyna burl and if I remember right the price was over $70…ouch! There are some other less expensive options like maple burl and myrtle burl available that look cool too, but man I really wanted that Amboyna burl…maybe someday!
Yonks
A proper outer finish will hold back moisture for a long time…UNTIL a “dent” or a scrape in it allows “some” moisture thru to the inner wood… Cork because of its makeup doesnt actually need any “finish”…one reason why life preservers used to be cork filled…will last forever and float forever.
One thing we didnt linger on was a “DENT”. Ever seen a dented gunstock? Really spoils the looks…especially if its a top notch firearm. You can steam them out if you know how…but its still rather laborious and then requires refiniahing the area…or the grip…depending.
Nope…for me and many others just give me cork and anymore stick that darker rubberized rings on each end…they can take LOTS of hard knocks and not give up the ghost as they say
I didn’t turn these grips. I got 4 of them on a close-out from Merrick. Two of the grips have been bored out at 3/8" all the way through. The other two at 1/2", all teh way through. When I fit things up, I was concerned that a winding check was not going to cover the HUGE space at the front of the grip. As you can see, the winding check did just fine.
I’m thinking here, and we all know that is dangerous.
Now, On a ultra light rod, If the grip was bored from the back end as large as was possible as deep as was possible to lighten things up, then arbored. You would still have a fair sized hole that the blank could slop around in. How much does a blank really flex that far down?
Consider that with the description above and going by these grips that I can look at and measure, the front arbor would still be about 2" back from the end of the grip. If the bore of the grip is not too tight, the blank will still be able to flex some, particularly if the winding check is not glued to the grip. In other words, the blank is allowed to flex to eliminate that point of stress that Baitwaister was thinking of.
Guys, I can see it now. The Denver Post with an article that goes something like this…
"Earlier today, the Woodcraft of Denver store was held up at hook point by a fat guy in a camo fishing hat and vest for various small pieces of exotic wood. The robber was heard to say as he was leaving, “I gotta get a grip! I gotta get a grip!”
Too funny!
Your thoughts on the rod moving within the grip I think would be highly dependent on the glue used to fill the gap, but might work if you found the right glue.
I only have one story of a rod flexing into the grip. This was while fishing for pink salmon (2-4lbs) on the Garden River in canada. I had a 2wt fly rod blank that I built into a spinning rod (heaven forbid!). I was targeting some of the native trout that hold in a certain area after already having caught many salmon. I was throwing little spinners and hooked into one of the salmon and it was a good hook so I fought it. That little lightweight rod was literally curving all the way down to the reel seat. Thats the only instance I’ve ever had the rod bend that far into the blank, and thats because I was really under gunned for the fish I was fighting. You just never know what your gonna hook
Oh and I forgot to mention…Kevin that rod looks great!
Yonks
I was thinking that the blank be allowed to float ahead of the front arbor. Don’t fill that last 2" with anything. Kinda like a floating barrel in a gunstock. In the area you bored out to lighten the grip, use 3 mesh arbors or the like, but leave that last bit to float and flex.
Again, there is nothing for experience or anything else behind this, just an idea. That’s all. It may or may not work.
"Now, On a ultra light rod, If the grip was bored from the back end as large as was possible as deep as was possible to lighten things up, then arbored. You would still have a fair sized hole that the blank could slop around in. How much does a blank really flex that far down?
Consider that with the description above and going by these grips that I can look at and measure, the front arbor would still be about 2" back from the end of the grip. If the bore of the grip is not too tight, the blank will still be able to flex some, particularly if the winding check is not glued to the grip. In other words, the blank is allowed to flex to eliminate that point of stress that Baitwaister was thinking of."
The amount of true FLEX at the grip amounts to point squat. Because it IS “restrained” it doesnt flex but instead becomes a pont of HIGH stress. As long as the stress level doesnt exceed its modulus your OK…but allowing the blank to “float” 2 more inches just moves the point of highest stress further down the blank…nothing more.
An “arbored” grip that DOESNT have almost full length contact with the blank is definately the WRONG WAY to build a flyrod. If a premade wooden grip with say a 1/2" diameter bore is what is to be used, then glue up cork rings for the length needed…turn the glued “stick” to approx 1/2" OD…and then “fit” the 1/2" wood ID grip to the 1/2" OD glued “arbor”. Full length contact then.
About 10 years ago I built my wife a 3wt with a matched maple reel seat and all maple handle. This unit has been fished hard for those years (I used to sneak it out before she made me build my own!) Never, in those ten years, has there been a problem with splitting, cracking or swelling - or anything else for that matter. It looks as good now as the day I built it and it has landed a lot of very good fish in that time. I appreciate the school of those who stick with what they like, but don’t knock what you don’t have any experience with until you do. That being said, I’m currently building a new 5wt on a Cabela’s Traditional II blank and I just secured a sweet maple/rosewood handle from a supplier in Utah and it looks great. I’ll post pics as I get a little further along. Keep up the great work Kevin, your rods look great and I’m jealous I don’t get to make more than I do.
Kelly.
Well put. I think that the hardwood handles are much more durable (dent resistant) than most think. The first wooden handle I made for my own rod was about 7 years ago and it was made of bubinga. That wood is so dang hard I think you would have to take a hammer too it to put a dent in it. If I put a dent in that handle…chances are I have some other more serious problems on my hand. I think the most important thing when picking your wood for a wooden handle is to consider how hard (read: long term durability) that it is. I always figure if I can dent it at all with my finger nail I should probably look for something else. Many of the exotics are extremely hard woods.
Wood vs Cork will be debated forever. Personally I like the look of the wooden handles the best. Although as mentioned in other posts there is a time and a place where it may not be the best choice of materials.
Yonks
Those of you that DO fish rods w/ wood grips, who do you like them, and how do they compare with a similar rod except with a cork grip? (Perhaps this needs its own thread, didn’t mean to hijack this one. If so, mods, feel free to rearrange as necessary! )
I still haven’t ruled out the wood grip on the light lineweight rod…realistically, if the weight difference between cork and a denser wood is making the thing too heavy, a bit of exercise might be in order. Since the grip is also perfectly centered, by default, where your hand is, I’d think the effect on casting balance would be minimized.
Secondly, from what I learned from a guy who’s really into woodworking, we’re misunderstanding the term “stabilized” as used in terms of wood reel seats. The woods you see “stabilized” are woods that, in nature, are produced by some sort of natural biological or chemical reaction. For example, the ‘spalted maple’ is produced by, iirc, a fungal tree disease, which the tree heals over, but the fungus comes back, and it heals over again, and so on and so forth. The stabilization process kills or otherwise neutralizes this fungus so that it doesn’t consume the reel seat right off of your rod. It also preserves both the infected and whole portions of the wood so that they’re not susceptible to decay. The waterproofing we’re talking about is more of a sealing than a stabilization process.
As far as the sealing is concerned, I really can’t see how, if the grip is sealed up and properly installed, that it could be any more susceptible to “wet wood issues” than the wooden reel seats we see on the majority of freshwater fly rods. I’ve never seen a warped, split reel seat that could have been saved, had the angler only kept the darn thing dry.
As far as a stress point…it seems there’s two very different approaches to this…on one hand, there’s folks making a case for allowing the blank to flex by giving it a bit of room in the grip. On the other hand, some are saying that the blank should be completely and solidly attached to the grip, with no ‘play’ at all.
Through all this, there’s the general tone, however, that if using a properly hefty rod for the size & species targetted, blank flex at the butt should not be a huge concern. That said, fish with enough **** & vinegar to overwhelm a 1wt aren’t terribly hard to locate in many places. At this point, I feel it’s up to the angler to know his limits, whether imposed by his inexperience or his kit. If you’re fishing a 1wt with a wood grip and hook a monster…unless you’re prepared to wager your rod on your fish-fighting abilities, the safe route is to break the fish off.
Now, with all of that in mind…what say ye?