Here’s a couple rods off the bench over the past week.
This one is the the Saltwater series of Tiger eye which are a little faster than the standard series. Its a 9’ 9wt 4pc. Seat is a real nice piece of wood I got from the Burl source called (and I know I’m gonna screw up the spelling) australian corogattu. And has Nickle silver hardware with a removable screw in fighting butt and custom cork full wells grip.
Wraps are red&black classic twist (discountinued) gudebrod, and has quad single turn Electra trim bands on both inner and outer of the wraps. Feather inlays for alighnment marks and dble foot guides finish it out.
This rod will be going on a long voyage in the next couple days as its headed for a new home with a customer in Australia. He was wanting a very small full flex rod and this blank deffinetly fits the bill. The blank is a 7’ 3wt 3pc Global Dorber blank and the only way I can describe this little blank is that it feels very much like my Leonard 39 cane rod in action. Any fish on this baby is gonna be a fight!
The insert is a heavily burled piece of Australian Corrugata mounted on some NS hardware, a grip with Copano cork turned down thinner than normal to match the small size of this rod. Light weight SF guides, inserted stripper, black wraps with red and metallic silver double trim bands finish this one up.
The Dorber blank really is a super nice blank if you like a full flex rod. The only bad thing I can say about it is this was my first time dealing directly with Dorber and it wasnt a great customer service experiance. Ended up having to wait about 6 weeks after paypaling for the blank to ever recieve it. Besides that though I would recommend Dorber on the quality of their blanks and hope my experiance with them was just a one time thing and it is better next time?
Hi Steve, the feather alignment marks are a pretty common thing amongst builders. It’s one of many ways to line up the sections. I dont have a close up of this rod because it is already shipped to the customer, but heres a close up of the feathers on another rod I did a couple months ago where you can see it better.
Is pretty easy to do. Just take a JC feather and make sure its clean and in good shape, then coat the back of it lightly with some CP. Then I take a tootpick or needle and put a dab of CP on the end just to use it to pick the feather up with. Then put it in position. Let the CP dry and then coat the wrap like you normally would. Pretty easy once you do one or two;)
Steve those are absolutely beautiful rods, TRUE WORKS OF ART.
I have been contemplating building a fly rod but have no experience. Can you recommend some reading material, videos, or web sites to get me started in the right direction?
I’m not Steve, although I wish I could build a rod like him, but if you go back to the Home page, look under Features, then Rod Building, then Graphite Rod Building, you will end up a 10 part series by the late Al Campbell. This is the best beginner rod building instructions you will ever find.
Yupp theres some good ones here that Al Campbell did. Rodbuildingforum.com has a ton of how to’s…rodbuilding.org does as well. Or feel free to shoot me a PM and I’ll give you my # and I’d be happy to help walk you through the process to get you started on the right track.
Polluting another site with your hack work, eh Steve?
Seriously, though, Steve does great work, as these pics attest. And although it hurts me to say it, he’s a great guy, too. I’m a very happy customer, but I do have to lump some blame onto him for my getting back into rod building. Thanks, pal!
