That’s why I have my favorites set to the Main Page and not directly to the Bulletin Board.
Jim
John,
It’s not even my rod, but I’m as anxious as a kid on Christmas morning to see your finished build!! Really, really nice!!
Betty
Have two coats of varnish on the wraps on the tip sections and three coats on the wraps on the butt section.
ABSOLUTELY NAILED the color selection. The Java thread darkened to a perfect match to the reel seat. I couldn’t be happier with how the rod looks.
It will be a few more days before I complete the process of applying additional coats of varnish, sanding and finishing the wraps. Will post some pics when it is done.
John
Can’t hardly wait my friend!
Waiting with baited breath here, John. The wraps looked great before the varnish, eagerly awaiting to see them done.
You have about 13 more coats to go. What varnish are you using? And does it have UV protectant in it. Are you thinning it down, or just right out of the can.
Just doing four coats. The varnish is Ace Hardware brand. Thinned it about 25% with Sunnyside brand turpentine. Went on very nicely. The third coat looked pretty good, and the fourth coat came out very nice.
John
I still have a couple coats of finish to apply on one tip section. Should be done Thursday at the latest.
The butt section and the other tip section are ready to fish.
I seriously considered posting a slide show of super macro shots showing all the flaws in the worst possible way !! That would include a pic of just about every wrap, and include the little air bubbles, the tiny bumps where the thread wasn’t trimmed quite right or the final sanding wasn’t as smooth as I thought, the places where you can see through the wrap and finish to the blank because the wraps weren’t tightly packed, the dust specks that got on the final coat of finish … You get the idea !!! But I decided otherwise.
The rod does remind me of an anecdote from my childhood - not as an excuse, but for perspective. My dad spent two years ( '50 and '51 ) in Afghanistan as project comptroller for Morris Knudsen Construction Co. when it built what was then the world’s largest earth filled dam. ( If you read James Mitchener’s “Caravans” you read about that dam when it was visited by two of the main characters of that novel. )
When my father came home, he brought two Persian ( Afghan ) carpets with a very traditional red / white / black pattern. 400 hand tied knots per square inch !! The pattern on the back side of the carpets was as clear as on the up side, just not as nice to the touch. Anyway, over the years that it took a family to create one of these carpets ( about 6’ x 9’ ) the pattern was flawless !!
EXCEPT since the Muslims believe that only Allah is perfect, they intentionally include in everything they make a flaw, which in those carpets was an area about half an inch by an inch and a half of a completely different pattern.
No insult to Allah in my bamboo rod.
John
P.S. If I really like fishing this rod, I will likely strip it down and redo the wraps “flawlessly” when I am through with my '09 Challenge.
WOW. Fantastic job. I realize there is no way to say forget about the flaws, for it was you that was working only inches away, but try to.
Remeber, if it were perfect you wouldn’t want to use it for fear of damaging it.
Jim
Thanks, Jim. Appreciate the encouragement.
I did find another minor flaw when I assembled the finished rod for the first time yesterday afternoon. It is a slight “mechanical” flaw that I think may have to do with how one of the ferrules is set. It gives the rod something less than a perfectly straight alignment when assembled.
Not something that is noticeable looking at the butt and tip sections separately, and I don’t recall it being evident when I assembled the rod to check the ferrule fit. But I probably didn’t check the overall alignment at that time since I was focused on the ferrules and / or it seems that the alignment on other than the spline is a bit better. Putting the guides on the spline of the blank might just be accentuating a minor flaw that wouldn’t be apparent if I had used the “straightest axis” approach some prefer to splining a rod ??
However, I did have a chance to get a feel for the rod yesterday afternoon. Kind of. Hard to get an accurate reading when you have a 25 mph wind, with higher gusts, knocking you and the rod and the line around !! Couldn’t cast into the wind, and with the wind at my back, I couldn’t load the rod properly on the backcast. I guess those 50-60’ casts were what you would call “wind aided.” My sense, after playing with the the rod in those conditions, is that the minor mechanical flaw will not really affect casting it in fishable conditions.
May get some fishable conditions tomorrow. Might have to settle for whitefish, but never can tell when and where one of those South Fork browns or cutts might decide to take the fly.
John
Just beautiful John…looking forward to reading the ‘Elkhorn Chronicles’ over 2009 ! Good luck and here’s hoping you tag a 30" brown.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Went down to the South Fork this afternoon. ( See Fishing Reports Forum for more details about the fishing part of it. )
First fish on the rod was an 18" mountain whitefish.
Fished both a lightly weighted size 12 prince nymph and a weighted size 6 stonefly nymph under an indicator ( separately ). After I started getting a feel for the rod and catering to it, it handled the prince nicely. Could cast that rig 50-60’ pretty consistently in the direction I wanted it to go. The big stonefly was another matter. Really had to think about what I was doing with that combination, and didn’t get much more than 45’ distance. When I get my timing down, I will probably add a few feet when needed, and somewhat better accuracy.
Also fished a size 18 griffith gnat. The rod really liked the dry fly. Cast it 70’ consistently even though I never really did get the timing down on the haul on the forward cast. At shorter distances, the accuracy was very good.
Didn’t do much other than overhead casting today. While fishing, I did use a water haul a number of times and that worked well. Also did some of those weird little casts that come along over the course of a couple hours to position the fly, and a few roll casts, and was pleased with the rod for that part of it.
Having fished a fairly fast action 9’ for 7 wt graphite rod yesterday, it was quite a change to fish this rod. It really is delightful to cast. A bit heavy, maybe. But the feel certainly makes up for that part of it.
The rod - in its element.
Ready for '09.
John
Congrats John; Very nice job and great baptism in the river. Now!
ON WITH THE CHALLENGE!
Pretty cool, John. Very nicely done…
Turned out great John. Has your casting slowed down yet. Backcast, wait…wait…wait- forward cast.
i’m very impressed john! you do very nice work. i,m really looking forward to your posts in the spring with this rod. if i can get my boat finished that i,m building i just might try to do a rod. never have done one but it has always intrigued me. i might have to get some pointers from you! btw, i hope you and your misses have a wonderful new year!
chris
John, I have to say that your rod looks great. Love the pic with the fish too.
Question for you. What did you use for a varnish on the rod?
Thanks,
Matt
Matt -
Thanks. Would have preferred a trout as first fish on the new rod, but the whitefish was the one in the system. HOWEVER, maybe the first fish on the OTHER TIP section will be a trout ??
Actually, the blank was finished when I got it, so I did not have to put any varnish on it. Would likely have used Ace Hardware brand varnish if finishing had been necessary, since that was recommended by a number of folks on websites devoted to bamboo rodbuilding. I used Ace Hardware brand varnish ( thinned 25% with turpentine ) on the wraps and they look just fine.
John
Turned out beautifully! And it works! Good on you!!!
Congrats on the 1st fish and ,the nice new build Jonh…Ed