Wrapping Rod #1

My homemade wrapping jig.

The finished wrap. Actually, this hasn't been varnished yet - the varnish turned this into a much darker green.

Dickerson 8013 - Rod #1

A long time and no posts. In the meantime, I finished up my rod. A modified Dickerson 8013 taper 5wt. Everything came out pretty good - I'm not thrilled with my wraps - or the pictures - but it casts like a champ. Next up, Stew's rod.

Marblewood grip and reelseat

'Boo Rod - Butt Section - Glueing and binding

I took 6 more scrap strips from Steve and planed them to Steve's modified Dickerson 8013 taper. I had to modify the taper a bit because my forms won't allow me to plane strips larger than .175 in. without hitting the shoulder bolts.

After planing - everything looked pretty good, not perfect, but good. For the first two strips, I attempted to plane on one side only - without flipping the strips every couple of strokes. That resulted in a few strips where the power fibers run diagonal rather than up and down. Cosmetic problem? Probably.I glued up with URAC 185 - a two part glue that comes with a powdered hardener mixed with walnut shell flour. I have used URAC at Steve's, but he uses pure hardener and mixes with water. That resulted in a much thinner glue. I went with the walnut hardener for this first attempt at glueing because it is supposed to fill in gaps. I mixed 13 grams of hardener with 100 grams of resin.

I hand bound the section using 20lb fly line backing. Here is a picture of the binder setup I used which actually worked very well.

After binding - I hung the rod in my stairwell with a heater blowing on it. The glue need to be above 70 degrees to cure. I left it overnight, and took it down this morning. After sanding, it looked really nice. One bad glue line, but overall not bad. Next step, mounting the ferrules.

 

Butt and tip sections

'Boo Rod - Tip Section

The first tip section to come out of my rod factory. The taper is based off of a Dickerson 8013. At this point, six strips have been hand planed, glued together, bound and sanded. I got too aggressive with the sandpaper and ended up rounding off the corners on the top 6 inches.

Birdseye Maple Duck Call

Duck Call
Reed: Double mallard
Material: Birdseye Maple
Finish: Polyurethane

First Bamboo Curlies!

After months and months of filing steel off of the planing forms, I think they are done. I got a few rough tapered strips from Steve and started planing. One of these days - this is going to be a fishing rod.

Marblewood Knitting Needles

Marblewood Knitting Needles
Size: No. 9 (US)

Material: marblewood

Finish: HUT Crystal Coat