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Welcome to my rod shop blog! I'm a hobbyist bamboo rod maker or "Apprentice Rodsmith" if you like. This is my blog of what's going on in the shop. You can find pictures of the shop and other rod stuff on the shop gallery page. This page is just for fun. I make rods for friends and family. If I don't know you, please don't ask me to make you a rod. More qualified individuals can be found here: Rodmakers.) If you're expecting a rod, you can keep tabs on it here. Up coming rods are listed in order of production "in the hopper".
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In The Hopper I'm currently working on the following rods:
18H- Lowe 215
Lowe HCT 71034 Hollow |
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05/10/08
I cancelled a planned fishing trip to Yosemite today to spend some time in the shop and I'm glad I did. The rod's at a point where I can't work on it until Sunday or Monday night. The blanks are sanded, the ferrules prepped and the grip glued. I'd had some problems during the prepping stage with nodes and straightening and you can tell. It's not at the same level as my past few rods which is a bit disappointing. My friend Erik told me not to glue the rod up when he saw some of the finished and roughed strips. I don't have his experience so I wanted to see if it would really make a difference in the rod and from a craftsmanship standpoint- it does. The same flaws that were evident in the unfinished strips can be seen clearly in the rod. Ironically, the rod is not twisted.
Most guys would probably trash it but I'm excited to get together and see how it casts. I did a pretty good job about hitting the numbers. The tip is about .001 lighter than plan and the butt .001 heavier. Not dead on but close to it. That should make it ever so slightly faster than planned.
5/07/08
I'm back from Hong Kong and working in the shop again. I've also been tooling around my site a bit. Once every two years or so something goes wrong with the site; this prompts me to get out my list of admin. instructions and passwords to fix whatever the problem is. This generally leads to me coming across instructions on how to access the site statistics. The site stats tell me how many folks have been accessing the site, from where, how often, that sort of stuff. One of the stats gives me page views and it seems that this page, the rod blog, is pretty popular. Of course pretty popular is a relative term but the fact that anyone reads this blows my mind and is of course very flattering. Thank you for reading.
Most of the page views apparently come from Google searches but quite a few folks actually have the page book marked, which again is mind boggling. There are some strange stats as well; apparently I must be a subversive rod maker of some sort because China is the number 3 country in visits. Like I said, strange, maybe they think I'm trying to overthrow the government or something. I did go to UC Berkeley after all......Free Tibet! Actually, I'm more of a Nepalese kind of guy. It's my favorite food.
Anyway, I'm back to rod making. I glued up last night. My gluing sessions are a pretty relaxed affair and it usually takes me 4 or 5 hours. I use Urac 185 and store it in the refrigerator. I usually pull the glue out and give it a couple of hours to get to room temperature before I use it. During this time I take some time to clean up the shop and get everything ready. The rod binder I'm currently using is screwed to the back of my router table so I roll the router table out and clean the binder of any dry glue.
I usually wipe the binder down after gluing but I don't go crazy cleaning it. There's usually some glue left over that simply flakes off when it dries. Urac can be mixed with or without the walnut flour the company provides. I still use the walnut flour. It's a little thick and adds a few extra thousands of an inch to the my rods but I think I've learned to compensate for that- at least somewhat. I had planned to mix the glue without the walnut flour for this rod but I've been to busy to pick up the ammonium chloride needed.
The last couple of rods I've mixed with about 3/4th of the required flour and they came out ok. I'm still getting glue lines which can be due to my planing, the glue thickness or the tightness of the binder. I haven't quite figured it out and different folks have different opinion. I don't get glue lines when I use my 4 string binder but I haven't been able to use that without my rods turning into a twisted mess. I don't see well enough to remove twists before the glue dries, so if I can avoid it, I do. The rod last night developed a twist when my binder jammed with glue. Hopefully, I got it out.
After cleaning the binder and cleaning up the shop a bit, I'll lay down some butcher paper and then some wax paper on my bench. The butcher paper is for sizing the rod and providing a clean surface. The wax paper helps with the glue. I then pull out everything else I'll need, the scale, a spoon, a couple of cups, stuff like that. Measuring and mixing the glue is pretty quick and I use the 100:13 glue/flour ratio suggested by the company that produces the stuff. Last night I mixed something like 126:17 which comes out to be about the same ratio.
The 215 is longer than any other rod I've made. It's 8ft but a two piece so each section is slightly over 4 feet long and I wasn't quite prepared for that. I got by but my gluing could have gone smoother. The sections seemed to keep going and going. My shop isn't really set up for rods that big so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about finishing the rod. It's two big to fit in my dipping apparatus.
Tomorrow I'll sand using 400 grit sand paper. I usually go down to 600 but I read that the grain in wood actually stands out more if you don't go as fine. We'll see if it's that way with cane. If the blanks are straight and without twists, I'll probably be able to add the tip top and maybe even glue some cork on for the grip. Things will slow down then as I set up my new lathe before turning the grip.
4/18/08
I've been spending my time working on the bench. It's starting to come together but is taking longer than I expected. The fir I'm using is pretty soft and that's causing all sorts of problems. Next time I'll use something harder for the feet and pins. The fir tears out a lot.
It's starting to look like a bench though.
04/07/08
Still trying to do a bunch of stuff at once. Saturday I found some really good spaulted amboyna burl and spent the afternoon cutting it up into reel seat blanks. I've done some testing with the other amboyna blanks and the blanks seem to dry too quickly inside the house. They're checking like crazy. The blanks in the garage seem to be doing ok. So I'll dry the wood out there.
This weekend I completed compiling the wood for my bench. It's going to a sled foot bench of mortise and tenon construction using clear Pine and Walnut for the frame. I haven't decided on whether to use a double wedged tenon or pins. I'm leaning toward pins as I can use walnut pins on the pine to provide some contrast. Walnut is too expensive to make the entire base from but I wanted some nice contrast so the two walnut 4x4s will make up the side aprons or shoulders and the pine will be the legs, feet and stretchers or side boards. The top is a 1 1/2 inch beech counter top I picked up at Ikea. It's a little thinner than I might like but it saves me from laminating and planing the top myself. There will be a box cabinet in the center which will give the bench added rigidity and help support the relatively thin top.
The box will have walnut pulls. I haven't quite worked out the other particulars of the box as I haven't quite decided what all I need to store. I need storage for all the bits and accessories that came with the lathe, so one shallow and medium drawer should do. I should probably store my grinder there since it will be needed. That leaves me with a lot to work with. I need storage for me wrapping jig. In fact now that I think of it, the bench might also make a good wrapping station. Maybe I could install a drawer from my wrapper that I could also wrap from. That would be handy.
I've still got a long way to go before I have to make decisions about the box. I've cut the tenons on the legs, with one extra to test with and have started cutting the mortises. I cut the mortises with a drill press and then chisel out the excess.
On a rod making note. I knocked out spline 4 for the 215.
04/03/08
This week I've been doing various and sundry things in the shop. Not really concentrating on a single task. My bench making has been put on hold until this weekend. I've picked a nice beech bench top and some walnut for the upper braces. I've got a good bit of oak and birch ply I can use for the cabinet part but I'm still shy a pair of legs. I wanted to make the legs out of something light in color and was thinking about picking up some pine 4x4s but the stuff I've been able to find thus far has been crap. The stuff at home depot was cracked, wet and knotted. I don't know how they sell the stuff. The quality of available pine has really gone down hill in the last 10 years.
I cut 4 blanks out of the amboyna burl. I've got two sitting in the garage and 2 sitting inside. I want to see how they dry. The ones inside are starting to crack. I need to find some PEG or Polyethylene Glycol to help stop the cracking. Polyethylene Glycol is NOT the stuff in antifreeze. I think that's Ethylene Glycol and those that watch New Detectives know it's highly poisonous. PEG on the other hand isn't. An interesting, if old, document on using PEG in woodwork can be seen here: How PEG Helps The Hobbyist Who Works With Wood.
I got a spline or two done on the 215 rod. I'm really having trouble with my angles for some reason and the splines seem to have relaxed and are no longer straight. Erik says I shouldn't glue them up but I don't have his experience. I need to see what's going to happen when I do.
The rod was already headed down the wrong path as I planed a spline top to bottom instead of the other way around. The spline is noticeably stiffer and the nodes won't be in the right place in the finished rod. I'm using Garrison's spacing so it shouldn't really be noticeable. It's my rod so, no big deal, it'll fish but simply not be the "sum of all I've learned so far" that I was hoping for. I wanted to start hollow building this year but I think I've still got work to do on the basics.
I've been perusing woodworking magazines for bench designs and one magazine had an article that got me thinking about shop safety. I have fire boxes in the shop installed for storing volatile chemicals but I've never really used them properly. After reading the article, I decided to take my shop safety a little bit more seriously and went through the box to rearrange and structure things. It's amazing the amount of stuff you accumulate and forget about. I found nearly 20 quarts of wood finish products. Most of which I forgot I owned. That doesn't include the spay varnishes, epoxies, glues and thinners. I even had some navel jelly and pitch from my sword collecting days.
The final finishing tally was something like this:
3/30/08
Wow, the last month has gone fast. I've been working on my next rod, the "215", so called for the high point of the tip on the Garrison stress curve. I'm actually on final planning but have put that on hold because I recently picked up a new lathe.
It's a long story but I decided to get a lathe, looked on ebay and lo and behold, the perfect lathe was offered for sale the next day. I shot the seller an email and to my surprise it was Chris Raine selling the lathe. I bid and won and then drove up to Dunsmuir to pick it up. Now I'm working on making a new bench to carry the thing. I've got the bench design, now I'm working on acquiring all the wood.
In addition, the local Rockler had a special sale on burl. I picked up enough Amboyna burl to make about 30 seats at a fraction of the cost of an REC Amboyna insert. It's pretty cool stuff and I'm excited to start working on the lathe but first, I need to clean the garage up and make the bench.
2/26/08
Last night I had the pleasure of eating dinner with my friend Erik, as well as Yukihiro Yoshida, Shinichi Tsuchiya and Hiroshi Kono. Yukihiro is the rod maker I met at the show over the weekend and he was joined by Shinichi, who was here to sell his handcrafted nets, and Hiroshi who serves as their rep. in the US.
We had a great time talking rods and fly fishing, casting rods and eating. Yoshida- San's approach to rod making is very interesting. He didn't have anyone to show him how to make rods when he started, no Garrison book or other rod makers. He came up with his own techniques based on traditional Japanese methods of craftsmanship. He is extremely particular regarding the cane he uses and uses Madake because, among other reasons, he can cut it himself. When asked if he'd like to make rods out of Tonkin he replied, only if he could cut it himself.
And just as one would expect when a group of rod makers get together, the word "secret" came up quite few times.
On a more personal note, I've decided to make the 2pc 8ft 4wt 215 rod first, even though I prepped the wood for the 3pc rods late last year. I'm eager to try these new ferrules so I started splitting cane for the new rod tonight. Hopefully I can have it finished by the time Vita and I go to Mammoth. It should make a good rod to fish Hot Creek Ranch with.
2/24/08
Yesterday I picked up some new ferrules from the Japanese guys at the show. I'm pretty excited to use them so I've revaluated my rod making list for this year. Currently, I have enough ferrules for 5 3piece rods and 3 two piece rods. The ferrules I picked up were extra short super swiss style so I've decided to make a 2pc version of the rod I'm calling the 215 instead of a 3pc.
The 215 is a taper I developed based on the my experience with the rods Jerry Foster had at last years great western. I've lighted the rod one line weight so that it will accept the size 13 ferrule I picked up. In addition, I'll make the convex rod and a Payne 198, as well as an FE Thomas 6'8" 2pc and a Garrison 201. 2/23/08 The Fly Fishing Show was in town today. Each year there seem to be more and more cane rod builders. In addition to the usual suspects, there were three new rod makers attending. Doug Kulick was there. If memory serves he attends every other year. Another fellow was there whose name I don't recall and there was a fellow from Japan named YukihiroYoshida. His rods were interesting because they were made out of a Japanese cane called Madake. The power fibers in Madake seem to be smaller and more concentrated than in Tonkin. The cane looked as if it would be good for hollow building. I cast one of his rods, a 7'6" 4wt. it was different than I expected. I expected a slower rod with a more full action. The rod was sort of medium fast and threw a nice line. 02/10/08 C'est fini! I did the varnish on the grip bit but I can't say I really like it. The foot print is too big. The rod will stay in the drying cabinet for a few days and then I'll take it out and cast it again. Hopefully the weight of the varnish hasn't taken anything way from the way it cast.
02/05/08 I've put the last coat of varnish on the wraps for the Payne 97. I'll give it a couple of days to dry and then dip the entire rod one more time. No sooner have I finished making the Payne, I've been asked to do another rod. A 3wt this time. It'll be my first. I've been wanting to make the FE Thomas 6'8" rod so this will be a good excuse. It's got to be a 3pc so I'll very slightly modify the rod. Before that though I have some other rods to finish. I've got enough cane prepped and roughed for 2 8ft 3pc rods. One will be a Convex rod based on a Vince Marinaro taper and reduced a couple light weights to a 4wt and the second a rod based on my experience testing Jerry Fosters rod. I should be able to finish both by opening day and either should work well for the week I'm spending on Hot Creek in May. Then I'll finally get to Gina's rod, which I've now decided will be a Garrison 201. So it looks like my 2008 is already filled up with rod to do. My journey into hollow building will have to wait another year. 1/31/08 I can’t believe I’m going into my 4th year of rod making. I’m pleased to say that my craftsman ship is getting better. I don’t know if I can say I’m building better rods than 4 years ago but I’m confident that the rods will have fewer problems and better cane work. I’m not working a blinding production cycling, maybe 4 or 5 rods a year- of which I’ve sold 4 and given away 3. That means I’ve got 10 hanging around the house somewhere and for the life of me, I can only picture about half of those. The early rods had ferrule problems but that seems to be a thing of the past. I’m happy to say that I’ve had a chance to check out the rods I sold 2 years ago and they’re holding up well. I was even surprised by how well one of them cast as I remember not liking it much. I’ve had problems dying the rods with potassium permanganate and those rods will have to be re-finished. I’ve started using a new dye and hopefully that will hold up. I’m a little nervous that it won’t but we’ll see. For some reason, this year was a year of challenges but that resulted in great learning. I’m not as confident with my rods this year as I could be. I chalk that up to the challenges I’ve faced and the higher standards and expectations of myself. Of the rods I’ve made, I’m particularly happy the looks of rods 14 and 15. Not necessarily the cosmetics but the over all color scheme. Both were wrapped with orange silk but you wouldn’t know it looking at the pictures. I’ve settled on a grip style but I’m far from being able to reproduce it consistently. I’ve particularly liked the Payne 197, 97 and 200 tapers. The last Payne 97, the one I’m working on now (rod 17) was a super casting rod before I put the guides on. Let’s hope the varnish hasn’t deadened the action any. This year I’ll try to work on cosmetics. My cosmetics are weak and it’s time I brought them up a bit. I’m still having a problem with glue lines. The seams are even but there are still lines. My buddy Erik says it’s my planning and I’m sure that’s part of it but I still feel like eliminating the walnut flour and thinning my glue will help. Having a rod making buddy in town has been a great help. There are least 7 rod makers within 20 miles of my house but we don’t really know each other. By the end of February I’ll have all of my commitment rods out of the shop and I’ll be able to try some new things. It’s hard to try new ideas on rods you’re making for others because you never know how it’s going to come out. I’ll also go back to making short rods. I feel like all I’ve been making is long rods and while that’s not true, the next two rods up are 8ft rods. After that, maybe I’ll get around to making a rod for my friend Gina. If the last two rods were hard, the rod for Gina seems to be the one that never gets built.
1/30/08 Since my last post I’ve been wrapping and finishing and wrapping and finishing. Rod 6 is re-wrapped and the wraps are waiting for a final coat of varnish. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to put an over coat of varnish on it or no. My early rods were finished with tung oil. I really like the look and they seem to be holding up and I often think about going back to tung oil but I’ve since learned that tung oil isn’t a very good vapor barrier. I don’t think that will be a problem so long as the rods isn’t soaked in water for long periods. I’ve heard of rods being lost and later found at the bottom of a large pool. The rods have come out fine. I don’t think that would be the case with a tung oil finish. Maybe I should try to hand wipe a tung oil/epifanes mixture. Rod number 17 is wrapped and on it’s 4th coat of wrap finish. I’ll be so relieved if I can get this rod finished without any more mishaps.
01/12/08
I've done quite a bit of work this week. I've had rods 5 and 6 back for some time in order to fix the ferrules. I've re-glued the ferrules and they should be good to go in about 2 weeks. I've rewrapped rod # 6. It was the rod that I tried my flex coat experiment on and I never did like the way it looked.
Before:
After:
I've also decided to finish up the 97. I dipped it in varnish today and will again tomorrow and then I probably won't get to it for another two weeks. I'm off to Miami for a week and when I get back it will be back to rods 5 and 6 before finishing the 97.
01/07/08
It's hard working in winter. The shop is not heated so that means I have to tackle gluing and dipping on the weekends during mid day when it's warmest. So, I'm starting to work on some other rods that I have lying around. I have two that need re-gluing of ferrules and new wraps. These I can do inside.
I've turned the handle on the Payne 97. It's a tad thin and may look a little strange but it feels good. I've been tending toward smaller grips and have finally come upon the grip that I like. By smaller I really mean thinner. The grips are full size but the Payne 97 is a delicate rod and should be cast that way, not cast like an 8ft 7wt and therefore doesn't need a huge hammer grip.
12/23/07
Back to working on the Payne 97. The replacement butt section turned out a tad too light. Here's a picture of the new butt next to the tip.
The solution of course is to darken the new butt somehow. There are several possible ways to do this, take a flame to it again, ammonia toning and dyeing.
At this point, on a finished section, flaming might be a bit harsh. I'd risk over tempering the rod at best and turning it into a match stick at best.
Ammonia toning is an option. It entails hanging the rod section in a tube above a cup of ammonia. You leave the tube in the sun and the fumes darken the cane. This would probably be a good option in summer but I didn't think it was the way to go.
That leaves dying. I've used dye before, potassium permanganate to be precise and haven't liked the results. Fortunately, my rod making friends came to the rescue and I was able to use a different substance to dye the rod.
Here is the original butt section above the newly dyed section. It looks like it should be a pretty good match once I get a little varnish on it. I'm going to let it dry for a couple of days and then start working on the grips.
On another plus side, it looks as I've been able to salvage the reel seat from the original rod. 12/22/07 Well, Rod #16 should be in the hands of a new owner by now.
I can't really say that I'm happy with it. Before shipping I noticed a small tick in the ferrule when wiggling the assembled rod. Something every rodmaker hates to hear. It was fine when I finished the rod back in September. The nearest thing I can figure is that the glue I used on the ferrule shrunk, leaving a small gap or perhaps the ferrule didn't seat all the way. Since the rod didn't seem to tick while casting and it's a Christmas present, I sent it anyway with full disclosure to the follow presenting it as a gift. I'm not real happy with that decision and hopefully, if it becomes problem I'll get the rod back. I still ask folks to sell my rods back to me if the don't like them. 12/09/07 I've dipped the second tip on the 200. I'll let it dry for two days before wrapping. the guides and then dipping a final time. I've also been experimenting with some dyes for the 97. 12/03/07 I've cut the butt of the 97 to length. It's a tad light so I'm going to have to dye it to match the tips. That'll take a while so I'm going to knock out the tip for 200 this week and then start playing around with different dyes. 11/22/07
Well, I took the finished 16G Modified Payne 200L out for a spin today and I like it. Shane wanted a 4/5 wt rod and it casts both fine. It's a 5wt but like all the Payne's I've made so far, it's on the light side of 5 so a 4 works just as well. That said, it is a 5wt and so I did most of my tests with that. It'll make a good all around rod. It's casts well at 20 ft but I was also able to shoot 70 feet of line with really no effort at all. I attribute that to my modification and lightening of the butt. I'm betting that down at the cast ponds I could have it out to 80ft, which I've never been able to do with one of my own rods.
That said, the craftsmanship isn't up to snuff. It'll make a fine fishing rod but I have done better. That Payne 97 butt section I destroyed was my best work yet. Ironic since they were both made at the same time. I found out yesterday that there's almost no snow in the Emigrant Wilderness and that Tioga Pass is still open. What's a high country fly fisher to do? I can't pass up this late season opportunity, especially after the last 4 weeks I've had at work so it's so long rod work and hello high elevation lakes. Despite that, I've only got to more splines left on the second tip of the Payne. So glue up is looming. More pics are posted on the pic page.
11/21/07 A funny thing happened yesterday. Not funny "ha-ha" but funny "hummm". I cut myself on my plane blade. The funny thing is I didn't feel it. I was sharpening the blade, looked up for some reason and momentary forgot I had the blade in my hand. While doing so I somehow tapped my thumb on the top of the blade and cut myself without feeling it. I didn't feel the blade at all. I realized what I was doing and sure enough, two quarter inch cuts. They're not deep but the fact that I rested my thumb on the blade and DIDN'T feel it is astounding to me. Anyway, I've planned 3 strips on the last tip for the
200 and it looks like I'll be gluing everything up over the weekend.
This is the part that makes me nervous, tips are so easy to screw up.
They tend to curl up at the end as you get down to final dimensions and
if your concentration wavers a bit- "snap"! Broken tip. 11/15/07 No glue but the 200 is varnished and sitting to dry. It looks pretty good, so considering all the little things that went wrong with this rod, I'm pretty happy. 11/14/07 The glue hasn't arrived which is somewhat surprising. I've finished the wraps on the Payne. The re-wrapping was worth it, it looks much better. So far no pruning, that's a good sign. I think I'm going to place an over coat of varnish and then rub it out a bit. I still have to make the extra tip but I basically consider this rod done.
11/09/07 AM I've started to work on tip two and have decided to make some modifications to the tip. I've decided to beef up the last 5 inches and smooth out the transition at the ferrule. I've also move the transition point on the tip from 5 inches to 10 inches. I'm hoping this all results with a little more feel of the line during the cast. Meanwhile, I've put 4 layers of finish on the new wraps for the 200. I'm letting the last layer dry for 36 hours before adding another. Hopefully this will prevent the wrinkling I've experienced in the past during cold weather. 11/08/07 AM Well, no gluing last night. URAC, the glue I use has a shelf life of 6 to 12 months. My can read 11/26/06- time to buy a new can. This will set me back a couple of days. The URAC folks are usually pretty fast. If I order it early today, I might have it by Saturday afternoon. In the mean time, I'll start working on another tip for the 200. 11/07/07 AM I'm done with final planing on the butt section of the 97. Tonight I'll glue up the 97 and the second tip for the 200 I made last year. I'm hoping I can use that tip as the second tip for the second Payne 200. We'll see if the color tones match. If not, I'll have to start planing another tip this weekend. I am a little concerned that the butt section I'm planing now will be too light for the tips. I'm crossing my figures that they'll match. 11/04/07 I've planed down to .005 over on 4 of the strips. 2 strips are finished. 11/03/07 I've started final planing on the the second butt section for the 97 and rewrapped the 200. If I'm not bogged down with work again. I should have things glued up by next Sunday.
10/28/07 I spent most of Saturday on the football field at the Dunsmuir City Park casting rods. Jerry Foster, of Rodmakers fame, had taken the initiative to come up with a program for this years gathering. Chris Raine, who has organized the gathering since Chuck Irvine gave it up several years ago, has had to concentrate on his health and consequently wasn’t going to host this year. Enter Jerry and Dave Roberts, a fishing guide from Oregon and the fellow doing the amazing cast on the cover of Oregon Bamboo. Jerry created several experimental rods for this years gathering and using his CNC machine, he was able to put out eight rods in the time it take me to finish the prep work on one. The CNC machine is an amazing contraption. Through the use of a computer, a taper can be input at one inch intervals (if desired) and each strip cut in a matter of minutes- passes through the machine cuts a finished strip. Jerry brought with him 3 sets of rods. All the rods were 8ft 5wts. The first set were straight taper rods with the rod stresses calibrated at 185, 200 and 225. Stress is what rod makers use to relate one rod to another. Basically, the higher the stress at a point, the more the rod flexes as that point- in a basic sense you can think of the rods as medium fast, medium and medium slow. It was a great exercise. Initially I found myself drawn to the 185 rod. It was responsive and extremely easy to cast, especially in the wind. The 200 was easy as well but didn’t seem as powerful. The 225 was more difficult to cast well and needed some adjustment. Being the fickle caster I am, I spent about an hour casting these 3 rods. The more I cast them the more my preference shifted from the easy to cast but more tiring 185 to the 200 and 225. Once you got the timing down. The casting with the 225 was effortless and at fishing distances would be the more preferred rod. The 200 was a good compromise between the two extremes and would make a good all around rod for the average Joe. The rods were designed so that the highest stress point on the rod was at 18 inches from the tip.
The next group of rods were identical to the 200 rod except that the high stress points, or “break” in the tip were at 5 inches and 10 inches. The idea here was to compare the 3 200 rods and get an idea of how the break in the tip affects the action. The 5 inch tip was very sexy. Immediately I was casting the tight, 5 inch high loops that I like to play around with- very appealing but probably not a good fishing tool. At fishing distances you had to put a little too much effort into the cast. My reaction to the 10 inch rod was immediate. “This is the rod”. It had taken me an hour to determine that I’d liked either the 225 or the 200 rod best but only 5 min. to determine that the 200 at 10 inches was better for my casting style than the 200 at 18 inches but I still couldn’t say it was better than the 225. The next group of rods were pretty random. These were more stylistic. One rod was semi parabolic in nature, the next was based on a straight line stress curve and the last, was as Jerry says, “as soft as he could make it.” I immediately liked the semi-parabolic rod and why not, the thing was a cannon and I do so love to double haul. I picked the straight line stress rod up and put it down almost as fast- extremely unexciting. Then I picked up the “slow” rod and immediately had to do a double take. “Jerry, Is this a 5?” I shouted. He nodded his head. It felt in the hand like a 4wt and laid out line like a 4. “Wow”. It was a little on the soft side, but the weight distribution was really something. Returning home, I immediately set about designing a taper which the best characteristics found in Jerry’s rods- a 10 inch breakpoint, a max stress of around 215 and a softish butt. I cast several more rods that day, a well made Payne 102, Young Para 14, a couple of Winstons, a Reams rod, a couple of 8 sided rods Jerry made. I liked the Payne. Like most of the Payne’s I’ve made it seemed to feel overlined as I let out more line. This was nothing a good haul couldn’t fix and I left feeling that the 102 would make a fine all around 8ft 5wt. I liked the Para 14. I don’t recall who made it or really much about it other than that it would make a good rod. Jim’s rod was nice as always. It was little bit on the cannon side of the rod spectrum and would make a great lake rod. I don’t have much to say about the Winstons, I’m simply not a Winston guy. I don’t know why but Winston’s have simply never impressed me. I’m not saying I could do better. I simply haven’t cast a great Winston taper yet.
10/23/07 All the splines are prepped for the next batch of rods. Rod building this week has been interrupted by roof building. We had a leak on the side of the house, several in fact, so I'm replacing the whole thing. Should take me the rest of the week. 10/12/07 I've split the splines, prepped the nodes and roughed the strips for the tips and mids of rods 17 and 18 and need to do the same for the butts and the replacement butt for the Payne 97. I should be planing the butt for the 97 and the extra tip on the 200 by Halloween.
9/24/07 I've been lazy in posting but that doesn't mean I
haven't been working. I completed wrapping and finishing the 200LM only
to start the processes over. I couldn't get rid of all the fuzzies and
the weird weather meant that the finish on the wraps did dry properly.
I'm starting over on all but the last few wraps on the tip.
In the mean time, I've taken a breather from wrapping to make some real seats. This year I've started making rods as I prefer them; with a certain style I guess, which can be most seen in rods 1, 2, 12, 13, 14 and 15. That's a wide range of rods but each has a little of what I guess is becoming my personal "style". I really like the orange wraps as used on rods 14 and 15, the light and dark flamed cane and the "pecker head" full wells style grip on rods 13, 14 and 15. In addition, I think the burl cork as in rods 2, 12, 13 and 15 has a nice look. Though I've only used it once, the Tulipwood reel seat on rod one has always been my favorite. I also like the maple burl seat on rod 12 but I think that may be hard for me to find and thus duplicate. I like the idea of a duel slide band reel seat that I have on rod 8. It gives the individual a choice on whether to lock the reel seat up or down, thus affecting the weight distribution. At this time, I've got a bit of work before I can start producing seats in my shop. The first set of slide band hardware I produced seems a bit heavy; I need to work on lightening up the seats if I'm going to go the duel sliding route. The tulipwood itself is heavier than other seats. I don't own a metal lathe. I turned the seats and hardware at Erik's house and was amazed how much easier it was than on my wood lathe. Erik showed me his process for making seats and will give me free use of the lathe when I need it. I'll be able to turn the wood at my place and then follow that up with a trip to Erik's.
So what will a "Jim Lowe" rod look like? Probably a lot like rod 15, with the handle of 13 and home made duel sliding reel seat. I still need to work on my grips. I actually like the grip on rod 13 the most. It's the most comfortable for long term fishing so that's what I'll strive for. I haven't made a decision on truncated versus step down ferrules. The truncated ferrules weigh less but I've not done a side by side comparison as I have with the step downs and standard. Tomorrow, if I'm not playing Halo 3 :) I'll finish the seats and start working on a new batch of rods.
09/10/07
I finally got the new stripping guide in. It's not as dark as I would hope. I was hoping for dark reds with browns and some blacks but instead is reds and oranges. I've wrapped the rod and given it 3 coats of varnish thinned 50%. The silk has the worst case of the fuzzies I've ever seen. I'm not sure what the cause is.
09/07/07
I've had quite a dramatic last few weeks. The result of which has been a nice 2 days stint in the local hospital and zero rod making for several more weeks. Fortunately, I can still wrap rods so I've almost finished wrapping the 200. I'm still waiting on the stripping guide and I won't add finish to the wraps until I've been able to include it.
08/18/07
I dipped the rod 3 times this week, with sanding in between coats. I took the rod down to the casting ponds and my impression has changed. I'm not sure why, but the rod feels slower now and more like what I expected. I'd call it a solid WF5 now and I liked it with both a WF5 and TT5. It was fine with a DT5 or DT4 as well.
So why the change of heart? I don't know, the rod just felt different down on the casting ponds. Perhaps my guide placement was different than before or the shorter guide feet made a difference. Snake Brand guides come pre-shaped and most guys simply use them as is. I shorten the feet about 1/3 to 1/2 of their normal length. When I test cast the rod the other morning I hadn't made any changes yet. I also hadn't removed the string I use for binding the ferrules. It seems unlikely but maybe the shorter guide feet and lack of string at the ferrules made a big enough difference for me to feel. In any case, the rod now seems spot on.
I've ordered a new stripping guide from Snake Brand. I couldn't get a hold of the Goldenwitch guide. Wrapping should go quickly as there is no tipping.
08/13/07- 11:30pm
I dipped the 200L tonight, which I've marked on the rod as P200 LM so that I know it's a modified taper. With the last couple of rods, I've been getting runs in my finish. I've figured out what is causing it and it should be easy to fix.
I may have burned out dipping motor. I hope not. Instead of turning the motor off while the rod was soaking in the tube, I left it in neutral which stops the motor from running but apparently isn't a good thing to do as it wouldn't turn back on again after an extended period of time. Hopefully it's simply over heated.
I had to extract the tip section by hand and I suspect this will leave a heavy finish on the tip. I'll probably have to sand all the finish off of tomorrow.
08/13/07 - 7:00pm
I test cast the 200 before work this morning. It's a solid DT5. It's not the 200L that I had cast at the Great Western a couple of years ago. I guess I'll need to keep searching for that taper. It should make a good transition rod, that is transition from graphite to cane.
It's more different from 200 than I expected. The faster mid really makes a difference. I think if I were to make it again I might take it down half a line or hollow it out. I seem to be drifting away from DT5s and moving toward WF5s. We'll see how I feel once I get it down to the casting ponds. I suspect it will rock with a TT5.
08/12/07
Well, I shook off Friday's disaster to get some good work done on the 200. I've been calling it a Payne 200 but it's really a 200 L which I've converted from a 4wt to a 5wt and then softened the butt. Rod 14F is a true Payne 200 and is softer throughout. The Payne 200L has a faster mid and a slightly faster butt. I've slowed the mid down a hair and the butt slightly less than that. I think it should be a good rod.
The grip has been turned on the 200, no mishaps this time. There's a slight glue line on the cork but I think it should be ok. The ferrules are glued and later this afternoon I'll turn them down. I might be casting it as early as this evening. The original stripping guide is supposed to be red agate but, since the overall motif of the rod is brown and black, I think I might order a new stripper. Goldenwitch has a stipper called the espresso and beans. With any luck I can get someone on the rodmakers board to part with one.
08/10/07
Stick a
fork in me......I'm done. 40 plus hours of work and $100 plus dollars of
rod went flying in the air today, leaving me no choice but to start
over.
First thing this morning I taped some guides up on the 97 and took it for a spin in the driveway. It cast fine as a 7.5 rod. In fact, I preferred it to the Payne 100. Regardless, I removed the ferrules, which was a pain but confirmed that the golf shaft epoxy I use is good stuff. It took me over an hour to remove the ferrules from all 3 sections and it required lots of heat, a bench vise and my full body weight plus the strength of my legs. No problems, I cut the sections to length and then decided that I was going to take the grip down a tad. It felt a little large during casting.
So, into the lathe it went. I didn't cinch up the tail stock right away, I wanted to check the ferrule end to see if I needed to make any adjustments. I turned the lathe on but held my palm to the side of the grip to control wobble and before I knew it the last foot of the butt section went flying into the driveway. It had sheered clean off. I used two ton epoxy to glue the reel seat on and it appears to want to stay. I couldn't get it off with dry heat. Maybe I'll boil it but my experience has been that once glued, it's hard to reuse a reel seat.
I don't have enough cane ready for a butt section of the same color so a new butt will have to wait until I've roughed some wood for my next batch of rods..... So much for the excitement of nearly be done. At least I had a chance to test cast it first. Too bad. The nodes on the butt were some of my best work......
08/09/07
....and things were going so well. I glued up the ferrules on the 97 tonight and was rather pleased and admiring my work when I noticed that each section was 3 inches longer than the rod standing right beside it, which; unfortunately, is also a Payne 97. Oops. I've cut the sections too long.
It should have been a no-brainer really. The entire time I was planing the rod I knew the sections had to be 42 inches long but when I went to cut them I had convinced myself that the total rod length was supposed to be 90 inches, which means the sections needed to be 45 inches each. I thought this strange since I usually leave some extra wood on the strips and they were exactly 45 inches long. Relieved that I caught my "mistake" before I cut the blanks to size I went ahead and cut and added ferrules.
Of course a rod of 7 feet, which the Payne 97 is, is 84 inches. I'm going to have to cut 3 inches from the bottom of the tip and close to the same off the top of the butt section. I'm also going to have to order new ferrules since the correctly cut pieces will require a size 12 ferrule and not the 13 I'm currently using. This will put me back about two weeks as I'm going to have to order new ferrules from CSE. Who knows when I'll get them.
On the upside. I can lap the ferrules tomorrow and check out how the taper casts at 7.5 feet. :)
08/08/07
The Payne 97 is coming along quite nicely. The blanks are cut to size and I've installed the grip and handle. I should probably install the ferrules tonight but will probably wait until the weekend. The first 3 sections of the 200 have been glued and are hanging.
The measurements for the tip are almost dead on. The butt ended up a little heavy, yet again, but it should be ok. The butt for the 97 is light anyway, more of a 3wt butt on a 4wt tip. This should even it out a bit. I still can't figure out why my butts keep coming out a tad large, especially when the sections are dead on before gluing.
08/01/07
I made some pretty good progress on the current crop of rods. I'm a bit surprised but I guess my efficiency in planing has picked up and I knocked out the second tip of the Payne 97 pretty quickly. The first 3 splines of the tip for the 200L followed. I could probably have knocked out both full tips by now but instead I decided to glue up the 97. It's hanging to dry now.
I thinned my gluing mixture a tad. I still used the walnut flour but only used a 10/100 ratio and not my standard 13/100. I sifted the ammonium chloride out of the extra 3 grams and included it without the flour. This should give me the same strength without as much fill. Once I get done with this batch of rods I'll switch to gluing without the flour.
07/29/07
The fellow I fished with in Va. sent me a picture of my first brookie in Shenandoah National Park. It turned out to be a pretty good picture of rod 15. I'm really starting to like orange as a wrap color on both the dark and light rods.
07/23/07
Sunday was my first time back into the shop in quite a while. I've now finished the tip and butt on the Payne 97. Normally that'd be a good thing but since I agreed to make 2 tips for this rod, I'm not finished yet. Ironically, if both rods were only 1 tip I'd probably have them done by mid August but I really hate 2 tip rods so the motivation's not there to finish them anytime soon. I'm guessing that I still have 20 hours of planing to do on both rods.
07/21/07
I'm back. The SNP rod worked like a charm. It's a bit stiff though so I think I may keep on tweaking the taper. I fished it for a week and caught plenty of small Brookies. Unfortunately, it's suffered the same fate as the Payne 200; namely, it now has a nice dent and plenty of deep scratch marks due to a heavy fall I took. The dent is nearly identical but the scratch marks are much deeper.
07/05/07
The SNP rod is officially finished. The wraps near the winding check could use another coat of finish but the other wraps are ok and since I leave tomorrow, I'm going leave it the way it is. The new silk seems to absorb the finish more than the old. The wraps took 4 50/50 coats and 3 75/25 coats of varathane 900.
When I get back, I'm knock out rods 16 and 17 and start on some high country rod ideas I have. 15 is so fast in the mid I should probably rework it, we'll see.
07/2/07
Erik and I took some rods down to the casting ponds this weekend. I was casting like crap which, unfortunately, is to be expected after a week of casting in my driveway. Adjusting my stroke to avoid the powerlines always causes me problems. I go to the casting ponds to gage the rod and determine the stripper position which means I have to be able to feel the action. We'll I couldn't feel the rods on Sunday and when I switched to different rods I was throwing a terrible line.
Fortunately, it wasn't a total waste of time. The rod is a little more stiff than I would have liked, I can't feel the reverse drop in the butt, so I'm going to have to continue with that experiment and place a reverse drop on another rod. That said, it actually performed as designed. Namely, it casts tight loops close in to 20 feet. Casts OK from 25 to 45 feet but will shoot line out to about 70 feet. That's precisely what I wanted.
I do need to finish that extra tip. Erik said the last 4 inches of the tip was really flipping over. This makes sense since there's a .01 to .015 drop from 5 inches to 4 inches but it also means it might break. We'll see. If it survives the next week I'll be happy. I'll just have to remember not to stress it too much while landing fish.
Overall, I spent about 2 days trying to determine the guide placement on this rod and nothing was really definitive. I started with my usually 8 (7 guides and a stripper). Then went to 9 to see if it would help the rod shoot more line. It didn't seem to. At the casting ponds I lost a guide so I tried 6 guides and a stripper and that was terrible. The line was sagging and slapping the rod everywhere. I decided on 8 and wrapped and varnished the wraps last night.
Every time I make a rod for a trip east, I'm rushing the finish. The last rod I made for a family reunion, I actually made in a day. I brought the graphite blank, thread and guides with me and wrapped the blank and put one really thick coat of flexcoat on the wraps before fishing the rod the next day. Ironically, that rod turned out to be one of my favorites and saw a lot of action.
That's what I'm doing now. I didn't spend as much time in the shop yesterday as planned, so I decided not to add tipping to the wraps. Only the ferrule wraps have tipping. I put two coats of 50/50 Varathane 900 on last night. I'll add an additional coat Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday night and let the rod dry Thursday before packing it up for my trip Friday.
Do I feel rushed? You bet I do. I'm having to cancel a Golden Trout trip on Wednesday so that I can work on the rod and tie flies.
6/29/07
The hand wiped varnish idea didn't work. The Epifanes attracts more dust than the tung oil did. There are dust particles all over the rod and I can't get rid of them. I'm dipping the last coat.
06/27/07
I test cast the SNP rod a couple of nights ago. It casts fine despite the mishap with the tip. 3 days of hand wiped varnish and then it's off to the casting ponds. I'll have the wraps done and the rod ready to fish by the 4th of July.
I fished the Miyazaki rod last weekend. I made a great high country rod, especially in the wind. The butt's a little heavy but overall it was a good, comfortable rod to fish with. It handled the wind and roll cast well.
6/22/07
Well, over all it's been a good week. The grip on the SNP rod has been turned and the ferrules installed. 4 splines on the Payne 97 have been finished I need to start thinking about guides and placement.
6/18/07
I practically destroyed the tip on the SNP rod on Sunday. I was doing some sanding and picked up the wrong grit; before I knew it I'd gone from something like .073 to .060 in less than 1 inch. It's not a huge problem, I've got a second tip all ready for final planing.
I've had two solid nights in the shop. Last night I prepped the second tip of the SNP rod and the first tip of the 97 for final planing. Tonight I planed 3 strips of the 97 to final dimension.
Yesterday I glued up the grip on the SNP so it looks like tomorrow I'll work the grip and ferrule stations. If I have time I'll even glue up the ferrules and real seat. I could be casting the rod by Thursday but Monday is more likely. I'm heading out to Saddlebag this weekend so no rod work.
6/16/07
I started on the tips of the 97 today and scraped the glue off the mid of the SNP rod. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. The blank is dead straight, even with the 3x3 node spacing I used- that's a first. I switched to the Garrison spacing simply because I was getting straighter rods with it. Now it looks like I'll have to build up a set of rods with Garrison, Payne and Leonard spacing and see which one makes the better rod.
6/14/07
It's been a non-eventful month as far as rod making goes. I gave the 200 a good work out in Mammoth the week of memorial day. It's a good rod but the grip is uncomfortable for long periods, it's too long and my hand started to crap. It's still cramps when I cast other rods. I got to think a lot about the rod's deficiencies as a high country rod and have, what else, come up with an experimental high country taper. If I'm lucky I'll get to work on it before October.
I broke in the new JW binder tonight. It's not quite the wunderbinder I imagined it to be. I still had some of the same problems that I had with my home made binder. The cradles are better so that's a plus but I don't yet have the proper technique. The Urac is really starting to bug me. It just gets so darn tacky during binding that it makes me want to take off my gloves and do everything with my bare hands. Of course, being a urea glue that wouldn't be a good idea but once the gloves touch the glue, everything sticks to it- binding cord, binding belt, razor blade, everything. It makes it hard to tie knots and wrap the cord and the glue just gets tackier the longer I take.
Anyway, the SNP rod is glued up. It's a little twisted I think but we'll see. I'll probably scrape the glue of on Monday or Tuesday and cut it to size. I could have the grip finished and ferrules installed on Saturday and then it would simply be a matter of installing the real seat and wrapping. I haven't given much thought to a color scheme yet. The rod is blond and that's not really my bag so I'm not sure what I'll do yet.
5/08/07
Still slow going but I'm at the half way point. All the butts have been planed. The mid on the 200L has been planed and I'm working on the SNP rod.
4/14/07
Things have slowed a little on the rod front. I've been neck deep in work for the past few weeks and since that pays the bills.........
That said, I'm done with the butt section on both rods 15 and 17 and have set the taper for 16. The new forms are working well. I've decided to sell the Lie-Nielsen plane. I just don't like working with that rodmaker's grove. It makes it difficult for me to gauge the balancing point on the forms.
On a sad note, I did some bass fishing a few weeks ago and trashed the finish on the Payne 200. How'd I do this? Easy, I put a bare rod in the back of a quad without bag or tube. The quad rack had some gritty debris and all the bouncing around scratched up the finish and actually put a dent in the cane.
3/24/07 4 splines to go.
3/23/07
Well, finally done with node work. Each spline might need a little work when I get to final planing but things are good for now. I've got about 10 pieces left to rough and then I can continue on with final planing. I've been trying the soaking method that a lot of other rods builders like to use. It's incredibly easy to plane the strips while they are wet and this is great for roughing. I'm roughing by hand because it's just as fast as the rougher. I tried putting the wet strips through the rougher. I didn't get any burning but it did dry the strip out and wasn't any faster than roughing a dry stick. Doing node work using a heat gun on the wet stick wasn't any better than steaming the nodes on a dry section. What was much better is steaming the wet node. The cane because pliable almost instantly.
So I've adopted some new methods that seem work so far. I've also started "displacing" the nodes, that is pressing the nodes in a vice which has a small notch for the node ridge. It essentially flattens everything but the ridge and then you simply sand the ridge off.
3/18/07
Erik and I used a new method to heat treat the cane yesterday. I wasn't able to rough out all the sticks so I opted to heat treat before roughing. In addition to rods 16 and 17, I treated enough additional cane for 10 more rods. I can't talk about the new method- one of those rod building secrets but suffice it to say, Erik and I treated enough cane for 30 rods and the result was a very consistently heat treated batch of sticks with a deep straw color. The sticks feel a little brittle to me but I was able to split one fourth of a culm into a 1/4 inch stick and completely bend it into a circle and then had it spring back with pretty good force. So, according to all my reading it appears just right but does seem a little drier than when I heat treat at home.
The butt section for 16 is roughed out.
3/14/07
Well, it turns out I didn't have as much cane as I thought. I was staggering the nodes for rods 16 and 17 when I noticed that the cane had these pretty deep slash marks which made them all but useless. Fortunately, I had some cane left over from the Payne 100 rods, which are about the same color and I was able to use that cane for the mid on the 17G.
I've got all the cane staggered and cut to size but am still working nodes and roughing. I'm working toward having all the rods roughed out by Saturday morning.
03/12/07
I'm working hard in the shop, although not posting much. I've got a enough cane roughed for 3 rods and still have about a culm and a half more to rough. I'm not sure how much cane I'll end up with but it will be more than enough for the 4 or 5 rods I'm working on now. I'm still working on multiple stages of the processes at once. I've begun final planning on what will be the rod I use in Shenandoah National Park (SNP) this summer, while continuing the node work on the rods for Shane, the fellow I took to Mystery Creek last year.
I'm excited about both sets of rods. I'm excited about the SNP rod because it's a taper that came up with by tinkering with an existing Norwood taper for a 6'6" rod and then throwing in a few ideas that have been milling around in my head. The rod is designed to cast small flies in the 5 to 20 feet range, like the Norwood taper, but I've extended the rod 7 inches and plan to make the reel seat and grip 2 inches shorter than standard length, which should give me an additional 9 inches of reach. In addition, I've made the rod a 3 piece and thrown in a reverse drop after the second ferrule. This is an idea that Mike Brooks has talked about on Clark's (the internet Bamboo forum), its suppose to smooth out the effect of second ferrule on the rod action. I've made the additional 7 inches somewhat light, giving the rod a parabolic type stress curve and I've lighted up the last few inches of the tip on the rod. So I really have a new taper with no standard for comparison. Essentially, the rod has a very light tip with a heavy mid and a very light butt. I'm expecting the rod to cast well out to 20 feet without feeling parabolic. The idea is that the strong mid kills the action with less than 20 feet of line out. The rod should load quickly and I should be able to feel what the rod is doing during the cast. If I need to get out to 50 feet, the soft but should kick in and propel the line forward. That's the theory at least. I'm also planning on making another butt section which will essentially be a grip and a reel seat. The idea here is that if I need a shorter rod I simply remove on butt and insert another. It'll be interesting to see if this works or if I ended with a broken rod from too much stress.
I'm excited about the rods I'm making for Shane because, so far. Everything looks pretty good. I've got good straight cane. The coloring looks right, or maybe a bit light and the node prep is going well. The splines should make some good rods as long as I can get them roughed ok. The only unfortunate thing is that one of the rods is a 3pc and both are two tips so I won't be getting any extra rods out of this batch of cane.
My buddy Erik was over for a couple of days last week. He likes my finish and wanted to try my varnish so we dipped two of his rods last weekend. The first dipping went well but for the second dipping session, my heating light went out and the varnish didn't heat up long enough. After this experience, I'm convinced that I need to heat the varnish for a minimum of 2 hours and that sanding between coats is important. One of the things Erik liked about my finish was the flatness. I think that came from sanding.
03/03/07
There's nothing exciting on the shop front. I'm still working nodes and roughing at the same time. 15G is all roughed out and heat treated. I cooked it for 23 min. at about 325. It's funny, when I first started making rods everyone was telling me to cook for something like 7 minutes, Garrison style. But the more rod makers I meet the more folks tell me they use longer treating times. It's like the big secret no one wants to admit. Anyway, 15G is hanging to cool right now. I working the nodes of 16G and 17G with steam. It's slow but it allows me to rough and do nodes at the same time. It's amazing how easy it is to take bends out with steam.
02/25/07
I got some solid time working nodes and roughing today. I've got the shop set up so that I can steam nodes and rough splines at the same time. Seems to be working pretty well. I usually enjoy working nodes but with close to 60 splines to work, I'll be happy when I get to final planing.
I'm also starting to work on reworking the ferrules on some of my earlier rods. All in all, it's going to be a busy spring.
02/24/07
Well, I just got back from Singapore, where I picked up some rod bags. 6 bags in total for about $15.00; you can't beat it. January and February have been pretty good months. I figured out why I'm having the flaking problem when I use the potassium permanganate to color a rod. The answer was right on the Epifane's web site. Simply put, if you use wood dyes of any kind, they suggest hand Shenandoah a very thin finish to ensure penetration.
I took my new kayak and rod 14F, the Payne 200 down to Lafayette Reservoir a couple of weekends ago. I didn't catch anything but the rod performed fine and I saw some huge bass, which looks good for when the water warms up.
I've also been working on two new tapers. One is a modification of the Payne 200 that I'm making for a fellow's father. I like the Payne 200 that I made but I think the butt needs lightening up. The other is a modification of a small stream rod called the Little Willie by Bob Norwood. I extended the 6'6" rod to 7'1" and lightened up the butt. I also lightened up the tip a bit and plan to use it when I fish in Shenandoah National Park this summer. It's optimized to fish to 20 feet. In other words, it loads real quickly close in. I lighted the butt to get a little parabolic action going and hopefully it will be able to cast out to 50ft when needed. In it's current configuration it should load with just 5 feet of fly line out of the tip top.
Before I left for Singapore I began reworking rods 16G and 17G. These were the rods that I was hoping to finish before X-mas but ran into some trouble. I flamed the culms more lightly this time, there's barely any color but hopefully this will give the correct color after baking. I've still got the cane from the original rods that are already roughed so I'm going to go ahead and make 4 rods at once.
01/14/07
Took the Payne for a test cast out front yesterday. I really like it. It should make a great fishing rod. I just hope the grip holds out. I probably should have stabilized the bark first. I used an agate stripping guide for the first time. It looks nice but I don't know how it will hold up.
01/10/07
Well, it's a new year and I'll be starting on some new rods this weekend. The Payne is finished. It came out ok. If I get a chance I'll take it down to the casting ponds for a workout this weekend.
I like the way the wraps turned out for the most part with 4 coats of Varathane 900. I've been hearing a lot about the FE Thomas Special as being a pretty good all-round rod and Chris Carlin, a maker from Alaska has been kind enough to give me his modified version of the rod, which everyone seems to like. I' haven't decided yet whether it's going to be the original or modified taper I make.
I don't recall if I've mentioned it but the grip on the Payne, rod 14F is from some Giant Sequoia bark I picked up in Tehipite. It was interesting stuff to work with, it sanded down very quickly one the grip took it's initial shape. A little too quickly. It also has little poppy seed like pods that tend to flake out. The very tip has some varnish to stop the pods from flaking off.
12/23/06
Merry X-mas everyone. Well the Payne rod has been dipped and is sitting in the drying box. I'm doing things a bit differently, I'm going to wrap after I dip. We'll see how that goes. The rods didn't turn out as I expected so instead of selling them, I'm going to finish the Payne and them start over.
11/16/06
I'm making good progress on the two X-mas rods. I've got the butt of the 200 planed and will be working on the mids tonight. Best case scenario is that I have the entire rod planed out by Monday night and glued up on Wednesday. Then I could work on the Garrison over Thanksgiving, probably getting a tip and butt on that rod done. We'll see. I think I may be cutting it close for an X-mas delivery.
I've got almost all the components but have decided to change the sequence on my finish work. I'll dip for a week and then start on the wrap, this will add another week or two to my normal time frame.
My friend Erik was over on Saturday. He's a master rod maker and I admit that I was a little embarrassed to show him my prep work. It seems a lot of my flattened nodes had popped out or I simply didn't get them flat enough. I'm having to rework them with dry heat before I plane. Hopefully that doesn't make them brittle.
11/6/06
Still working nodes. Should start roughing by the end of the week.
I was poking around Gino's site and found some cool pictures he took of rod number 5.
11/2/06
Well, I've actually been doing a bit of rod making. I fixed the beveller a couple of weeks ago and am in the process of working the nodes and roughing a Payne 200 and Garrison 201. I have high hopes for the Garrison. If it's as nice as I remember it'll be a great rod.
I never did really get started on Gina's rod. That's going to have to wait until opening day next year.
Last weekend was the Great Western Rod Makers Gathering. It was fun, there were more rods than last year which was nice. Larry Tusoni of High Sierra Rods had a Greenheart rod and several pentas he made. There all cast pretty well. The Greenheart was amazing, it was heavy but felt well balanced in the hand and cast for distance with little effort. My favorite rod was a Garrison 206 made by Robert Kope. He had two rods one with NS ferrules and one with bamboo ferrules. I actually liked the NS ferrule rod best.
In early October I took the Payne 100 3pc on a long backpacking trip. It did ok, it was a nice rod for short line nymphing but didn't handle the heavy nymphs as well as I'd like. I picked up some bark on the trip and am going to try to make a rod with two tips and two mids and use the bark for the handle. Hopefully, I can make a rod which will work as a 7ft and an 8ft by changing the mids and tips. We'll see what happens.
9/13/06
Well I've been fishing pretty hard and not doing any rod work. I'm going to have to get started soon though, I've got to finish 3 rods by X-mas.
I've done some work on the beveller and hopefully I can get it to work. The ferrules on rod #4 and #5 came off. I suspected they might. That hot melt glue simply doesn't work for me as a ferrule glue.
I've been fishing the 97 a lot. The ferrules are working great.
8/8/06
I fished the Payne 97 this weekend and absolutely love it. It's a great light trout rod, much more fun to fish than the Payne 100. I fished dries and nymphs and though I wouldn't call it a nymphing rod, it handled sight nymphing like a trooper. It's definitely on my recommend list for anyone looking for a light trout rod or "small creek" rod.
I've done a little work to try and fix my beveller. I'm going to give it a try on my next few rods.
I spoke to my friend about the rod I'm making her and it seems she likes the color orange, so the wraps will be orange which means the rod will have to be lighter than I'd planned, which means I've got to split up a new culm. I'll do that this week some time. After trading some emails, I decide to make her a Cattanach 7ft 4wt aka the "Sir D Favorite", it's more of an all around rod than the Garrison.
I'll make the Garrison later in the year. I'm more than happy with the Payne 97 anyway.
7/22/06
I'm in the final stretch. The rod's in the dipping chamber. It appears I've got some pruning of the wraps again. I might have to redo those, I'll have to wait and see. I had a little problem protecting the grip from the varnish. It may need a little sanding.
Looks like I start work on the Garrison rods tomorrow.
7/18/06
I'm on the second coat for the wraps and I've started picking out the cane for the Garrisons. Gina, if you're reading this, your rod's next. :)
7/12/06
Well, I couldn't hold out any longer. I did some casting in front of the house and set the stripping guide.
7/11/06
I’ve taken the Payne 97 out nearly every night this week and cast it. It’s not a spectacular rod but has a nice light action that is pleasant. Light, like the Payne 100 but deeper flexing. I’m dying to start wrapping the rod but I haven’t been able to get down to the casting ponds to finalize the guide spacing. I used to live 10 min from the ponds so stopping buy wasn’t an issue but now I live about 30min on a good day.
I picked up a new rod the other day. My friend Erik sold me his Miyazaki Puyans rods so I can knock that off my list of rods to make. It’s an interesting rod. The ferrules don’t seat all the way, they seat like spigot ferrules.
Speaking of ferrules, I fit the ferrules on the 97 before I glued them to the blank. The result was a much easier fit than a usually get but one that is a bit rough. The ferrule feels a bit gritty as it slides in and out. I think this is not a function of the fitting but I blued these ferrules and a little of the bluing solution seeped into the female part of the ferrule.
7/09/06
Well the Payne 97 is the evaluation phase. I turned cork and installed the ferrules this weekend and have the guides taped on and ready to go. I'll head to the casting ponds tomorrow or Tuesday to finalize the guide positions.
I finally figured our a way to straighten the rods. After trying the ironing method and hot plate method, I resorted to the heat gun and a little leverage.
I worked on straightening for 3 days and applied more heat than I thought would be necessary with the two former methods. They weren't getting me anywhere. They both require that you apply a lot of heat, although rather slowly. Time will tell if it's a problem.
7/04/06
Well, quite a bit of promise on all fronts this week.
Firstly, I've glued up the Payne 97 and on my way to the straightening phase. I realized this week that I've been binding my rods incorrectly. That is why the last few rods made with the Garrison Binder haven't been as tight as I like. The butt on the 97 isn't very tight but the tip looks pretty good. I'm also starting to realize how binding affects twists and bends in the rod. If I can send the rod through the binder without twists and bends then I should end up with a relatively trouble free rod.
Secondly, I've finally been given the taper for the elusive Payne 196 rod. I've been told it's straight from Mr. Payne and the maker's had it since 1969. I've also been sword to secrecy. I can make the rod but I can't give out the taper. No problem there. I had come up with my own taper but the taper I was given is much different than I expected. Much softer in the butt. It's definitely not the faster 196 taper I tried at the fishing show a couple of months ago nor is it the taper as described to me by Hal Bacon. It seems that what I keep hearing is true, Mr. Payne at one point seems to have sped his tapers up.
Thirdly, a couple of weeks ago I picked up a new customer, a friend of Gino's and he wants two rods. He's got pretty specific criteria too so it should be pretty fun to make. The nice thing about getting orders for new orders is that it gets me out of my normal mode of rod design. A custom rod allows me to make things a little different than I might normally. I've pegged them as rods 17 & 18.
6/25/06
One spline to go. I'm sick so I doubt I'll get it done soon.
6/22/06
Finished planing the butt section and I'm almost done with the tip. Things are going well so far.
6/11/06
3 Splines down, 9 to go. I've got to start thinking about wrap colors and grip style.
6/11/06
I fixed the guides on the Fubar Rod and took it too Hot Creek with me. It worked fine as did Rod 12. Rod # 12 was quite nice to fish with actually. It makes a very nice light dry fly rod.
I spent Friday night sharpening plane irons. I'm off to set up the forms and start final planing.
5/13/06
Well, two days in one week. What do you know. I heat treated the rod today. Something didn't quite feel right about it though. We'll see what happens. I'm off to LA for a week but next Sunday I'll start final planing. I need to wrap the fubar rod. I'm planning on taking it to Hot Creek in two weeks.
5/11/06 Well, summer's finally coming, the shop is warming and I'm getting back into the grove. I was at a rod makers gathering last weekend. I met a lot of great people, all hobbyist like me. It's funny, this small informal gathering had more folks and rods than the bigger ones. As with every gathering, I came back with a rod that I just have to build. This time it's a Garrison 201, which I think will be the perfect high country rod for my friend Gina. After I finish the Payne 201L, I'll start on Gina's rod. I'd like to have the Payne 200L ready for the July 4th backpacking trip, so I've got to get cranking on the 97.
4/13/06
I'd like to say that I'm in final planing but I'm not even close. I need to rough plane the butt section and then we'll be ready to roll.
I fished the FUBAR rod last weekend. My first fish of the year was a bass. I snagged my line on a barbed wire fence in the pond I was fishing and managed to lose two guides. I'm not sure how that happened, so much for seeing how little finish I can use on my guides. I'll rewrap the guides and finish as usual.
3/18/06
Taking it easy, tying flies. I'll finish up the nodes tomorrow.
2/26/06
Workin' on nodes for the 97.
2/25/06
Andre Puyans' memorial service was today. It was a nice affair. I got to see a few folks I hadn't seen since the school this summer and others I hadn't seen in years. His wife had laid out some of the magazine articles Andy was in, as well as some of his fly patterns, pictures of he and his family and his first fly rod. (A Leonard, it looked like a 3pc 7). It was nice to see what Andy looked like without his beard.
A few people spoke and told stories about how they met Andy, how he had influenced their lives or his Puyanisms | |
