Rod Hollowing

I am currently building several rods and one of them is for me. These are a couple of pics of what the hollowing looks like in my rods. This is the butt section of an 8'1" 5 weight. There are only two dams in the butt section and then the last 4" is solid in order to secure the female ferrule. The total blank weight without the hardware is 2.25 oz.

Reel Seat Day!

Reel seats say a lot about a rod. I really enjoy making them. However, it takes a lot of work and there is a lot of waste if you want great ones. Today I started with 10 wood blanks and after turning them down I am left with eight. I have applied the first coat of varnish. After sanding and applying several more coats of varnish I will probably have to throw out several more. There are pits and ugly spots that come natural to the wood that make for bad spots in the wood insert.

I have started doing more varnishing because the wood that is available stabilized is very limited. In fact I have started experimenting with stabilizing my own wood and I hope to be able to offer this as an option soon.