Sunday, June 1, 2008

Rod Number One

After much toil, sweat, blood, and tears I was able to complete my first bamboo fly rod. It is

suppose to be a Phillipson Peerless 7' 6" 5wt. but it turned out a little heavier than that. May be I'll call it a mutated version of a Phillipson Peerless. No matter I still think it is the greatest casting rod on the face of the earth (this may be a little biased).!

The rod is a fast rod with most of the action being toward the tip section of the rod. I fitted the rod with a rose wood reel seat and aluminum fittings. To go with the darker flaming and the red wood reel seat I wrapped the guides with a red gossamer silk thread.

The finish on the rod is three coats of tung oil completely rubbed out and then dipped in varnish one time.

Over all the whole process was enjoyable and I am looking forward to my next rod. I wish I could give you some better photos of the rod, but my point and shoot camera doesn't do all that hot on close-ups.







I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

Matthew

Grits-N-Flies

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! a beauty!

How's the casting? :)

Any intention to make 7.5ft 3/2 fly rods for 3/4wts? :) If yes, I may be interested to buy one set from you - depending on how much you quoting :)

Keep up the great work! :)

Min Jie

Matthew said...

Min Jie,
The rod casts great. My first planning form was off a little and would only allow me to 5 wt. and heavier. I would love to help you out but it will be a couple more weeks before it is finished. After that I will be able to make some lighter rods.

Thanks
Matthew

Anonymous said...

The rod looks like a beauty. How long did it take you to complete - from making the first planing form to the last coat of finish?

I've always assumed the first rod takes the longest, with the tools and lessons learned shortening the next rod's construction quite a bit.

Matthew said...

Well...2 years. To bring that into prospective I have also been going to school full time and I am self employed, so time is a commodity in high demand with me. If I was to take the fifteen minutes here and the two hours here, and the occasional Saturday there it likly totals up to a couple of months.
I am hoping that the next one will only take a couple of weeks.
Thanks for the compliment.
Matthew

Anonymous said...

Matthew,
Beautiful rod! Sorry I didn't get here sooner to take a look. They're still blocking us from most blogs at work (imagine that), and that's where I do most of my web browsing (shame). Congratulations on getting it finished! Truly is a very nice-looking rod. Take care,

Nathan

Matthew said...

Thanks Nathan, I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

David Bolin said...

Matthew,

Congratulations! Your first rod is a really big deal. Have you fished it yet?

David

www.searcysowbug.blogspot.com

Matthew said...

Oh yes! I have taken it out many times. Just this past weekend I took it with me and threw some flies at some stocked trout, on a stream too warm for trout, and happened on to a little redeye. I have also taken it with me on a small stream that holds some brookies and done pretty decent.