Rod Building - Those who build their own fly rods - Blanks, guides, grips, cork, tools - Global FlyFisher

This section currently has 35 articles

Those who build their own fly rods

Blanks, guides, grips, cork, tools

The Graphite Fly Rod

Review: A nicely produced DVD set (2 discs) covering in depth all aspects of building a graphite fly rod featuring Russ Gooding of Golden Witch Technologies. Gooding builds modern rods in the bamboo rod style. Very thorough and very instructive.
Read the review here

Writing on rods

Pen and ink: One of the hallmarks of rod builder Dave Lewis' work is the handwritten details on each rod. The writing is done by Dave's wife Mary Lu and in this article Dave briefly explains how to obtain the best results when writing on rods.
Learn about tools and materials here.

See "Build a rod, 5, Testing" by clicking here

BaR: Testing

Build a Rod, 5: The rod is done and you need to determine what line is best for it. Don't always trust the fine print on the blank, but join Jan-Ole Willers on the water for a test of the newly built rod to find out whether it was worth the effort.
Last installment of our rod building series here

Go to the article "Build a rod, 4, Coating"

BaR: Coating

Build a Rod, 4: We're now at the final stage of our rod buidling process, and ready to coat the wrappings. this requires a clean room and a lot of care. Jan-Ole Willers shows us in great detail how to do the best job and where to do it.
All the advice you will need is found here

Go to the article "Build a rod, 3, Guides and wrapping"

BaR: Wrapping

Build a Rod, 3: This time we look at guide selection and preparation as well as the critical process of wrapping the guides. Learn some neat tricks from German Jan-Ole Willers in this third part of his extensive rod building series.
A guide to guides is found here

Click to see "Build a rod, 2, Handle"

BaR: Handle

Build a Rod, 2: The handle is both an important part of any rod and a whole project in itself when building a rod. Jan-Ole Willers helps you choose a shape, select the cork and plan added features such as a fighting butt.
Read the instructions to building a rod handle here

Click to see "Build a rod, 1, Selecting the parts"

BaR: Parts

Build a Rod, 1: The first part of the Global Flyfisher article series on building your own graphite fly rod, which takes you by the hand from the very beginning of the process: identifying and selecting the parts and materials you need.
Jan-Ole Willers helps you take the first steps.

See "Build a rod" by clicking here

Build a Rod

BaR: The introduction to the cover-it-all series on building your own grpahite fly rod, which will run through the whole process of building a complete fly rod, covering selection of components, handle, guides, coating and testing.
Start your rod-building career with Jan-Ole Willers here.

Find "Rod review, Lamiglas Blue Ridge and XMG50" here

Lamiglas

New Blanks for the Rodbuilder: This past season, I had the pleasure of fishing rods built from two blanks from Lamiglas, the XMG50 and the "Blue Ridge". These two blanks are Ying and Yang, fast and slow, high modulus graphite and fiberglass. As different as can be.
Click here to read the entire review

Find "Trout Grass, a documentary on bamboo" on this page

Trout Grass

Perennial: Trout grass is a nickname for bamboo and the title of this DVD, which takes you on a fascinating journey from east to west, from bamboo harvest to the building of a cane rod. Beautifully filmed, well narrated and perfectly edited, it earns a rare Global Class rating.
Read the full review by Martin Joergensen here

Directly to "Taking care of your fly rod"

Rod care

Equipment: The first part of a three part harmony about maintaining your precious fly fishing equipment - Rod, Reel And Line - by tropical fishing guide Roland Henrion. Learn how to prolong the lifespan of your fly rods.
See lots of good advice and instructional pictures in the article.

Find "Bamboo rod building, part 7" on this page

Bamboo part 7

The last installment: Follow along as Harry Boyd takes us through the process of trimming the bamboo blank to the proper length, preparing and mounting your ferrules, and adjusting the fit of the ferrules. Many thanks to Harry for this well received series of articles.
Click here to read the last chapter.

Click to see "Rod review, Allstar Austin 9 4wt 2pc Blank"

Rising Star

Review: The Austin blanks from All Star Rods are quickly gaining a reputation among custom rod builders as being among the best performing blanks on the market, regardless of price. Bob Petti had a chance to build and fish a 4wt recently.
Click here to read the review of All Star Austin 9 4wt 2pc blank

See "Lamar Reel Seats" by clicking here

Lamar Reel Seats

Rod Building: Andy Dear hits a home run with his custom reel seat spacers and complete reel seats. It's a rare thing for a product to get a "Global Class" GFF rating, but Andy's woodworking skills earn him that high honor easily.
Click here to see Andy's work

Go to Venneri's Reel Seats

Venneri's Reel Seats
Recently, GFF partners Bob Petti and Steve Schweitzer had the chance to visit Bob Venneri at his house and get a look-see into his workshop and how his seats are made, by hand, one at a time.

Go to The Making of a Prize Rod

The Making of a Prize Rod
The grand prize for the Flymeister 2001 contest was a custom built fly rod made by Neal Hall, owner of Classic Destiny rods and president of the Custom Rod Builder's Guild.

Go to Bamboo part 6

Bamboo part 6
Now that we have our strips of bamboo tapered into sections for our fly rod, the next step is to glue these strips together into whole rod sections.

Go to Rainshadow Xcel

Rainshadow Xcel
Not only do all the major rod companies sell their blanks, there are several companies that produce and sell only blanks. Where to begin? Rainshadow might be one choice. Great, afordable blanks.

Go to Build a Grip Lathe

Build a Grip Lathe
As we've alluded to in other articles, making your own grips from cork rings is an important part of building a custom rod. "Staying with the cost-effective strategy, I decided to try and build my own cork lathe using common materials and a drill." Read more of Jon Jenkin's article.

Go to Making grips II

Making grips II
There are two basic strategies for building a cork grip for a fly rod. The first involves gluing the rings directly onto the rod blank and then shaping the grip. Another way involves gluing the cork rings together off the blank, and then shaping the grip in a lathe setup before reaming and fitting to the rod blank. That process is described by Bob Petti in this article.

All articles from this section...

·Bamboo part 1
·Bamboo part 2
·Bamboo part 3
·Bamboo part 4
·Bamboo part 5
·Bamboo part 6
·Bamboo part 7
·BaR: Coating
·BaR: Handle
·BaR: Parts
·BaR: Testing
·BaR: Wrapping

·Build a Grip Lathe
·Build a Rod
·DIY Rod Tubes
·Harry Boyd
·Ib Olsen's cane rods
·Lamar Reel Seats
·Lamiglas
·Lamiglas Perigee
·Making grips II
·Rainshadow Xcel
·Rising Star
·Rod building

·Rod building reviews
·Rod care
·Smooth as silk
·Sullys Rod Drying Motor
·Supreme finish
·The Graphite Fly Rod
·The Making of a Prize Rod
·Trout Grass
·Venneri's Reel Seats
·Writing on rods

Rods
·Sea Trout Gear
·How to look good
·The Graphite Fly Rod
·Shooting head talk
·Rod review, Lamiglas Blue Ridge...
·Four stream rods
·Taking care of your fly rod
·Rod review, Allstar Austin 9 4w...
·Lamiglas Appalachian 76
·Choice pike fishing tool
More...

Fish Better
·Tom's Line Winder
·Dicentrarchus labrax
·Christmas gifts
·Interview with a trout
·Uncharted Waters Q&A
·Itu's Bones Q&A
·Hatch Q&A
·Trout beads
·Lake Vintter
·Fish safely
More...

Reviews
·The Fly Fisher's Playbook
·Matching Major Eastern Hatches
·Classic Salmon Fly Patterns
·Turning Tail
·Tying Tenkara Flies
·Only the River Knows
·Geofish
·The Flies that Catch Fish
·Mayflies and More
·Christmas gifts
More...

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