The Graphite Fly Rod
Published: 2008-12-13
More than 4 years ago | 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.
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Writing on rods
Published: 2007-06-06
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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BaR: Testing
Published: 2007-06-01
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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BaR: Coating
Published: 2007-05-31
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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BaR: Wrapping
Published: 2007-05-30
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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BaR: Handle
Published: 2007-05-29
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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BaR: Parts
Published: 2007-05-28
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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Build a Rod
Published: 2007-05-28
More than 6 years ago | 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.
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Lamiglas
Published: 2005-12-16
More than 7 years ago | 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.
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Trout Grass
Published: 2005-09-27
More than 8 years ago | 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.
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Rod care
Published: 2005-02-28
More than 8 years ago | 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.
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Bamboo part 7
Published: 2004-08-23
More than 9 years ago | 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.
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Rising Star
Published: 2004-06-11
More than 9 years ago | 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.
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Lamar Reel Seats
Published: 2002-12-12
More than 10 years ago | 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.
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Venneri's Reel Seats
Published: 2002-12-10
More than 10 years ago | 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.
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The Making of a Prize Rod
Published: 2002-12-06
More than 10 years ago | 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.
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Bamboo part 6
Published: 2002-11-13
More than 11 years ago | 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.
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Rainshadow Xcel
Published: 2002-11-10
More than 11 years ago | 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.
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Build a Grip Lathe
Published: 2002-11-01
More than 11 years ago | 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.
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Making grips II
Published: 2002-11-01
More than 11 years ago | 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.
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Bamboo part 5
Published: 2002-10-16
More than 11 years ago | Harry Boyd teaches us the tools and techniques required to turn strips of bamboo into tapered sections of a fly rod in Part 5 of his continuing series - Planing to Taper.
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Bamboo part 4
Published: 2002-10-15
More than 11 years ago | Split cane: In the fourth installment of Harry Boyd's series on bulding bamboo fly rods, he describes the tools and processes of binding strips together and then heat-treating them in some sort of oven. Read more in Part 4 - Binding and Heat Treating
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Bamboo part 3
Published: 2002-10-14
More than 11 years ago | This is the third section of Harry Boyd's continuing bamboo rod course. Here we begin to mold the raw bamboo into something that approaches the shape and form of a fly rod, and the real fun begins. Read more in Part 3 - Staggering Nodes and Rough Planing.
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Bamboo part 2
Published: 2002-10-13
More than 11 years ago | Part II - Select, Prep, and Split
Bamboo: Harry Boyd continues his series on the construction of bamboo fly rods with a look at selecting, preparing, and splitting your culms of tonkin bamboo. See the article here.
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Bamboo part 1
Published: 2002-10-12
More than 11 years ago | Harry Boyd tells us "Since Hiram Leonard and the earliest days of fly fishing in our country, the allure of fine spilt bamboo rods has been part of the magic of our sport." Read Harry's introduction to his series of articles on building bamboo fly rods.
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DIY Rod Tubes
Published: 2002-10-10
More than 11 years ago | You have one extra rod with no sock and rod tube. You've been putting off buying a tube...why don't you just make your own?! With $4.00 and about a 1/2 hour's time, you'll have a DIY rod tube. These won't win beauty contests, but they work just as well as any retail version. Read here how to DIY.
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Lamiglas Perigee
Published: 2002-05-01
More than 11 years ago | In the world of fly fishing in the 21st Century, Lamiglas is making some of the best blanks available to anyone, anywhere, for any price. In this review by GFF Partner Bob Petti we look at the Perigee blank, which is only available to custom rod builders. He concludes: "People like rods made from Perigee blanks simply because they make excellent fishing rods." Read Bob's Review.
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Smooth as silk
Published: 2002-02-01
More than 11 years ago | Rod builder Dave Lewis of Performance Flyrods teaches you how to finish a cork grip. Dave covers the whole process from selecting cork over glueing to the final shaping.
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Harry Boyd
Published: 2002-01-01
More than 11 years ago | GFF's own bamboo rod expert and maker of these beautiful rods. Best known for his extremely popular series on making your own bamboo rods.
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Rod building
Published: 2002-01-01
More than 11 years ago | Tom Kirkman's book "Rod Building Guide" is a cover-to-cover brain dump of the author's experience building all manner of fishing rods. He doesn't tell the reader as much how to do things, as he does why, and almost as importantly, why not. Read Bob Petti's review here.
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Ib Olsen's cane rods
Published: 2001-01-01
More than 12 years ago | How Ib Olsen builds his beautiful rods
...and some elementary notes.
Article and drawings by Preben Torp Jacobsen
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Rod building reviews
Published: 2001-01-01
More than 12 years ago | Stuff for the homebrew rodmaker
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Supreme finish
Published: 2001-01-01
More than 12 years ago | "In many ways, it was a rod builder's dream finish." Bob Petti writes about Trondak U-40 Duragloss LS Supreme and hands out one of the rare Global Class scores of 6 in his review. He also looks at Trondak's U-40 Rod Bond, which 'only' scores a 5. Read Bob's review.
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Sullys Rod Drying Motor
Published: 2000-09-01
More than 13 years ago | I don't expect much from a rod drying motor. It should turn smoothly and hold a rod section securely while it turns. Bumps and wobbles and starts and stops are most unwelcome. Sections that come loose and stop turning are definite no-nos. An on-off switch is nice
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