Rod Building

Those who build their own fly rods

Rod Building - articles

Article Bamboo part 3 Oct 14. 2002 Split cane 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.	Article Bamboo part 2 Oct 13. 2002 Split Cane 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.	Article Bamboo part 1 Oct 12. 2002 Split Cane 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. More here
Article DIY Rod Tubes Oct 10. 2002 Economic 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.	Article Lamiglas Perigee May 1. 2002 Review 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.	Article Harry Boyd Jan 1. 2002 Bamboo 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. Read more about Harry here
Article Rod building Jan 1. 2002 Global class 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.	Article Supreme finish Jan 1. 2001 Varnish "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.	Article Sullys Rod Drying Motor Sep 1. 2000 Rod building 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
Article Smooth as silk Dec 10. 1999 Techniques 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. Follow his instructions here	Article Ib Olsen's cane rods Feb 15. 1998 Rodmaking How Ib Olsen builds his beautiful rods ...and some elementary notes.