Sunday, March 11, 2012

My last 6'6" 4pc 2wt Tiger Eye

Here's the latest rod I've built. I finished it up a little over a month ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting pictures. Here are the particulars:
  • 6'6" 4pc 2wt Tiger Eye blank (Sevier Mfg) in green
  • H&H chrome round loop tiptop
  • Alps/Forecast SF guides (one standard wire size 2, one standard wire size 1, six light wire size 1)
  • Alps SF ceramic guide (size 8) as stripping guide
  • Feather inlay with a single jungle cock and grey's pheasant
  • Struble NS winding check
  • Natural burl cork grip with burnt cork accents and rubberized cork ends
  • Struble U-27 NS slide band reel seat
  • Struble walnut insert, lightly sanded and then refinished with Permagloss
  • Gudebrod dark green thread with metallic dark green trim
  • Two or three coats of Permagloss on the thread wraps with one coat of Threadmaster Lite on top
Overall I'm pretty happy with this rod. I do like the green blank. They're not quite "perfect", but I think I did a fairly good job on the guide wraps. I started out with a few coats of Permagloss to really lock down the guides and thread wraps. I'm not sure I totally love the look Permagloss gives as it builds up so I decided to put on one thin coat of TML on top just for the glossy, smooth epoxy look. Besides, I find that Permagloss can be a bit tricky to work with here in NM due to the low humidity. There is one small wavy spot in the epoxy where the finish transitions from the feather inlay over the blank where I wrote the rod size and line weight. Maybe I'll redo the finish in that area. The inscription is on the bottom side of the rod and not shown in these pictures.

I took the CCS measurements for this blank a long time ago and it rates out as a 3wt (ERN = 3.6; AA = 62 deg). Even though the blank was sold as a 2wt, I'll be looking to throw at least a 3wt line on this one.

I should have cleaned up the blank a bit before taking the pictures. Still, I hope you like it.




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