Five Rivers Signature V 8'6" 3wt

Here is the proof that my first custom, handmade fly rod is complete. Yeah, it took me a while to get this one done, but it was so worth it. I took it out and cast it on the Provo River yesterday. I absolutely love it. I would have said that I fished it on the Provo, but I still don't have my first fish on this rod yet. Hopefully I can take care of that soon.

Here are the rod details:
Dan Craft Five Rivers Signature V 8'6" 3wt 4pc blank
REC NSUSL nickel silver reel seat with amboyna burl insert
Custom shaped (modified reverse half wells) cork grip
Forecast light titanium colored winding check.
Gudebrod garnet thread with Sulky dark copper trim wraps (no color preserver)
Fuji TLNSG titanium stripping guide (size 10)
Black nickel snake guides (one size 2 guide, then eight size 1/0) and tiptop

This picture shows a few of my wraps with the garnet and metallic copper thread. Because I didn't use any color preserver on the thread, the nylon darkens and almost goes kind of transparent when the thread finish epoxy is applied. This was the effect (and color) as I looking for. The garnet thread looks very dark, almost black, in the shade. However, you can see the deep red color in the sunlight. I felt that the copper trim wraps added a lot of color to the rod and complemented the amboyna burl reel seat insert.

There is a small wrap of garnet thread directly in front of the winding check, just to offset the check a bit more. The hook keeper is wrapped completely from front to back. I used different sized copper trim bands depending on the size of the guides. The stripping guide has a 5-turn trim band at the end of each foot. The first snake guide (size 2) has 3-turn trim bands. All the other snake guides have a single turn trim band.

This next picture shows the ferule wraps at the joint of each section of the rod. It also shows a bit of the deep red color of the garnet thread. On the two smallest sections, the ferule wrap is integrated into the guide foot wrap. Having the guide foot wrapped in with the ferule wrap saves thread and finish epoxy weight. You can also see in this picture how the guide feet show through the semi-transparent thread wraps.

Right now, I'm using my new Galvan Open Back fly reel for this rod. After all, a new rod deserves a new reel, right? This OB-4 reel is rated for a 5 or 6 weight rod, but only weighs 4.6 oz or so. Even with my 3wt fly line and some backing on, it balances the fly rod fairly well. The balance point is about 1/3 the way back from the front of the grip. I didn't have any trouble fishing (casting) it out on the river yesterday.

Anyways, hope you like my new fly rod as much as I do. I've already got my next rod build project planned out, and I can't wait to get started.

(Heidi -- Thanks for helping take the pictures and for being so supportive of me building this rod, especially over the past week.)

Really Almost Done ...

Just finished putting on the 2nd coat of Threadmaster Lite -- the thread finish epoxy I'm using. Of course, I still have a lot of turning to do ...

This round was a bit more challenging for me. I had to get a small bead of the finish off the threads and onto the blank. This makes a nice seam and transition. Of course, it's easier said than done, especially for my first attempt. Still, I feel it came out well and I'm quite proud of the way it's turned out.

So I guess this means that the end is really, really near. The rod should be complete by tomorrow morning. I'll let it sit for a couple of days to let the finish really harden up. But still, unless something goes terribly wrong tonight, this should be it -- my first rod will be ready to fish this weekend!

Almost Done

Well, no pictures here so you'll just have to take my word for it, but my first fly rod is almost done. It's been a busy week for putting the rod together. The handle and reel seat have been epoxied in place for a couple of weeks now, so I 've spent a few hours just about every night this week wrapping the guides on. Wrap a guide on, realize there was something about it I didn't like, then cut it back off, repeat. I ended up taking Friday off from work to try to make some good, solid progress on it. I started wrapping guides on the blank at about 1pm. I finally had it all finished at 2pm Saturday afternoon. Yeah, I pulled an all-nighter wrapping the guides on. While the wrappings are not necessarily perfect, they're about as good as I was going to get (especially being so tired that I couldn't keep my hands from shaking).

Well, today was the day to start putting on the thread finish. This is the last step to finishing the rod. I was pretty nervous about it, but hey, when you've read as much on the internet as I have, you feel like you can do just about anything. Of course, that's no guarantee that it'll work out. I shut myself up in the "fish bathroom" (first my aquarium supplies, now my fly rod, building ... what's next for the fish bathroom?) and started mixing the finishing epoxy. That was about 5pm tonight. I've spent the last 5 hours or so turning the rod sections every 5 to 10 minutes so the finish will level out smooth.

So far, it's looking pretty good. I'm happy with how it's turning out and can't wait to post some pictures. I've got to do at least one more coat of finish epoxy before I'll call it complete. I'll get that going tomorrow night.

This rod building has been a lot of fun. Can't wait to get started on the next rod(s).

Well, that's my timer going off -- better go turn the rod, again ...

2nd Grip

I made my second fly rod grip tonight. I followed the same basic pattern as my first grip - a modified RHW grip. However, I left the front end of this grip a little larger in diameter than before. I also moved the "saddle" a little more aft. These were mostly just experiments - trying to get a better feel for what I like in a grip. I think this one came out fairly well. I used 400 grit sandpaper at the end for a nice soft feel.

This grip has some burl cork in it. I like the color the burl cork adds to the grip as well as the patterning it brings. I'll definitely use burl cork again in future grips.

I made my first grip last week while sitting at the kitchen table. You may notice from these pictures that I moved outside to sand this this grip down. For some reason I just didn't feel like having to clean up all the cork dust from the kitchen again.

First Grip

I finally managed to sand down my first grip. It came out okay, especially for my first attempt. I used the set of cork rings that I glued up about a month ago (see "Trying to get a grip ..." for a picture of the rings before sanding). This cork was the worst of my cork rings, but I think the grip still came out okay. Even though there are a lot of flaws in the cork, most of them are quite shallow. They just give the grip some character ...

The pictures don't really show all the details, but I made a little "lathe" for sanding down my cork handles. One one side, I have a raised platform to which I clamp a hand drill. On the other side, I have a vertical board to support the other end of the turning mandrel - a 1/4" stainless steel rod a picked up at the hardware store. I drilled a hole in the vertical board and put a skateboard bearing in there. A little bit of blue tape helps the bearing fit tightly in the hole. I also put some tape on the steel rod to make it fit the inner hole of the bearing, too.

Once everything was in place, I turned on the drill and started removing cork. I found that a flat file worked well for rough shaping. I also used some drywall sandpaper (a 220 grit mesh) that took the cork off quickly. Once I had the shape about right I used some 220 and 320 grit regular sandpaper to smooth it all out.

I tried to follow a pattern for a modified reverse half wells. I wasn't sure how I'd like the small diameter front of the grip as I've only fished with a Fenwick style grip, but so far I really like the way this one feels. This grip came out a bit smaller diameter than I was hoping for, but that's only because I got a bit carried away with the file. Still, it fits my hand nicely and I really like the swell at the rear of the grip.

Let me know what you think of my first grip ...