Christmas In March???? Rod Building???

  Well yesterday felt like Christmas to me. I finally got all the things I wanted and then some it seemed. As I mentioned back in my first post, I am going to start to do somethings that I have never  done in the past. The one thing I had mentioned was rod building. Rod building is a unique hobby of it's own. After countless how-to videos and reading on the subject, I decided  to pull the trigger and jump into it. Yesterday my package of rod building goodies arrived along with another package from Cabelas containing my new wader and wading boots.

  After sorting through all the goodies I started to get organized. I purchased a 4pcs. 4wt. 9 foot rod to build out first. I also have a vintage glass fly rod that I am stripping down to rebuild, and another 4wt. rod that needed a repair. Like I said before I am jumping right in to get my feet wet. After getting everything set-up last night I started the preparations to start the new 4wt. I got the reel seat prepped for installation, and the cork grip reamed out and prepped for installation. Mixed some epoxy paste, and started installing.

Here is the grip and reel seat installed and drying in my rod wrapper. Looking pretty sweet!

  Next thing I did was snapped a few pics of the old glass rod I am going to rebuild for some before and after pics when I complete it. The rod was in pretty sad shape and was that bad when a friend of mine gave it to me. The cork grip split into three pieces constantly rotating on the rod so I improvised some electrical tape to hold it together and stop the rotating while it was being used. Some of the threads started to unwind themselves as well. This rod is an old eagle claw or south bend rod. I haven't been able to figure out the date of manufacture, but the old gentleman I received the rod from thought it was from the late 60's or early seventies possibly. Either way it is going to be a cool piece of glass when it is complete. Here are a few of the before pictures.

  As you can see this rod is in pretty sad shape. The guides are worn, there is barely any thread finish left on the threads, and the cork grip is obviously shot. I am keeping the original reel seat, but replacing the grip and guides. I am going to put on titanium guides so it keeps the older gray look of the the guides, and replacing the cork grip with a new reversed half wells cork grip. 

  After stripping down the rod last night I was able to get the grip reamed and mounted, and the rod pretty clean. Here is a shot of the new grip mounted and the guides stripped off the rod.

  It is already looking a ton better than before. I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is done.