[VFB] Rods a rollin'

[Tom Davenport]

I've got my third rod built in the last three weeks rotating as I 
write. So far i have had no epoxy problems (knock on wood).  I am using 
Dura-gloss this time, and I really like it.

This third rod is a keeper.  I had a friend turn the wooden spacer for 
the reel seat out of a piece of Apricot wood from a tree growing the 
back yard of my house, and put the reel seat on a Mahogany colored 
Loomis GL3 blank.  I used a tan-brown thread and added copper metallic  
accents.  The thread has darkened to almost the exact color of the 
blank, creating the illusion that the wraps are clear and the guides 
are held on by the strand of copper (I suspect the thread will be 
visible in bright sunlight.) I used  titanium single food guides (sorry 
Tony).

The first rod built was  built from a blank I got on eBay sold as an 
unidentified  "Lamiglass second", but the butt diameter, color and 
action match up perfectly with their  IM-700 blank, which sells for 
$175.00.  Since I only paid $30.00, I got a heck of a deal. The blank 
is  dark green/ black, and I wrapped  the guides with green thread and 
blue metallic highlights .

The second  rod was built from an Elkhorn 6 wt blank that I got from an 
friend whose flyshop went under. He sold it  for next to nothing. I 
chose  a beautiful Black Walnut burl reelseat, and wrapped with dark 
maroon thread with gold metallic highlights.

I'll probably sell the Lami-glass and Elkhorn on eBay recover my costs, 
since I made them primarily for practice.  With such great deals on the 
blanks and it won't take much to get my money back.

I have a Gatti blank on the way, and am going to re-do my Scott, and 
that should wrap up my winter rod building (unless I find some more 
great deals on blanks)

Tom Davenport