Rod Building Primer part II
by Chris Carlin

In the last issue we saw a quick introduction to building your own fishing rod.  In this issue we will begin the actual process of constructing a rod.   

The first step in building your own rod is to procure a blank and the proper components.  For this build I will be using an 8’6” 4pc 5wt rod from an inexpensive but decent quality blank by Forecast.  I paid around $30 for this particular blank. 

Books could be written about choosing the proper rod size and length for the fishing, so I’m not going to go into that aspect.  I’ll assume you know, or can research enough to find out, where your preference lies and what type of rod you wish to build. 

Next in line is to gather the components.  From the bottom of the rod up, we’ll need a reel seat, grip, winding check, hook keeper, stripping guide, snake guides, a tip top, and thread.   

The reel seat I chose is a screw-lock, uplocking with a mortised insert.  All this jargon means the seat is threaded (screw-lock), the reel foot slides up toward the grip to be seated (uplocking) and the wooden insert has a channel carved into it where the reel foot sits.  There are many other types of seats such as sliding-band, downlocking, non-mortised, etc.  Which you prefer is, as with most things in rod building, personal preference.  The seat hardware is lightweight aluminum with a titanium colored finish (light grey) and the wooden insert is turned from maple. 

For a grip I chose a fairly standard shaped half-wells grip.  The 3 basic shapes for grips are the half-wells, the full-wells and the cigar.  There are really an infinite variety of grip shapes, but these three are the most common and discernable. 

Grips are made from small cylinders of cork, usually about 1” in diameter and ½” thick.  Cork comes from the inner bark of the cork tree, almost universally grown in Portugal.  The cork rings are glued together to make one long cylinder, usually around 7-8” long, then put in to a lathe and formed to shape.   

The winding check is a small metal or rubber O-ring that slides down the blank and butts up against the cork grip.  It is mostly aesthetic and covers up any imperfections at the end of the cork grip where it meets the blank, and provides a nice transition from cork to blank. 

There are quite a few different types of hook keepers, and some rod builders will even leave them off altogether.  In this case we will be using the common U shaped keeper, but other styles like the foldable Fuji or ring keepers will often be seen. 



Next in line is the stripping guide.  This is a noticeably larger guide than the others we will be using, and for this build it is a size 14 (usually sized in millimeters, ID).  Its large size and location allows the line to more easily pass through it from the reel or the caster’s hand.  Once the line passes through the stripper, it is pretty much going in a straight line, or smooth curve, so smaller guides are used from the stripper upwards to the tip of the rod. 

The inside ring on a stripper guide can be made of many different materials, but whichever you decide on, they are all chosen by the manufacturer to be slick and durable as they are in constant contact with the fly line. 

For the rest of the guides I decided on single foot guides.  Single foot guides are sized in millimeters, while double-foot, or more standard snake guides are sized using a number system.  The most often used sizes for fly rods is from size 1 (smallest) to size 5 (largest).  But there are also smaller guides like 1/0, 2/0, etc. for use on ultra light rods and guides larger than 5 for heaver rods. 

The tip top is put on the extreme tip of the rod.  They are sized in 64ths and refer to the inside diameter of the tube that fits over the blank.  The most common sizes are 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5, but smaller and larger sizes are not uncommon at all. 

The thread we will be using is a standard nylon rod whipping thread in a size “A”.  Sizes for nylon thread are usually designated by a letter code with “A” being the finest, then progressing to “B”, “C”, etc. Size A is the most common for fly and other fairly light weight fishing rods.  Silk thread is also quite common, especially in bamboo rod building, but it is usually finer in diameter and is measured using a different system that is similar to fly tying thread.  Size 10/0 to 8/0 is the finest, and it progresses upward to 00 (2/0) and 0. 



So lets get down to it! 

The first thing that I do when I get ready to start a build is to give the blank a good once-over, looking for blemishes, cracks, inconsistencies, or anything else that might reveal a damaged blank.  I’ll often, especially with lower priced blanks, have to sand or trim the slightest bit off the ends of the rod sections to get them to the exact same length, but that is optional and probably a bit anal as well. 

After this cursory overview, it is time to spine (or spline) the blank.  Due to the way that graphite rods are manufactured, by rolling a sheet of graphite around a mandrel, there is almost always a discernable stiff/soft spot along the blank’s length.  The most common and easiest way to find the spine side of the blank is to simply place one side of the blank on a smooth, hard surface like a table top, hold the other side in one hand, then gently press down with your other hand on the center of the blank section and roll it back and forth.  You will quickly feel the section ‘jump’ in to a preferred bend.  The inside (stiff side) of the bend is the ‘spine’.  Finding the spine on the butt section of blanks, especially on 3+ piece rods can range from challenging to impossible.  If you can’t find the spine on the butt section, don’t fret too much as you will likely never notice anyway on the stiffer sections. 

Next we need to check how the grip and seat fit together, and how they will seat on the blank.  If you purchase a pre-made grip it will most likely have a ¼” hole bored through it.  This will almost never be large enough for the blank to fit through, so we will have to widen it.  Also, in the case of the uplocking reel seat that I’m using, we will need to hollow out a portion of the grip so the hood of the seat will fit inside. Some seats will not need this procedure, and sometimes you can even get lucky and get a grip with the hollow already cut.  

 

I begin by laying the grip and seat down next to the blank to see where they will eventually lay.  I’ll often mark the extreme end of the grip with a white china marker or small piece of masking tape.  Then it is onto the grip. 

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