After last spring's successful Casting for Recovery auction for
one of my fly rods, I was asked to consider donating another rod. Of course,
the answer was yes. How can you say no to such a worthy cause.
The process started last summer when I was sorting some of the
special feature woods I use in my grips. I wanted this rod to be as nice or
better than the one I made for the spring auction, so the wood for the grip had
to be very, very special. I sorted some of my best burls and found I had quite
a choice. Some of the burl pieces are are shown below.
I choose a piece of Amboyna burl (the most beautiful and
expensive burl wood in the world) which was 1/2 sapwood and 1/2 heartwood with
the interface running length-wise on the grip. This piece was not only
bi-colored but had very small, dense eyes in both the sap and heart wood.
I did not have any pink wood but I did have some purple heart
which I chose as the accessory wood knowing it would go well with CFR theme. I
also selected horn and Ivory to go with this beautiful wood. The pieces were
cut to appropriate size and prepared for assembly.
The center of the mid piece was bored to 3/4" and cork
lined to reduce the weight of the wood. The fore piece of the grip was bored to
5/8" half way through and lined with cork. The butt section would later be
hollowed to receive the recessed reel seat. The pieces were center drilled and
assembled.
The grip was shaped on the lathe to a 6 3/4" western style
(reverse half wells) and reel seat insert to fit, nickel silver reel seat
hardware.
The four views, below, show the beauty of the Amboyna burl used
in this grip and reel seat.
To me it is the eyes which make Amboyna burl so special
as well as the swirls and twirls seen in the wood. So it boiled down to sap
wood or heart wood. As I turned the piece on the lathe I noticed a small drying
check in the sap wood, it was stabilized but was still visible (see 3rd photo
of the 4 above) so the heart wood became the top(see top photo of the 4 above).
Now to chose a blank for this rod. I decided on a Five Rivers Signature
V 9'6" five weight. This is a medium fast action rod, very light and
sensitive, for those delicate small fly presentations yet can develop high line
speeds to punch through those afternoon winds. The extra 6" makes for
easier mending to get those longer drag free drifts. Its medium fast action
make for easy relaxed all day casting.
The components to complete the rod were a fuji ceramic tip top
(1/2 the weight of a standard chrome tip top) followed by six #1 fine wire
snake guides then two # 2 fine wire snakes, one #3 and one #4 standard snake
guides and a Fuji # 12 ceramic insert stripping guide. All in chrome finish.
These components maximize the rods performance.
Gudebrod maroon and metallic silver were the threads chosen for
the wraps. A silver two thread band is centered on each guide foot.
A multilayered layered feather inlay featuring an amherst
pheasant collar feather and red rump feather, a peacock pheasant eye feather
and 5 (because it's a 5 wt.) jungle cock eyes, was placed just above the grip.
(Fore more detail see post: Casting For Recovery Rod Mar. 2011)
Just finishing he feather inlay with the top 2 sections on the
dryer.
All my rods have a lot of "MOJO" built into them but
for a little extra, a pink ribbon was added to the reel seat before the butt
cap was attached.
Here it is finished and ready to fish.