Rod Making in the 21^st century

By Roger McCourtney

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Chapter Five - ROD ASSEMBLY

We now have to decide which fittings to use and I will assume that the would be rod maker is going to make a Barbel Rod. We need to decide what type of ring to use. We need to decide on the type and style of grip to fit.

Rod rings first. These are the things that carry the line from reel to the tip of the rod. These generally fall into two categories. Single Leg and Double Leg. Let us consider some of the properties of them both. Again for the sake of convenience, I am assuming that no one these days will use wire rings!

All lined rings, regardless of what name is given to the lining, are made from types of ceramic. The two most popular seem to be SiC and Alumina Oxide. (That is not a spelling mistake) It is a fact that SiC is harder than Alumina Oxide, it is also lighter in weight, however, it is also more fragile. In either case diamonds are needed to tool both so rest assured they are hard and very, resistant to wear. So if braided lines were used on the finished rod, fear not, the rings won’t wear a groove. There are other materials on the market such as Zircon Carbide. I have handled rings containing ZC and I have to say it doesn’t appear to be much different to the others, so I will make no further comment on the ZC rings.

As Barbel rods do take a bit of a battering I usually opt. for the Aluminia Oxide because they do seem to stand up well to the odd knock. My preference again.

Single leg rings are lighter in weight; they are also more flexible than double leg. So are they better? Well, not necessarily. It is easier to knock these rings out of position and this could damage the rod.

It makes sense to use lighter rings on the rod surely? Consider this. All rings add to the weight of the rod, therefore because of the added weight the rod will feel a little softer. So in theory the single leg rings are the best option surely? Wrong, for the following reason.

When any ring is tied to the rod the wraps of thread and the finish also add weight to the rod. However, the wraps etc. actually have the same effect as a splint. At the points of tying and varnishing the blank is effectively stiffened, thereby, to a degree, canceling out the weight factor. Regardless of by how much, the action of the rod will change. If we now consider using the two leg ring things change again. There are approximately twice the wraps and twice the varnish and the two leg rings are less flexible than their single leg counterpart. This has the effect of stiffening the rod to a much greater degree. It can be derived from this information that we really CAN fine-tune the action of a given blank. If we built two rods on identical blanks but using single leg rings on one and two leg on the other, the finished rods will feel quite different. As a custom rod maker I have to use all of this information to give my client exactly what he wants.

We have decided on the rings required. Now using Araldite Rapid glue the tip ring on the blank. Make sure it is fitted 180 degrees from our pre-marked top of the rod. Always look along the top of the rod. Look for equal amounts of ring showing either side of the blank; do not be tempted to turn the blank up the other way!

Having fixed the tip ring in position at this stage, rather than leave it until last, does two things. 1/ it gives the rod maker a permanent line up point. 2/ Puts me at odds with most other rod makers. Most do this job after tying the intermediate rings on.

Setting aside the tip section, we must now consider the grip, or handle that we will use.

Again for the purpose of getting the point across, I will assume that we have a straight choice between a full cork handle and an abbreviated handle. Yes there are all manners of options but I really do not want to still be at this keyboard come next Christmas!

Dealing with cork first. One must now choose as to what method of reel attachment is required. Will you want sliding rings; will you want a Fuji style locking reel seat?

A point to bear in mind about reel seats. If a Fuji style seat is your choice, look carefully at how you actually hold your rod. If you hold the rod by gripping the reel seat, why do you want a cork grip anyway? Seems a bit pointless to go to the trouble of building a cork grip that you will end up not holding. However, if that is your choice, so be it.

Give some careful thought about the very end of the rod. This part of the rod gets some quite rough treatment. You could plug the end of the blank with a piece of nice hard cork. The cork from a bottle of Glenmarangie is ideal; it is a real pain getting hold of one though! Failing that a wine bottle cork will suffice. I don’t think it matters whether it is red or white! Give it a good wash, let it dry, sand it to a nice snug fit, set aside ready for gluing into the end of the blank.. The cork grip will now be built to the very end of the blank.

My favoured method when building a full cork handle is to use what is known as a Wye Button. This is a rubber button fixed to an alluminium "cone" that is glued with Araldite to the end of the blank, after the cork handle is built.

If one chooses to use a Wye Button, the blank will need to be cut back a bit as the button will add about an inch to the butt of the rod making the section longer than the tip.

To build a good cork handle takes a lot of time; it also requires good materials and tools. I would suggest only use good quality cork. Not all cork is the same!

Roughly speaking cork is graded from "A" down to "E" There are other grades at the top end of the scale such as "Flor Grade" (pronounced flour) Extra Specie and others. What determines the grade of cork is basically how many flaws, i.e. pits fissures etc are present. Cork free of these faults might be graded extra specie. The next down would be flor grade and so on. I would use AA grade for a full handle. I would use rings of cork called shives, these measure about 1 3/8 diameter are ½" thick and are bored out to 6mm.

A little information about cork if anyone is interested. Cork is the bark from a species of Oak tree. The Cork Oak grows mainly in Portugal although some Cork Oak also grows in Spain. The bark is harvested by stripping a spiral from the trunk. You will probably know that if a full circle of bark is stripped from a tree of any species it will die! Hence the spiral cut.

Cork is harvested at approximately four yearly intervals. If a drought occurs, this will put it back. If the drought is prolonged then gross shortages of cork is guaranteed. Quality will suffer. The end result for rod makers is difficulty of supply and higher prices. Cork is used in many industries and is one of those natural materials that cannot be successfully replicated by man.

On we go! Drill out the holes in the shives to a snug fit on the blank. Push them on dry for the time being. Do enough for either the total length or enough to finish where the Fuji grip will go. The quantity will depend on the finished length of handle that you prefer. Once you have decided, start gluing. I use an adhesive especially designed for the job. There are a couple of brands that are available from woodworking centers such as Bison woodworking adhesive and Forbo. These are both waterproof Polyurethane glues and neither requires any mixing. They are flexible and they gap fill too. In fact they expand as they cure. Do not be tempted to use Araldite for cork. It leaves unsightly rings between the shives. Neither should you use Resin W. PVA glue. PVA will sometimes break down.

Start gluing the shives. Build up the rough handle. Set aside to cure. If using a Fuji reel seat you will need to build some "arbors". These are rings of masking tape wound onto the blank to make up the difference between the blank and the reel seat. Use three rings of 1" wide tape spaced out evenly on the blank. Build up so that each ring of tape creates a snug, not tight, fit. Using standard Araldite, cover the arbors of tape completely with the adhesive, and push on the reel seat. Line up the reel seat with the line up marks on the rod. Next glue on a couple of shives in front of the reel seat. These will be used to form the top end of the handle to the shape required.

I have seen it advocated that 2" cylinders of cork should be used to build up a handle. I would agree that it would be quicker rather than to use ½" shives, however, to actually buy cylinders of the right bore is very difficult. I have seen it suggested that using masking tape to make up the gap between blank and the cylinder bore is recommended. My reply would be, "Do you want a masking tape handle shrouded in cork, or a full cork handle?" It is possible to buy pre-formed cork grips. It is almost certain that if you did find a source, the grip bore would be either too big or too small. Which is why, although it takes more time, a better grip can be built using shives.

When all is dry, take a Surform plane and start planing. I have been using the same plane for about fifteen years and they cost very little. Use nice long strokes. When the rough shape is achieved. I would put my work into a lathe of sorts and finish using a coarse file and various grades of glass-paper. I would then fill the pits and fissures with cork filler. This can be made using the finest cork dust and a mixture of equal parts water and waterproof PVA. Mix into a stiff paste. Apply liberally. Leave overnight to dry then sand to a nice finish.

Using the file, shape roughly, the corks in front of the reel seat, sand and fill with a final sanding after the filler is dry. Job done

If using an abbreviated handle, all one needs to do is choose the reel seat and Duplon tapered end cones and Araldite into the position chosen. There are a number of options but they all require the same treatment. I will add that when ordering these components, do get the sizing right, Duplon is not the easiest material to work. A tapered end grip and nylon end button completes the handle.

Frankly, I always use abbreviated handles on my own rods and unless you actually do want to use sliding rings I suggest you do the same.

Rod Assembly:

Now we move onto rod guides. Some people refer to these, as "eyes" I suppose the correct name for this most vital of components IS guides. Most professionals call them rings.

Right then, you have selected your preferred ring pattern. You will remember from earlier, about the effects that different ring patterns have on the action of the rod and have made your choice accordingly. I am going to assume that for the purpose of writing, we will refer to MY favourite choice of ring, which is the Seymo 247s. The pattern actually has three "legs" going into two feet! It is a very stiff ring and very strong. This pattern stands off a little too.

There is a small amount of preparation needed before we can start to tie the rings on the blank. Firstly, gently grind the ends of the feet so that there is a nice "feathered" leading edge to the ring. Then rub the ring over a fine oilstone to remove any sharp edges or burrs. Use a black marker pen to colour over the exposed steel. This is well worth doing, as this will prevent the bright steel showing through the varnish.

The correct size of ring is important too. For a Barbel rod I would start off using size 6 rings. Again things are not that easy in the trade regarding sizing of rings. The catalogues sometimes use the internal bore and sometimes the overall ring size. Experience has taught me to check the list and make sure that the supplier understands where I am taking my measurements from! The size 6 is the OD size – sort of!

Generally speaking, Barbel rods should have smaller rings than a carp rod, but larger than a match rod.

Now we come to the trickiest part of rod making and design; where to put the rings, for there are no hard and fast rules, nor is there a formula that works for every rod! What follows are MY suggestions as to how YOU might arrive at something sensible, given that there are so many different rod actions available.

One rule of thumb that might be applied is this, "The faster the taper, the closer together the rings should be placed on the top section" This applies to Barbel rods, NOT long distance carp rods or beach-casters!

I have seen various formulae published, mainly by American publications, but none of these seem to work for British style rods. Speaking personally, I have made so many different rods over the years that I need nothing. I can look at a given blank and get it right, usually first time. How then should you go about ring positioning? There are a couple of points that I always bear in mind and these act as datum points in deciding where to position rings. The first is in fact the butt ring! I tape this ring on the blank at approximately 20 inches from the top end of the handle, or 24 inches from where the reel stem will end up on the rod. It is not written in tablets of stone, this ring can be moved to suit the end user. However, none of my clients has complained yet! This position seems to be acceptable to both fixed spool reel and centrepin reel users alike.

I like my first ring to be quite close to the tip, closer than most rod makers. My first ring might be taped at say 4 ¾" possibly 5", rarely much farther away from the tip. If the blank were a slow through action, I might start at 6". Then regardless of where I start, my next ring would be that distance PLUS 1" (making say 5 ¾" assuming my first ring position of 4 ¾") Then my next would be, that distance PLUS 2" and so on using two inch increments all the way down the tip section. I hope this is easy to understand!

In an attempt at making ring spacing suggestions easier to understand, as it is not easy to put the whole thing into words, I have come up with this formula. Please remember that the tip ring does not count as a ring as such.

And for the purpose of simplicity I will use "round figures" The first number is the ring number the second is the distance from the previous ring. The first being 5" from the tip ring.

As for ring sizes, I suggest 4no. size 6. 2no. size 7. 1no. size 8 For the tip section. And for the Butt section 1no. size 12. And finally 1no size 20 for the butt ring.

Having written that lot. I now suggest that you tape your rings on firmly using good quality masking tape. Use strips of tape approximately 1/8" wide. Then using a piece of string or something quite thick. Thread the string through the rings and tie it to something fixed. It is only necessary to do this with the tip section first, no need to put the whole rod up at this stage. Then turn the section upside down and pull against the fixed object to bend the rod. Look at the string. If it touches the blank between any ring, move the lower ring up the blank until the string clears the blank. It doesn’t have to be by very much, as long as the string does not touch the blank.

There is no other magic formula. The whole issue of ring spacing is an absolute minefield. For the would be rod maker; I would suggest that he asks the supplier of his blank to suggest spacings.

For the butt section. The butt ring is allready taped on, all one needs to do now is tape on the other butt section ring. This will probably be about 15" or so from the butt ring. Fit the sections together and look at the rings now taped to the rod. They should look as though there is a nice even graduation all along the blank.

Now make sure that all the rings are in perfect alignment to the tip ring. Make sure too, that they are taped on both feet really tightly. Now the rod is ready for tying.

If the rod maker is going to use a modern "High Build" rod finish on the wraps, and in this day and age I cannot think why anyone would not, select a thread colour. Bear this in mind, whatever colour thread that is chosen, it will darken considerably when the finish is applied. This can be avoided if a colour preserver is applied to the wraps. Very few rod makers bother, as we allow for the darkening when selecting thread.

Here we go again! Not all thread is the same! As far as I am concerned there are only two brands of thread that I will use. My favourite is Gudebrod. This is an American thread and is very good indeed. The best of the British, is Talbot. Whilst they have similar colours, they do not match. However, they both cut well and accept varnish readily. I made a big mistake a while ago when Gudebrod became difficult to obtain, I bought a load of Fish Hawk thread in the colours that I use frequently. It turned out to be horrible! It is hard to get a really good clean cut, regardless of how sharp my scissors are, the thread tends to fray and that is bad news when trying to thread the end through a small gap. The other really big problem that I have with it, is that it refuses to take the rod finish well. What happens is that instead of a nice even colour left after applying the finish, it goes blotchy. I can’t live with that.

As with so many things there are different sizes of thread. For the sake of simplicity, choose "A" thickness. I use nothing else for freshwater rods.