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Has anybody built their own carp rod?


Julian

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I’m in the market for a new rod. I have various rods for various purposes, but my firm favourites are the rods I had hand-built about nine or ten years ago – the feel and handling is (for me) far superior than anything you could get off a shelf as they are built to my own arm length and specification, etc.

 

I’m after a stalking rod; something around 9-10 foot with a nice all through action and quite light. I fancy having a crack at building one myself as it’s something I’ve never done before and it would be a good challenge.

 

How difficult would it be - am I kidding myself?

 

Would be interested to hear from any who have built their own rods from scratch so I know what I’d be taking on and any recommendations for blank/assembly suppliers would be greatly received.

 

Cheers…

 

Julian

Mild Mannered Carp Angler By Day…

 

Read My Blog:Here! View My Gallery: Here!

 

www.NorthWestcarp.co.uk Home of the Northern Monkey!

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That sounds like fun Julian - assuming 'from scratch' means you will buy a blank from someone and put the fittings on it.

 

Take a look at http://www.mudhole.com . They do have blanks although I'm sure you can do better locally but they also have a wonderful collections of tips & ideas that would be worth reading before you started buying the parts.

 

Any chance you could take lots of pictures during the process and share them?

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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not for 35 years but then every one did that didnt have the funds to buy a ready made ,my most famouse blank was from dawsons bromley (long gone i expect) where i blagged a second from them by continual pestering (i lived round the corner ish) i most certainly destroyed a good rod to make an extremly bad one ,i was ten :2:

i blagged about everything else as well ,those tears worked wonders :D

i just cut off both ends of the rod to make a shorter version :rolleyes:

later came j b walkers and rod "kits" and a better finish

the second attemp was a tank arial rod ,the butt was so thin you couldnt buy corks with small enough holes ,my old mans toolkit consisted of a rusty saw and screwdriver so my holemaking was done by penknife ,not the best rod in the world :(

i think with modern materials it should be easy ,the finish is the most important bit to take your time over ,in my time it was more experimental and b & W plated books from the library to find out where you went wrong :rolleyes: always after you went wrong mind :headhurt:

Edited by chesters1

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shouldnt be a problem! get a blank and your fittings and get to it!

whiping is the only thing that takes a bit of skill and lots of patience in my limited experience!

good fun shaping the cork handle,(if thats your choice)

peice of cake with a book from the library! nice to customis with your nick name etc

and colour whiping of your choice, go for it

Edited by geffaz
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Julian, Harrisons have some of the best blanks around (IMO) including stalking rod blanks. If you want to give it a try I`ve got most of the components in stock that you would need, ex the blank which I can get in a few days and have sent direct to you. I`m also happy to keep you right on the build progress by PM.

 

Stan www.alba-rods.co.uk

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Thanks for the input,

 

Sounds like the key will be to do lots of reading in advance – can anybody recommend any books or sites (other than those above) which could help?

 

Thanks for the link, Newt – some good stuff on there.

 

Thanks for the offer of help Stan, may well be taking you up on it. Had a good look around the Harrison site but could not see any stalking blanks?

 

Definitely going to give it a go and will write it up as an article for the site.

 

Cheers…

 

Julian

Mild Mannered Carp Angler By Day…

 

Read My Blog:Here! View My Gallery: Here!

 

www.NorthWestcarp.co.uk Home of the Northern Monkey!

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Thanks for the input,

 

Sounds like the key will be to do lots of reading in advance – can anybody recommend any books or sites (other than those above) which could help?

 

Thanks for the link, Newt – some good stuff on there.

 

Thanks for the offer of help Stan, may well be taking you up on it. Had a good look around the Harrison site but could not see any stalking blanks?

 

Definitely going to give it a go and will write it up as an article for the site.

 

Cheers…

 

Julian

 

 

Julian, not on their site but in the trade catalogue. Ballista Stalker, 9ft..2.75lb and 9ft....3.00lb

also a BAllista Stalker extreme, 12ft 6inch....3.5lb

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I agree, I would have thought 1.75lb would be OK, but maybe theres another reason?

 

 

Julian, have to agree also they do seem to be a bit heavy. Had a look in the export trade list they`ve also got a 3piece, stalker, 10ft, 2lb TC

 

Stan.

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