Rod Building

[rogd]

Does anyone know of a supplier of decent rod blanks?

 

The supply seems to have dried up lately.

[nick]

Does anyone know of a supplier of decent rod blanks?

 

The supply seems to have dried up lately.

 

In the UK there's http://www.guidesnblanks.com

 

From the USA there's http://www.mudhole.com (and plenty of others - makes the range of blanks available here look totally pathetic)

[SeaDooDavid]

Does anyone know of a supplier of decent rod blanks?

 

The supply seems to have dried up lately.

 

Oooh ooooh interesting!!!!! wot ya makin????? ha ha nosey so and so me! If ya gonna make a blank up to a rod are you gonna do a write up with pics? Always interested me this subject! Have you done one before?

 

Sorry for cutting in, you just hit a subject I am interesetd in

 

Cheers

 

SDD~~~~

[rogd]

Oooh ooooh interesting!!!!! wot ya makin????? ha ha nosey so and so me! If ya gonna make a blank up to a rod are you gonna do a write up with pics? Always interested me this subject! Have you done one before?

 

Sorry for cutting in, you just hit a subject I am interesetd in

 

Cheers

 

SDD~~~~

 

 

Just whack 'rod building' ito your seach engine thingy and you'll find all sorts of advice and materials.

The problem is that although there are plenty of fly rod blanks available (at a price!!!), there are no shortish spinning type blanks on the market.

As you know, kayak fishing requires fairly specialised rods, the main problem is the length of the handle. I've been known to take the hacksaw to some commercially produced rods!!!

I've made plenty of rods of all different sorts and it ain't exactly quantum physics!!!

A book called Rod Building and Repair is available on Amazon and even though it was written 20 odd years by Len Head, its still one of the best books on the subject.

[YakDiver]

http://www.harrisonrods.co.uk/

first class blanks

[SeaDooDavid]

Just whack 'rod building' ito your seach engine thingy and you'll find all sorts of advice and materials.

The problem is that although there are plenty of fly rod blanks available (at a price!!!), there are no shortish spinning type blanks on the market.

As you know, kayak fishing requires fairly specialised rods, the main problem is the length of the handle. I've been known to take the hacksaw to some commercially produced rods!!!

I've made plenty of rods of all different sorts and it ain't exactly quantum physics!!!

A book called Rod Building and Repair is available on Amazon and even though it was written 20 odd years by Len Head, its still one of the best books on the subject.

 

Thank you kind sir, good luck with the build! Scouting tinterweb now

 

Cheers

 

SDD~~~~

[Guest nanook]

Does anyone know of a supplier of decent rod blanks? The supply seems to have dried up lately.

 

And the supply of blanks was never up to much in UK to start with... It is strange: here's a country of 60 million, with somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 million people who go fishing at some time, but if you're interested in rod building (I am) it's like living in the Third World. Is it that hardly anyone here is really interested in building custom rods (as opposed to slinging together a few components primarily to save a few quid) - ? Is it a terminally unimaginative tackle trade that simply cannot be arsed to offer a wide variety of good components? Or what?

In the USA there are more people, sure, but the quantity of stuff available to rod builders there is hugely out of proportion compared to the greater numbers of anglers. Apart from local tackle dealers they have these wonderful superstores such as Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, both of which I've bought from by mail order, starting over twenty years ago - and only recently I discovered Mudhole.com, excellent variety of rod components, all sorts of cool custom stuff that has you drooling over the keyboard. In Detroit a few years ago I was taken to a hunting & fishing supermarket the size of a good Sainsbury's, bought lots of kit, like Aladdin's Cave. I just bought some simple items on ebay from California - simple, but does anyone here sell such basic tools & accessories for the custom rod builder? Nope - ask in any UK tackle shop and you'll get the "mad look" as if to say, Who's this weirdo and why isn't he happy with the same boring off-the-shelf kit we flog to everyone else...

Re books - absolutely the very best rod-building books I know of are by Dale P Clemens, who ran a rod component dealership too, now sadly closed down it seems. Get his "Advanced Custom Rod Building" (usually 1 or 2 copies going on Ebay) and wonder at the detail, the ideas, the custom finishes...

Re blanks - Normark used to offer a reasonable range of "different" blanks including those short spinning/baitcasting types, and they used to be based just down the road from me in Devon too... My nearest big angling shop, Exeter Angling Centre, used to sell blanks as well - but no more, it seems, no explanation given...

Re Harrison in Liverpool, no short spinning blanks there, and after sending them three emails about another piece of kit I still didn't receive a reply, so not much of a retail experience there...

Re guides&blanks (Hopkins & Holloway) - I called at their premises last year when on business near Redditch and they were extremely helpful with searching out a few guides etc - but though they do actually sell one or two (expensive) tools for rod building, AFAIK they have no short spinning blanks...

It's back to Mudhole or Cabela's for blanks, then, plus trans-Atlantic postage costs. I'll actually be in Montreal next weekend; maybe the Canucks have some decent tackle shops - though the Montreal branch of Cabela's doesn't open 'til next year, dammit...

Yours resignedly, nanook

[Guest nanook]

Just revisited the site after a trip away. I think around 350 people have looked at this since I posted the above, and no-one has had any thoughts at all - or at least, no motivation to express them. Maybe this helps to explain the situation I outlined: too few UK anglers are interested in building quality custom rods, especially baitcasting or spinning rods, to make it worth manufacturers & dealers offering a variety of good kit to the UK consumer. Looks like I'll be sourcing most stuff from abroad for the forseeable future, then. Ho hum...