A Trio!!!

Click on the Photo


Peter Mulbjerg was kind enough to forward me this really great photo of his grips made with our birchbark. These are some truly custom grips. Looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with.

Ebony and Bark

Rodbuilder Peter Mulbjerg of Denmark was kind enough to send me a photo of his latest grip made with our Birchbark. A job well done and truly a custom rod. I really like working with this natural material. The dark ebony really gives a nice contrast to the light coloured bark. Again well done Peter

Proud To Be a Canadain EHH!!!

I have been following the winter games closely these last couple of weeks. I watched the closing ceremonies and was a bit dissappointed that its all over. The cross country skiing was great. Norways Marik B was almost subhuman. Dont know how they can do that. Finally sat through some curling including Canada's mens gold medal game. One thing that puzzles me is that if curling is a winter games sport why shouldnt ice fishing? It was touch and go in the mens hockey final but in the end it all came good.One thing that really suprised me was

14 GOLDS for Canada Ehhh!!! Olympic Record!!!

So you see we dont all live in igloos and there is more to the country than mounties, beavers and moose.

Guide Prep, Grayling and Olympics!!!

I remember when I built my first few rods back in the mid 80's. I had bought Dales Clemens book and remember reading his words about finishing. He said it was a mistake to think about finishing as you were mixing your finish. I start to think about finishing even before the guide is wrapped. If you prep your guides properly it is so much easier to get a nice clean finished product. My tools are a flat file and a sanding board which women use to file their nails. I will say that when I find myself at the drugstore I get some funny looks when I am buying fingernail boards, Sally Hansens nail varnish(for my flies). I don't say anything and keep them guessing!! Ha Ha

When prepping your guide feet try to get a narrow slope with a very fine edge where the thread will start to climb up the foot. The time spent here will save you more headache than you know. This is especially true for someone starting out. I rough them out with a flat file and then take any burrs off with a sanding board.As these days I mostly build fly rods I like to keep the wraps slim looking. A word of caution- go slow file a bit and look. You can always remove but its hard to put the material back. As this is custom work and your looking for a nice fit and finish, time should not really be an issue. You can click on each photo to get a close look

Left- Unprepped

Right-Prepped

Notice the difference in the slope, thickness and radiused. Much easier to work the thread over the prepped guide. After it is wrapped the "tunnels" which are formed on each side of the foot are kept to a min. This reduces the amount of air that can be trapped in this void space. Reduced air equals less chance of getting bubbles in your finish and they are easier to fill up with your thread coating of choice.

Here's the difference. Be careful though don't make them too thin as you will lose to much of the structural strength. Practice makes perfect

I usually taper them this way as well.

I have been going through my fishing photos and saving all my best to a disc. Here is a nice grayling(one of my favorite fish). I looked in my notes and this was taken on a #16 CDC emerger during an olive hatch. This is the European grayling which is a bit different from the Artic Grayling.

Great sport when they are feeding on the surface with gusto!!

GO CANADA!!!!

Hockey tonight against USA. Lets crush them Shatner stealing Mexico touchers. I may be here in the UK. I,m still a puck slapping maple sucker A good medal haul so far this year

More Birchbark!!

I seemed to have a problem with my account and could not access my blog. All seems to be sorted out now. I have been making quite a few grips since my last post. This is another birbark grip attached to an 8' 3 WT. I really love the look of a birchbark grip. Definitely screems custom rod. If your interested in making one of these for yourself you can purchase the bark here. I have personally collected and sorted the bark. If you dont roll your own but would like one please contact me scott@solwaycustomcomponents.com

In this grip I have added Laguna Burl cork and Corian for the trim.
The seat and end cap are stabilized birch burl wood.
Please click on the photo to zoom it in.



A closer shot of the seat.

Custom ALPS Decal

I haven't been posting as much as I would like but I have been busy with customer rods and the like. I don't feel to bad spending time in the shop because the weather has been absolutely awful. Today I had time to slip in my water slide decal work. They were made on an ALPS printer using white ink. This is the stripping side with the builders name. ME!!! Click on the photos to zoom them in.



This is the other side with model, length and rating. I have to do some more experimenting with these decals. The carrier paper is extremely thin and they were not the easiest to bed down. I found the best so far is a coat of Chromaseal over the decal before it is cut to shape. This way the writing is more durable and you can give it a fair amount of pressure to squeeze the air out from under it. All in all its not to bad. I used Threadmaster over and turned by hand. Its nearly 3 3/4" long came out nice and level. I also changed the wrap a bit an put in some tan between the white bands to tie in with the grip.

A Strange Pike

No rod building today. My computer was so full of junk that I had to spend some time and clean it up.
I came across this photo that I had completely forgotten about. I think it was caught somewhere in Ontario, Canada. I have seen small slamon fry hatching like this but they usually didn't last
.Obiviously this fish was one of the very lucky ones. I figured I would pop it on here and see if other fisherman find it strange!!!!