A beautiful reel seat is like Hans Christian Anderson's autobiographical allegory, Tale of the Ugly Duckling. While waiting for the blank to arrive, there are some things I can do and today I will describe the process of turning this;

into this...

First, you need to find the raw product. There are many articles on the internet on how to spalt wood, but unless you have a special species of tree you want to use, go out in the woods along your favorite fishing hole and find the nastiest piece of wood you can carry. Typically, you will want a wood that was originally a hardwood, and at 4"-10" in diameter. Smaller than that and you will struggle find a length suitable for even a reel seat, longer than that and it is hard/unsafe to cut with regular equipment. Furthermore, the spalting is best found when you can quarter the wood near a burr in the tree. I have one particular stream I fish often, I guess you can call it my home water. I decided I wanted I wanted to turn down a piece of wood from a branch that had fallen in the creek, was submerged and became spalted. This creek has many different great trees to choose from, Burr Oak, White Oak, Red Oak, Osage, and Persimmon being found. While fishin-...er, I mean while researching for a good piece of wood, I found a nice log that had been washed out of the mud and lying on a flat. As you can see, the wood is lightly spalted pecan. If you want more aggressive spalting, find a tree in the forest that has fallen over and become buried in the dirt, covered with leaves and mushrooms. This is ideal! Do some research on wood before selecting, some wood is inherently easier to use than others. I find such reclaimed lumber adds a special personal feel to the rod.
     Due to the conditions under which wood becomes spalted, it has to be handled correctly or it will likely crack as it dries. I cut the wood into 1 3/16" x 5" sections and insert each one individually in a sealed plastic bag. As the moisture evaporates from the wood, the bag will become wet on the inside, so everyday, remove the pieces out, turn the bag inside out and repeat for about a week. The next week I would leave the pieces out in the open air for a couple hours, then return them to the bag. For the piece above, this took about 3 weeks. When you check the bag at the scheduled time and there is no moisture in the bag, leave the pieces out to complete the drying. This will take another few weeks but that's ok, your still waiting for the blank to be made.
     I then carefully inspect all the pieces for holes to big to fill, and ordered them by attractiveness. The Kate Winslett's on one end, the plain jane's on the other. Select the top three pieces and the bottom three pieces. The bottom three pieces will be used for practice.
     After the wood is completely dry, the pieces need to be as perfectly square as possible.
!!!THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS, AND CAN LEAD TO SERIOUS, AND I MEAN SERIOUS GGGGRIEF IF NOT DONE CAREFULLY. IF YOU ARE UNSURE HOW TO DO THIS SAFELY, DO NOT DO IT!!!! 
Using two push sticks, one holding the piece down onto the table, the other holding pushing the piece through the saw. Very carefully trim each side down until you get a 1" square. Now, go have a drink of your favorite adult beverage and count your fingers. Once all fingers are accounted for and in their correct place, cut about 1/8" off each end to ensure the block ends are square to the length. This will make it easier to drill the hole.
     To drill the hole, you need to find the exact center. If you have a combination with a centering square, it is easy. If not, it is not that difficult to make one.

     If your block is not perfect, no big deal. As you see above, there is a tiny offshape square in the center of the block, that would be the center. I then use a 3/16" drill bit on a press (if you can free hand drill this perfectly center, your better than I am), Swap ends and drill from the other side. They should match. Then drill a 1/4" hole as far as the drill press will allow. I do not use long shank drill bits on the press because my drill press chuck is a bit out of wack. Then I use a hand drill and a long shank 1/4" drill bit to follow the hole out the other side. It is a good idea to use a back stop of wood to avoid run-out.
     The next preparation for the wood involves rounding off the edge to make the turning easier, minimize splintering of the wood, and save on wear and tear on the chisel. Before doing this, you need to have your reel seat in hand to measure the amount of wood the spacer will require. When rounding the edge make sure not to go to small or the pooch is proverbially screwed. I used a disc sander such as this delta

 for this purpose, but other folks are comfortable cutting the edge with a table saw.










So, I have a spalted piece of wood ready for to be impregnated....

     

"We  could be the biggest pantyhose seller in America, but we don't want to weaken the link in shoppers' minds between Home Depot and do-it-yourself projects."

So said co-founder of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus. I spend a lot of time at Home Depot, both due to my work as a buyer and because I just like looking at tools and stuff. I would spend a lot more time at Home Depot if they sold stockings but doubt it would be very productive.

My 'thing' is fly fishing. I love the feel of a perfectly cast loop, the gentle land of a small Adams or Big Ol' Popper, the sip of the tiniest brookie or bluegill, the smash of Hog Bass, its all the same to me. I am often asked what is the attraction. Frankly, I can not answer that, and hope never too. Lyricist Lou Reed (of Velvet Underground, think Walk on the Wild Side) sang,

There's a bit of magic in everything

and then some loss to even things out

I do not want to speed up the process by trying to rationalize the magic out of fly fishing.

A very close friend and fishing compadre, I'll call him Tom because that is his name, once said it must add a dimension to fly fishing using a fly you've tied. He was correct, as he usually is about such things. Hand tying ones own flies is almost as fun as shopping for hosiery. I later found that building my own custom rods even deepened the satisfaction. Sort of like going to Home Depot and finding Ms. Winslett trying on pantyhose...wait, never mind....

This is intended as a journal for first, myself. I learn different techniques and then promptly forget them and hope this will help me recall how I built a particular rod. More important, highlighting my errors and the stupid things I do may help me not repeat the same inane acts. (Something I am susceptible to). I hope this will also encourage others to 'roll their own' as it were. There are lotsa reasons why, but the main one is accomplishing the building of a $600 graphite rod, or as in the case I am highlighting here, a $1000 bamboo rod for pennies on the dollar. is deeply deeply gratifying. This alone would be enough, but my experience has been a rod I build fits me. It is like a Seville Road Business Suit for the stream. The action of the rod is to my taste, the color coordination of thread wraps, reel seat, and rod are to my taste, the grip fits my hands. The fly rod as a tool becomes a Fly Rod as working art. There are no shortcuts to a good casting stroke. But, once you gain the skills to cast well, an expensive Sage/Orvis/Winston/et. al., will never cast as well as the rod made for you.

I currently live in Texas where Bass is King. I also make occasional trips to Pennsylvania where a rod that can catch the smallmouth and big brown trout of the Juniata, Little Juniata, and Susquehanna Rivers is desired. And, I wanted bamboo. I had the opportunity to cast, and erred mightily when I was truly shocked at the wonderousness of the bamboo as a medium for a fly rod. I consulted with world famous rod builder extraordinaire Matt Albaugh of Albaugh Rod Company out of Idaho. His recommendation was a flamed Garrison 212e, a medium fast action 6-7 wt. (relative to bamboo) capable of tossing both small flies and poppers as well as bigger poppers up to size 4 or even 2. It turned out a local fellow I bumped into just happened to have one he let me cast. Simply marvelous. So, I contracted to Mr. Albaugh to make an unferruled blank. Below is a picture of a Garrison 212e that was recently sold...

Garrison 212e

Now the decision of how to outfit the rod.
For the reel seat I am going with Bellinger's Garrison Sliding Bands,

Garrison sliding Band x 2, one with cork

 spacer, and band/end cap alone.

This show the spacer made of cork, but rather I am going with a spalted Burr Oak I found on the creek I think of as my home water. The process of reclaiming fallen trees and limbs is a bit prolonged, I will go into it in great detail later, but here are some pictures of the cross sections and blocks.

For a grip, I am going to use a Garrison style, which is really just a straight grip that rounds off at the for-end. And it will be rattan. I will go into much greater detail how I do this later, but in the mean time, here is a picture of a very similar one I made for a 3-wt orvis. Note this is more akin to a cigar grip.

                                                                                                      caught on a #6 Purple Gurgler






















The winding check will be integral with the grip, I will explain this when I get into the rattan grip.

For guides and tip top...I have tried several brands of guides for my previous builds, but found the one aspect I really loath is the grinding and sanding of the feet. (The feet on guides need to come down to a nice acute angle so the thread wraps are a seamless transition to the rod. Not sanding the blunt feet makes for a very unsightly rod). I am sure there are other brands that are quite nice, I am going with Snake Brand guides. They have a sterling reputation within the fly rod building community, and best of all, they require little to no grinding of the feet.

< Snake Brand, notice the feet are nice and sharp. Furthermore, it is also offered in a lovely bronze finish.

                                                other brands >

                      The picture isn't very clear, but the feet are taper to a blunt end, this end will need

to be filed/ground/sanded to a nice find edge.

It has become almost standard to use an agate stripper guide, such as from Arcane, on a bamboo fly rod,

Beautiful, ain't it!

However, I am looking for a more subdued look and like the Mildrum style for this rod. Unfortunately, the original Mildrum's are no longer being made, but REC bought the rights and is close enough for my tastes. 

Yeah, I'm gonna have to grind the (damn) feet, but I love the look.

The Hook Keeper...

oh, such a wee little thing, that causes me so much grief. Yes, I know, it is a result of poor casting form! but dadnabit, I hate it when I miss a fish because the line loops around the rod near the end of a cast and catches on that little 'D' style hook keeper.

(Yes, it has happened more than once).





I am not a fan of the folding hook keeper,

nor do I like the looks of the British style hook keeper...

What I really like is the saddle and loop. Particularly, I find the one manufactured, again, by Snake Brand, is a particularly classic look on a bamboo fly rod. I do wish it came in a bronze color to match their snake guides.

                       
                         


       

The strip forms a saddle which sandwiches 

the loop between the rod and the 

Ferrules will be from Arcane.

The finish is still something I am debating. Most likely I will use several coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Varnish.

Finally, thread color. I love the look of clear threads, while it is a bit tedious, I will be going with Pearsall's Gossamer thread in 'Antique Gold'. I will use Pearsall's 4/0 in 'java' for the ferrule wraps and winding check/hook keeper.