Hello
Good morning glad to see more questions!
I'll address the questions in the order starting with whirlpools.
"i forget where that style was first commonly seen or how prevalent over the years. Do you think it was always a touch that hinted "custom" crafted?" I first saw them on Phillipson rods back in the 70's, the Phillipsons were made with a cone shaped piece of aluminum sort of a big winding check, sometimes they were just used plain with no over wrap mostly on the fiberglass rods, when used on the Phillipson bamboo rods they were more often over wrapped, I wouldn't say it was something only seen on custom rods, just a good look?
Then Orvis started making a more slender version by turning down the cork to what they dubbed "superfine" at that point they became more popular, other makers such as vince Cummings and others had their own versions.
I recently saw a Cummings rod picture somewhere here that originally had a superfine style grip that was altered during a restoration, the idea was that with
Finesse rods in the lower line weights the fisherman could comfortably place their index finger forward to aid in the control of the fly presentation for a finer feel.
"but can you think of a downside for the style for a certain rod type? not those, for sure. "
I don't see a down side really except those that don't have an over wrap tend crack overtime and the cork breaks away.
"thanks, andy, I'll start looking for them. I found a good black ink pen but nothing in lighter colors. Jim"
Jim try your local hardware store of craft store.
Great to see you on board doug thanks for all your kindness!
Yes rat face I have found a home for blue thread ha ha gotta love it.
"did you taper the grip after it was glued to the blank? for the epoxy ramp, did you let the 5min epoxy harden before wrapping it with thread? at the point where the wraps end and the cork begins, how did you get the thread the same height as the cork? does the thread "bite" into the epoxy base? or does it lay on top"Pat good questions all!
Very glad to see you are still on board
The grip is a lower quality preformed grip that came in with a bunch of stuff I picked up on eBay for the reel seats and thread, the bore was about 3/8" I drilled them out and then reamed them to fit, during that process the wall in the front became kinda thin, so I glued them on the blanks then filled them and turned them some to clean them up, I dressed the front taper down some,
The reason I decided to do the epoxy build up was to strengthen them and get the superfine style of sorts, they actually are more like the Phillipson style hosel in my opinion.
The epoxy was actually done in two steps, first I laid down a base of 5 min epoxy and shaped it, the epoxy was left to cure up overnight, a second coat was then applied and left to cure again overnight you want to make sure the epoxy is fully cured before you attempt to over wrap.
As we all know cork is soft and compresses so you need to wrap up the hosel when you get to the edge of the epoxy you need to do the wraps over the cork by feel, what I do is when I get lets say 10 rotations from the cork I take the thread out of the tension device, from that point I work by feel watching to not have the thread compress the cork any more than the diameter if the thread for a flush finish.
The thread should not bite into the epoxy only slightly into the cork at the finish of the wrap.
As soon as I pull the thread trough the loop and cut it flush I apply thread finish to keep it all put.
Tight lines and great fun loops
Andy M