I finally finished a winter rebuild! Can’t hardly believe it. I guess there’s something to be said for self isolation...

Work time has been so spotty that I haven’t been posting updates along the way, so I’m going to do a bit of a photo essay now.

This is the biggest of the now discontinued Echo Glass Spey rods. It’s a really sweet casting blank, 500-560grains is really satisfying, and it can handle a 40-50ft head remarkably well.

But the factory cork and handle aren’t the best, and we’re way to thick for my taste. So first I tried to reshape the existing cork.



But all the filler fell out. So it was time to pull it all off (which was really what I wanted to do anyway).



Echo makes a really solid product and I ended up having to put it on the lathe to get the factory cork off.



Reel seat didn’t want to come off either, and I ended up destroying it in the removal process. Kudos to Echo for a pretty bulletproof build.



I recently picked up a bunch of LC26’s for my spey builds, so this one got a champagne coloured one, with an Osage orange spacer.





Soaked in danish oil (thanks Andy!) and dipped in spar.



Laying out the cork in my now typical fake-Bob Meiser style.



Gluing



Turning



Tru-Oil’ing (again a la Meiser)





And done!





Took me forever with my schedule this winter. Good thing this one was for me.

Gorgeous handle and finished rod. Like the way you combined the various burl corks and a Tru-Oil finish always adds depth. I'm curious about the type of glue you used on your cork. From the "foaming" appearance it looks like Gorilla glue.

Thanks guys!


Yeah, it’s gorilla glue. another trick learned off this site from Glassmaster Andy. It works really well for me - it sands well and the foam fills any gaps between the cork rings and the blank left by my impatient reaming.


I’ve also got the 10’6” 3wt that I’m likely going to do something similar too. The handle on that one feels less clunky to me though, so it’s farther down the priority list. The 8wt is a nice blank, and the 7wt has a great reputation as well. Really too bad they’re discontinued.

Very cool build.

Any chance you can provide some info on the lathe support you built to support the blank while it’s chucked in the lathe? I’ve been looking for such an idea.

Rob