Here's what I've been up to over the last few weeks. First, I got sidetracked repairing some reel seats. Some of the wood inserts I bought over the last couple of years weren't finished properly, and they started developing cloudy, white sections. I assume water was penetrating the finish and causing the damage. The first picture below is one of the worst, and it got to the point that I couldn't see much of the figuring that drew me to the insert in the first place. The second shows a recent build that was only fished twice. The line is where my reel's foot contacted the insert.
So, what to do? I was refunded the cost of the reel seats, but I liked several of the wood pieces. I tried to carefully disassemble each affected rod. I damaged the grips on two of the rods, which meant they had to be replaced. Thankfully, I had already been contemplating redoing the cork on both since the grips weren't quite working that well anyway. So, no loss there but time. I couldn't get the wood off of a couple of others, and for those I decided to try covering the hardware with painters tape while I sanded the old finish off and reapplied new finish. Then I followed PENZZZ's method on all the inserts, which he describes
here, except that I used Minwax's Tung Oil Finish. Here's an insert still in process, and here are three finished, with varying levels of sheen. I did the top one last, and that's what I'll be shooting for in the future.
Here's the new grip on my Western Glass 5-weight, much more comfortable. I've settled on a modified Winston-style cigar (or, at least that's what
they call the shape) as the best fit for my hands in the 3-5 line weights. I just need to redo the signature section (another casualty of the different grip shape), and this rod is finished.
In the meantime, I've been working on a much less exciting build of a Barclay Parabolic 8'0" 4-weight. No real complications here. The last coat (I hope) of finish is on the tip. I just need to touch up a couple of wraps and write out the signature. Soon, I'll finally be on to the next projects.