With my annual Christmas shopping out of the way this morning (go to Best Buy early, drop a bundle, and get out before the crowd descends) it's time for some more decisions to made about our rod. We've got to get some hardware ordered if this rod is to be ready for Superboo. Although hardward and wrap color choices have no bearing on how a rod will cast, it's a very important step in adding a personal touch to a rod.

Below are some past choices I've made for rods I have built:
<img src="http://www.flyfishinginmaine.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=6292&g2_serialNumber=1">
Spacer wood, L to R: walnut; maple burl, rosewood; zebra wood; cedar; cork; cocobolla; tiger maple; zebra wood; zebra wood; zebra wood; cork. As you can see, I'm a big fan of zebra wood.

Although sliding bands work fine on lighter rods, I prefer a positive locking screw nickel silver reel seat on 7.5 ft rods and longer. I also prefer the more modern looking uplocking reel seat for longer rods.

As far as cork grips are concerned, I like the simplistic look of a standard grip, but superfine (reversed halfwells) are nice too. All my grips are flor grade now.

Hook tenders should be saddle and ring, IMO, although most of my earlier rods have a standard loop tender.

Wraps: I prefer earthtone shades of gold, tan, brown. I also love the look of cardinal (deep red) wraps, which are very classy and appear jewel-like when the sunlight hits them just right. Bright red is okay, but just a tad on the gaudy side for my taste.

Nowadays, wraps on bamboo rods are almost always silk, preferably Gossamer (6/0) or Naples (4/0). Unlike the modern graphite fly, where wraps tend to be bulbous or football shaped, the look we are trying to achieve with bamboo is as flat and understated as possible. That look is just not possible with nylon. I also like tipping (5 turns maximum) to compliment the wraps.

Winding checks should be hex shaped and nickel silver.

As far as stripping guides are concerned, I prefer low profile tungsten carbide over agate. Less is more with bamboo, IMO, and agate strippers are just a bit too gaudy for my tastes. But if someone has a nice understated agate stripper they want to donate to the cause, we can talk.

I'd love to hear the opinions of others on this subject.

Joel,
Nice looking work. I don't agree on the up-locking reel seats. That is my own personal dilemma. I don't really understand why they seem to have been thrust down our throats. I do have one and it isn't my favorite set-up.
I can appreciate graphite and the space age material that it is. And what they can do with it. But I sure think the big rod companies have really lost it on reel seat design lately.

I notice a difference in grip lengths. Is there a reason behind this?

I'm trying to decide on thread colors for a set of blanks (Orvis 3pc. 2 tip from Ebay)I'm assembling into a rod. Over the holiday I'm going to try to see if the pieces of cherry I've been collecting will yield me the insert I'm after. Also have to order up the ferrules and guides. Just not sure how far I want to go.

On my graphite kits I assembled my wife chose everything for me. Now that I'm grown up I'm attempting to do this one myself. Although I'm not afraid to seek help.

Ron

When picking a reel seat it is almost better to know the personal habits of the caster first....I have slip band reel seats on two rods, and as I have a habit of letting my casting hand slip down to actually touching the reel, I have without knowing loosened the upper band and dropped the reel totally off the rod. Were I to hold the rod up near the correct place on the cork this wouldn't be a problem...but I don't.

SO- I lean toward a uplinking reel seat. Not in black.

The spacer- I like the look of rosewood.

Hutch

Interesting comments on uplock vs downlock reel seats. I migrated to uplock during my early graphite days. Because the graphite blanks are so light, I found myself subconsciously "cheating back" on the grip to find the balance point. Doing so, I often ended up with two or three fingers on the downlocking reel seat. Uplocking reel seats solved that dilemma for me.

With a bamboo rod, uplocking reel seats are not necessary because the balance point is typically closer to the front of the grip. I guess I just like the look of an uplocking reelseat.

On grip length, it's a "proportion thing" for me. On a 7.5 ft or longer rod, I like a 6.5" grip. On a 7 ft or shorter rod, 6" looks better proportioned, IMO.

I'm with 1weight with respect to preferring downlocking reel seats. I have two reasons for this:

1) With cane, I feel the further back the reel is, the better balance point I get when gripping the rod--.

2) With an uplocking seat, I sometimes get my line wrapped behind the reel on the bit of butt section sticking out. More than once I've had a nice fish head out fast, and when the line's like this, it's a wrap--fish & fly will be gone in a blink.

I agree with Joel that two-ring reel seats are not very stable--and the worst sound I can imagine hearing is the sound of a reel falling off your rod onto the rocks. I have little problem with downlocking cap & ring seats though--FET used them a lot. Most builders seemed to have a predilection one way or the other--Payne oddly enough had DL cap-and ring seats, and UL screw seats--even on short rods like the Payne 98 and 100. Here's a few DL seats for historical perspective:

<img src="http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff104/muddlerminnow/RodswithDLseatse.jpg">

Top to bottom:

PHY Martha Marie, 7'6" 2/2 6wt
Summers 75, 7' 2/2 5wt
FET Special, 8 1/2' 3/2 4wt
Omar Needham, "Needham's Special" 7 1/2' penta, 2/2 5 wt
Divine Raven, 8 1/2' 3/2 4 wt
Heddon Pal Deluxe #70, 7 1/2' 2/1 4 wt (fiberglass)

The PHY & Summers seats are bulletproof and hold reels like a gorilla. The sliding bands on the DET and Needham do their job, but I'll tighten them regularly in the course of a day's fishing. The Raven seat has an ivoroid spacer; it's a spiral cap & ring seat first patented by John Landman in 1890--it's quite a brilliant design and holds the reel firmly all day. I've included the Heddon because I think it's an excellent design overall, but not exactly easy to look at.

I think in retrospect we might want to photograph reel seats with reels on them--it's a little more telling, as it makes me realize that some reel seats work better than others depending on the reel itself--which is a whole different thread.

Needless to say, I defer judgment to the rod builder--. I agree with Joel that less is more when it comes to hardware and wrap design--.

bb

My FET has typical DL and all my other rods are UL which I prefer, none ore band type for previously mentioned reasons. I will defer to Joela for final pick but would suggest maple burl or tiger to add a Maine flair. Exotic woods are nice but the maple says New England and brooktrout to yours truly. my 2c. KCHRLSE

The line wrapping around the up-locking style is one of the reasons behind not preferring them. I do have one rod I assembled that has it. I built it that way as a trial and error. Love everything about it except the seat. The one benefit for the up-locking is if you ever hang your rod on that tab they put on your vest it's easier to initially get it hung.

Was just measuring up the grip on my EF Payne 91/2' a mere 51/2". We are talking wicked hand cramping. The new shorter DVB butt section has a 63/8" grip and with the 18" shorter length makes the rod much more enjoyable. I believe the grip plays a big part of this as I don't feel cramped.

Ron

Ron brings up maybe the key point- the cork and length of the cork is so important-and then of course we get into the shape of cork and wells/not wells.

I have cast a few rods at SuperBoo that I disliked because the handle was shorter than I needed-when I had my hand in the right position.

HUtch

Thanks for all the input, guys. I was going to go with Hutch's idea of a rosewood reel seat because I thought it would look really nice with cardinal wraps, but the most compelling idea came from kchrlse, who thought the wood should be native to Maine, so we'll go with maple burl.

The split on uplock vs downlock reel seat was about 50/50. Bearbutt's argument about putting the weight of the reel as far back as possible for balance certainly had merit, as did the idea about line wrapping around the butt shared by both bearbutt and Ron. But for some reason (has to be that more nickel silver is used) downlocking reel seats are significantly more expensive (50%) than uplocking, and since this project is cutting into the rodmaker's budget, that put us over the top. The reel seat will uplocking.

Ron's idea of the cork grip not being too short will be incorporated; the cork will be 6.5". Since nobody had any strong opinions about the grip shape, we'll stick with standard.

There's several Payne 101 tapers floating around. The one I've chosen was popularized by well-known Louisianian rodmaker, Harry Boyd.

So here's the final stats found on the back of our bamboo fly rod's baseball card:

Taper: Payne 101
5" Diameters: 65, 92, 102, 118, 132 146, 156, 171, 181, 200, 218, 233, 249, 268, 286, 309, 345, 345, 345 (thousanths)
Length: 7.5 feet
Line Weight: #5
Sections: 2 Piece, 2 Tips (mirrored)
Action: Fast
Weight: 4.2 Ounces (with all hardware)
Construction: Hollow-Built
Butt walls: 0.070"
Tip walls: 0.060"
Bamboo Finish: Blond
Node Spacing: 3x3
Wraps: Pearsall's Cardinal Gossamer Silk 6/0, 1/4"
Tipping: Pearsall's Black Gossamer Silk 6/0, 5 Turns
Finish: Last n Last Marine Spar Varnish
Reel Seat: REC NBS, Nickel Silver, Uplocking
Spacer: Maple Burl, Tru-Oil finish
Ferrules: Tony Larsen, #13
Cork Grip: REC Standard, Flor Grade, 6.5"
Hook Tender: Saddle & Ring, Nickel Silver
Winging Check: REC Hex, #23, Nickel Silver
Stripping Guide: Mildrum SRMC, Nickel Silver/Carboloy Ring, #10
Guides: Snake Brand, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1/0, 1/0, Chrome
Guide Spacing: Garrison Style
Tip Tops: Snake Brand, #4.5, Chrome
Rod Sack: Burgundy Duck Cloth, Garrison Style
Case: REC, 46.5" x 1 5/8", Brushed Aluminum w/Gold Hardware

Has anybody had much luck finding good quality cork rings?

I have to say the REC reelseat hardware can't be beat. When we lived in VT and they were in Stowe I'd stop regularly at the FlyRod Shop, their retail shop. I have an old Diamond Back rod that I broke hauling a striper up onto a bridge fender. The hardware was REC. I was looking at the butt cap earlier today.

One time when I stopped on a Sat. one of the guys showed me around the shop. There was a CNC lathe spitting out aluminum hardware left and right. Also saw the production area for the rods which was pretty cool for a novice flyfisherman.

They do produce some beautiful hardware.

Will your cork be 1/4" or 1/2'" rings?

Ron

Joel,

What are the advantages of using Garrison style spacing on a Payne taper--this is an intriguing decision, can you elaborate a bit about this? Do you want to get the one guide up against the female ferrule? If so, why?

bb

Great question, Joe. Garrison believed that the delivery of power from the butt to the tip section is maximum at the ferrule station and can cause too much bending, potentially stressing the ferrule serrations. The guide placed at the butt section ferrule minimizes that stress and effectively becomes a fulcrum point. Hard to argue with the Master.

Ron, since I don't own a lathe presently, I buy my flor grade cork grips preformed from REC. I agree that do beautiful work. When you consider the price of 1/2" or 1/4" flor grade cork rings, you're really not gaining much by making your own grips, except, of course, adding that personal touch.

Joel,

That's a really good point about how the butt ferrule takes so much stress, and how putting a guide there helps relieve some of this stress. I just went back and checked my Crockers, and each one has a guide just below the ferrule--you can see this in the thread on Crockers--so maybe those Maine rodbuilders knew some real tricks?

We gotta raise some money to buy you a lathe. And a pint of mahogany stain for your forthcoming series of flamed and browtoned of rods.

bb

I turned a grip on a threaded rod turmed by a 3/8" drill motor. Mounted the nipples you use in lamps in my wrapping stand for the carrier bearings. Did it all in a motel room in Baldwin, Michigan. I was assembling a 1weight Orvis blank. Made the cork reel seat and a superfine grip. Saw the threaded rod with one cork ring still on it in the garage this afternoon.
I bet the cleaning lady loved me. Good thing the owner of the motel was also a guide. I think he understood my passion.

Ron