Old Hickory rod

[droppedit]

Over the last few years I've been doing a lot of work for Bullseye54. John always gives me a new challenge and figured I'd share the last one. He previously asked about some old guides and was looking for a new or used set. He stripped the hickory blank down and gave me the guides and said go to it but wrap it like another hickory I did for him. The rod itself wasn't too bad with the exception of the "hull" shape. Made it quite interesting on the lathe. The problem was what to do with the grip. There seemed to be an insert between the felt that looked like a strand of caning.  It had a rounded top and no matter how I tried I could not get thread to lay down without major gaps or overlaps. John suggested using some old linen line so he sent me a spool, did the wraps and tied it off with a little nylon. Now I had this huge lump where the thread all met. I used a coat of high build rod finish just for the ramps. After this cured I used a scalpel to cut off the lumps at each end and did 2 more coats of finish. This worked out very good and now was able to finish the windings on the ramps and give the rod 2 coats of spar varnish. I'll post some before and after pics. Thanks John for the work as it is always a pleasure to add another rod to your collection.

Dave

Before

[droppedit]

After

[Swami805]

Just a beautiful job, the grain of the wood really pops, it's jaw dropping. Thanks for posting

[theswimmer]

Wow , what a cool rod and beautiful work.
Best,
JT

[oldmanjoe]

      That is a fine job ...    Makes me want to fine some Hickory now  .

[oc1]

You make really nice things Dave.
-steve

[whalebreath]

Just a beautiful job, the grain of the wood really pops, it's jaw dropping. Thanks for posting

Yes it's probably the nicest one I've ever seen-outstanding work.

[droppedit]

Thanks for the good words guys! I'll have another unique project in the works right now that I'll share soon.


Dave

[happyhooker]

Impressive--very unique.

Frank