Beauty of Simplicity

[Jon Vadney]

Much appreciated my friend.  Something that hurts me is I only get amped up about doing rods if I'm doing something that I haven't done before (color scheme, wrap layout, etc etc).  Doing sets of rods all the same just feels like work lol.  I don't own 2 rods that look even remotely the same. 

[Newell Nut]

I am with you brother. I don't have two the same either and have not made two the same. My most exciting rod was the Navy Chief one and I spent so much time on it I made like a buck and hour but it was a fun challenge. 

[Jeri]

Hi  Dwight,

Nice work, like the simplicity.

We have used sharks teeth under resin before, and found the same problem with the curvature of the tooth not sitting flat, and came up with the following solution.

Small 5 or 6mm stainless steel bar with a flat end, stick the tooth to the end of the bar with an epoxy resin. Then with a dremel in a fixed mount and the sanding wheel,  gently grind/sand the rear face of the tooth flat, with the bar acting as you 'hold' on the tooth.

Gentle heat on the tooth once finished, and the epoxy resin comes off – clean up, now you have a flat face to work with. It is how they grind cabochon stones flat for jewellery. Stealing ideas of other folks – fair game.

Hope that helps on future projects.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[Newell Nut]

Thanks Jeri, all tips are welcome. I have some neat ideas for other inlay materials soon for a special customer.

[Dominick]

Dwight, Jon, is it possible to seal the shark tooth and leave a small hole (bottom center) and leave it for a hook holder?  The natural curve of the tooth can be utilized for something.  Dominick

[Newell Nut]

Dwight, Jon, is it possible to seal the shark tooth and leave a small hole (bottom center) and leave it for a hook holder?  The natural curve of the tooth can be utilized for something.  Dominick

The hook keeper is standard on my custom rods as you can see in the Navy rod pic. I put it directly under the shark tooth but did not take a picture of it. As the epoxy is applied on the inlay it blends in nice to round out the area where the hook keeper is installed. My hook keeper is custom made and designed by me so you can't just look it up in a catalog and buy one. I can install them on completed rods as well and have one to install on another guys custom rod (by another builder) when I get time.



Here is one an the bottom side of a spinning rod and this is the normal location just off the end of the foregrip.