One nice thing about building your own. No one has one like it. In winter I’ll go nuts and cut and glue all my own cork and turn them down to handles, and add some fancy thread work.
Thanks , true the fish don’t care if you make them look nice. Most of my everyday rods are plain Jane these days, and my nice looking ones are getting beat to death. I don’t put the time into making every rod nice looking. There are many things you CAN do to make your rod superior to store bought.
It's funny... I guess growing up in the city, I learned at a young age that if your stuff looks fancy, it tends to catch the eye of thieves and you won't have it for long.
So when I got into rodbuilding, I made almost all of my rods VERY plain. No fancy wraps, nothing to distinguish it from a junk rod until you picked it up and then, Aaaaahhhh... The balance, the crisp sensitivity, the power, the action... They sing in your hands. I am very partial to G. Loomis GL3 and GLX blanks, and those things are special. I still have a couple I've been hiding for a special day.
The are awesome in the hand but I generally make them look really boring. A sharp eye might notice the handle and seat design, and on a few rods I have a single wrap of silver or gold under each guide that you barely notice. In 20 years, I have left the rods on the boat at the dock while running to grab lunch or whatever many, many times, and I've never had a rod go missing.
I learned this from my Mom when a little kid. She had a $$$ pearl Fuji racing bike and I remember a guy trying to steal it off the bike rack on the car while at a red light with all of us in the car. 1970's equivalent to car-jacking , I guess. Fortunately, it was well secured, and we pulled off fast as soon as the light turned, and he didn't get it off, but that's when Mom realized that beautifully crafted machine was really tempting.
So, she took modeling paint and painted what looked like rust and scale all over the bike. It looked TERRIBLE, like it was going to fall apart, and no one ever tried to steal it again. Someone got Dad's Raliegh, but the police recovered it, and then mom did her thing on his bike, too. We had those "ugly" bikes for many years after that.
I've done this same thing to tools on the job. Stuff tends to disappear on a big jobsite if you don't keep an eye on it, which is impossible to do all the time. A little spray paint "vandalism" makes them much less appealing! Plus, if a guy is seen walking away with something that distinctive, someone is going to point the finger, so they don't bother.
Sorry to digress and hijack the thread!
