Ive spent the last few days grabbing a couple of hours here and there and have been managing to make progress with a few different jobs on the rod build.. Apologies if this post seems a little more bits and bobs than my last few posts but Im awaiting delivery of the ferrules, the sliding ring collars and the butt cap so have been tackling a number of different jobs before moving on with the rod build.. The first 5 photos show the various parts of the handle being prepared and assembled, and the front cork shive filed to fit the hexagonal rod section. The split cane butt section is let into a false butt of alloy tubing... In his original design of the Mk IV, Walker advocated a false butt made of hardwood dowel.. Ive gone down a similar route to Chapmans by opting for an alloy handle but this rod will have a one piece butt section when finished.. At the very bottom end of the alloy tube, a short length of oak dowel is let in. This will give me something to glue the butt cap to.. Photo 6 shows the oversized corks fitted to the handle. I plan to turn these down to 7/8 once the reel collars have been delivered.. I spent a few hours on Sunday distracting myself from the primary task at hand building a case for the rod! (Photos 7,8 and 9) The case isnt quite finished but theres only a little bit of trim work to carry out and the construction of secure mountings for the rod :-) Ill varnish the case when I varnish the rod.. The last 5 photos show the start of work to construct the 25mm lined butt ring.. I cut a very short length of stainless steel tubing to construct the rings outer bezel and remove a modern insert from a 25mm single leg carp ring... The last but one photo shows the modern guide inner, a roughly cut section of tubing (for comparison) and a much more thin section of tubing. The thinner slither has been ground to a thickness that is slightly thinner than the guide centre on the bench grinder.. This will be tidied up considerably and the centre will eventually fit inside.. (thats one of tomorrows jobs!) I use 18 SWG stainless wire to form the frame for the butt ring, and the 2 matching halves of the frame are carefully bent into shape as shown in the last photo.. Which is a lot easier said than done, as the key is to ensure both sides of the frame are as identical as possible, as any discrepancies between the two sides of the frame will show up in the completed frame once they are silver soldered together.. Again, apologies if this post seems a little disjointed but I seem to have a number of jobs all semi completed at the moment!! Hopefully in the next couple of days things will start pulling together a little more :-)
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:21:24 +0000
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