MHX Medium action spiral baitcasting rod

Another full cork rear handle rod in the making. Many prefers this kinda cork handle nowadays. I don't know why... maybe it's trending now. Why not EVA? Why cork? Is it better??  For all I know, it's still a very personal preference. Some love it and some don't...

Stacked cork ready to be latch..

Testing fitting the components before putting them together.

I have to make sure that all really fits well before epoxying them together.
Normal I will do this a few times , just to be sure.

These guides are from ALPS with zirconium rings. Had no problem with them for all the rods that I have built . Spiral guide placement.

 

EVA fore grip with MHX decal in the front.

Another closer look at the handle.

 

Overall view of the handle. Very simple.

 .....and finishing it off with a big M..............Matagi butt cap

Translucent #2wt Glass

Just a quick update on my rod building work done last week.
Clear translucent 2wt fiberglass 6'6" 2 section fly rod blank.

Down locking burled wood insert reel seat and AAA grade pre-form half wells cork grip.

To cut the long story short, I will just post the photos of the completed rod.

The cork grip was finished with a coat of U40 Cork Seal and it look slightly darker.

CHAMPAGNE Corker Ultralight

This is another fun project which I had in mind for a long long time and I just have to do it before this idea got buried by some other ideas.


I have been collecting some champagne corks for awhile and thanks to my air stewardess sis-in-law, I have a full bags of it in my workshop.


The champagne cork goes well with the burled wood insert reel seat that I managed to get my hands on a few weeks back.

No additional finishes was done to the champagne cork. I just bore the hole for it to be inserted to the blank.

Rattan wrapping to the exposed section of the split butt and also at the fore grip area.
 

By the way, the brand of this blank that I used for this project is Viper Fatale 601. It's a 6 footer ultralight 1-6lb.

 

I used ALPS zirconium ring spinning guides for the rod. Wrapping the guides with brown color non CP thread.
 

Spinning guides lined up to the smallest #4 guide.

 

Full view of the handle.

Overall view of the blank

 

and the rod is quite well balance too.

 

" Olive Green " Fiberglass fly rod

I acquired this blank from China a few months ago. They used to make a lot of carbon graphite blanks but recently more fiberglass blanks are made due to a higher demand for it.

Fiberglass fly rod blank

Half wells and a burled wood single band reel seat was used for this rod.

Epoxy in progress

FG663-3wt denotes Fiberglass 6'6" 3 piece 3wt

 Completed rod

The RUSTY 5wt

The one was another fly rod I have built in November this year. It is a e-glass fly rod blank, 2pc at 7'6" rated at 5wt.

Just manages to capture a few photos during the process..

Brown wrapping with gold trimming

Brown agate stripping

The brown wrapping darken after epoxy making the gold trimming more outstanding.

Epoxy process

The handle

The completed rod.