MK Fly Syndicate

Customization of a fiberglass fly rods are hard to come by nowadays.. but thanks to another fly avid I had a chance to have this built.

This is a 3 piece , 6'6" 3wt brown translucent fiberglass fly rod blank.
The action of this blank is not as noodle as those normal 3wt fiberglass fly rod. Soft and sensitive tip with moderate action but it has got plenty of power at the lower section for shooting your line out.  

 Agated butt cap for the sliding band reel seat.

Agated stripping guide and dark brown nylon for the wrapping.

The cigar shape handle for this fly rod is rattan wrapped. As shown in my previous write up , Rattan Wrapping to cork grip from scratch..

Photo of the rod decal taken when the rod was on the dryer.

When its' done.

Here are the photos of the completed rod.

Rattan Wrapping to cork grip from scratch..

In recent years, I have done a couple of rattan grips for fly rods. This may not be something new to some of you but I just thought of sharing some photos of its' processes.


These are the main ingredient of the "Rattan grip"
Cork rings and rattan strips preferably 3 to 4mm width. 

If the strips are too wide, the rattan grip will have fewer wrapping and does not have "enough meat" to show..
 

The cork rings are then glues, packed and let dry as least 24 hours.

Measuring the outer diameter required for the fly grip.
 

Then, the cork grip was lathed. Alternatively, you can just use a pre-form or buy those ready made cork grip off the shelf.
 

Then the rattan strips was wrapped over the cork handle. The rattan strip was glued using a small quantity of Titebond waterproof glue.

If you look carefully, you will be able to noticed that there are shadow lines between the strips.

These lines are created by running a darker colour thread along the groove between 2 rattan strips.

Before you do the threading exercise, make sure the excessive glue and other loose rattan fibers are removed.

Later 2 coating of Spar Urethane are applied on the rattan wrapping. 

Pre fittng to the blank before epoxying.

You can find tutorials on this in the internet, but here is the link I referred to when I first tried rattan wrapping.

My other work on rattan grip > Lamiglas

 

The JOHNSON "Profile"

This rod is about to get the whole new handle...

The cork insert at the reel seat was removed.

The existing cork handle was sanded slightly before wrapping over with rattan

New section of cork insert was made for the reel seat.

The new reel seat inserted and a few coats of Spar polyutherane on the rattan grip.

There... DONE.

Golden Brown UL fiberglass fly rod

This is another ultralight 2/3wt fiberglass fly rods that I built along with the earlier PESOT rod. I just can't resist to make another rattan grip.

Below are a few of the photos taken of the completed rod.

The PESOT glass fly rod

This ultralight glass fly rod is 6'10" and rated 2/3wt. 2 pieces with spigot ferrule.

The main feature will be the rattan wrapped grip and the engraved single sliding band reel seat.

Started off with the preparation of the rattan wrapped grip. That is how it look before finishing.

... and this is how it looks when completed with a few coat of SPAR urethane.

Then it was time to assemble the rod. The guides and hook keeper was wrapped with Pearsall's Jasper silk thread.

The fiberglass rod was finished with a few coat of poly urethane.

Another angle view of the completed rod.

Full view.

Yellow translucent fiberglass fly rod

Just completed another.. eerr.... butterscotch, amber, translucent yellow..whatever color you may called it...

Pearsall's Gossamer Jasper thread wrapping to the guides

Signature transparent wrap with spiral wrap over hook keeper

Rattan grip with up locking burl wood insert reel seat

Completed rod..

Another grip and reel seat done

I haven't got the chance to finish the epoxy work to the white translucent rod yet, but I managed to find a little time to fix up the grip and reel seat to the other translucent yellow blank.

My new stock of stabilized burl wood reel seat just arrived and I have a rattan grip which I have done some months ago. I tested it... and it looks just nice.