a maker's rod

[adam]

I thought it would be cool to make a contest, a story contest and have the prize a maker's rod. Shay and I are lit and it finally came out, I am entertaining the thought mike.

He looks at me with a squited glazed eye.

"Hmmm"

...and the next hour and a half we go through the logistics of it.

He detailed it, I saw his point.

I think we could do this and EVERYONE wins.

Each of us plane a strip and send it in to the next step and the rod get's made in this sort of process. We should end up with a rod that has twelve plus signatures on each flat (a two piece one tip rod) and the winner gets it. The winner being the author of a story. Somehow the contest generates all the good will that will save the world.

I like grassart but I would like to read more bamboo fishing stories.

I don't mind paying a little money to help things along. I don't mind binding the rod and ferruling it or organizing or anything but it is too much for me to make the site and make the rod.

I'm going to be the guy who scans in the MS word document and organizes behind the scenes and or pay for what ever that needs to be paid for.

I'll be doing my part and I can plane a strip, what ever.

I think this will be like the fourth or fith contest that I've put together if it happens that a bamboo fly rod has been aforded to the weiner. I did a 32 compartment dry fly box Wheatley last year, that was cool.

Is there interest?

I can tell you it's fun, judging it is hell but it will be easy for the pre-selected panel of judges to vote upon as I will set all that up.

It is not necessary however, I think we can raise awareness for some charity, promote fishing bamboo, get to read a bunch of cool stories on fly fishing bamboo and blah blah blah.

Is this worth doing?

Are you interested in helping out by making a strip?

Do you have any ideas for this thing?

I would use all of my resources, people in magazines and celebrity to promote it.

...or we can argue about which epoxy is best and keep things simple, it's all good to me.

[greg hall]

Adam,

I like it. I'll throw in a custom bag for the rod and I may have a tube as well.

This may save Ken from having to do all those prostate exams!!!

[SnooKen]

If it will get me off the hook for that ill-considered prostatic proposal of mine I'd like to chip in a Snake agate stripper and set of guides/tiptop. Trust me, if you have me do a strip you'll end up with a 2 piece hex-penta abomination.

Whatcha' think about building the rod then auctioning it using the proceeds to buy a Grassart plot in Mats' forest? Probably result in enough to get a sign hung reading "Honorary Official Tree of Congress AZ".

Ken

PS; I've already got the stripper & black guides on hand for an 8' 2/2 5wt.

[stevekiley]

i will do a mosaic but cap and ferrule plug if you use a bellinger reel seat.steve

[matsoberg]

That´s pretty cool. A Grassart rod! Yes I ´m in. OK if I bring the strip to The Metolus show in July?

[adam]

I'm listening.

I knew this would happen if I posted it and now it is.

I think Mike knew this would happen too.

It's going to take a lot of work, not so much on your part but the collective, the guy who finishes...

I'm going to lay low and see how much interest or ideas this generates. What charity (I suggest one that effects all fly fishers like skin cancer or Parkinson's, Alzheimers, heart disease) we should choose, or maybe Gus's charity or I really liked the Skogen forest idea.

So I sit back and see if this is even a possibilty and know that I am absolutely smiling like a maniac that you guys are supporting this.

[stevekiley]

i can rough triangel and rough taper if some one splits and does the nodes.i saw and dont know if a plane would like that.steve

[adam]

Steve, that's sort of the thing that needs to be posted here in order for this to get done. I can collect the strips and bind/ferrule or make the whole rod. I'm going to be doing a lot of the leg work, organization, promosting, contacting, scanning, that sort of thing but if we do a individualized each maker strip, I would like to do that. Imagine some little guy like me getting his name next to a guy like you on that rod.

Er, forget that.

I don't want anyone NOT offering because of that.

Nevermind.



Shay identified many of the difficulties about tempering, logistics, he really ID'd the road blocks and I understand that. He wants to do this to as far as I understood him between shots of fine whiskey, he can speak for himself on this. I've asked him to help with the difficult parts as in writing the recipe if we even get that far.

If we choose to do this, I will go far and wide to make this as respectable and charitable as possible, magazine coverage, internet, I/we have a lot of contacts from our history in doing this.

I guess why I chimed in again is that I believe that this really can happen, I think you guys will agree with the idea but it is an idea that we all need to work out.

Working this out should be fun too.

Thank you Steve Kiley, I really can't wait to meet you too.

[Troutgetter]

The basics are just that...basic.

Blonde or flamed. Do we care? What if there were some strips blonde and some flamed?
Bright or blued...again, do we care?
The blocks come down to who does what and the logistics of making it happen.

It's one thing if we all are sitting in some guys shop or putzing around our own.
The odds of getting a good node staggering, for example, are pretty slim. I don't know if we should even care about that.
Are we going to have a guy donate a half culm and all the strips come from that? That would certainly solve the node problem. One guy choose and split, and cut to length after staggering and send it (the mess) onto the next in line to deal with the nodes and rough.
If we go that route...will the whole mess go to one guy to plane out a strip and then send the whole mess to the next guy to plane out one strip? Or does the guy who roughed send 12 strips (and packing) onto 12 different guys and they send their individual strips to the guy who is going to glue?
The culminated shipping costs will be staggering alone.

Or are we simply going to pick a leftover strip out of a rod we are currently making?
Are we going to care what glue some guy uses to glue the monstrosity up with?

Some guy is going to make a grip. Not everyone does this part the same. Is the rod going to have the grip glued and turned on the blank? A premade grip?
Ferruling...will there be a cork check? It'll probably have to be put on before the female is glued up.
Some guy is going to have to wrap. Is another going to varnish the wraps?
Are we sending a wrapped but unvarnished wrapped rod through the mail?
Will the guy who wraps and varnishes also be the guy who varnishes the rod? He'll ultimately be the one who has to make sure as best he can that the rod's finish is up to snuff. He'll also be the one who ultimately sends it on to the winner I'm guessing.

It all sounds interesting, but I don't know if I want to play yet. I don't even know if there are enough guys who participate here to plane or mill out 12 strips!

I'm pretty sure Harry has participated in a makers rod, he'll have some insights.
I participated directly in one. It was all done pretty much at one guys shop and it was a mess. It was then given to another to wrap and finish. Easier but still a mess. None of it that couldn't be overcome with a bit of planning but I don't know if I'm the guy to do it.

[adam]

No damn pre-made grip, I'll turn it myself if someone does not know how...