How much time do you have invested making a birch rod handle not counting the wood collection in the forest or the oven dry time? Those are some great looking rod handles.

Wow! They look fantastic!

I turn them out pretty quickly. I make bundles in my spare time just to have laying around. It really only takes a little time to make. Most of the time is just waitting for the product to dry. I usually keep an eye out while driving for downed trees on the side of the road then go back for 10 minutes and collect some on a weekend morning. From there I soak them over night and peel them the next morning or dry them out for 5 hours in my dry box and then peel them while watching tv. Takes about 30 mins to peel all the strips I need. From there about 30 mins of cutting them out from squares to circles. After that it's about 10 mins to prep the press jig with the tape. 30 mins to glue up 3 sets of bundles and press them. 4 hours to dry them out pressed together and then it takes no time to turn them down to size. About 5 mins to ream them if you drill the holes bigger inside first to fit the shaft easier. Then putting on a coat of fresh fast drying Polyurethane every 15 mins and keeping it spinning to dry even quicker. I spin it on a medium speed and at the last couple of coats I sometimes use a rag to coat it. Could finish a grip in a couple of days. Most of the time is just waitting for the stuff to dry lol! Without collection time or oven time I would say a couple of hours to 3 hours. Thanks PowerLizard.

Tight lines,

Ricky V.

Thanks Quiksilver. I made the thicker grip for me to fit my style of casting with the rod I built it on and the Birch Bark grip for my wife on a 5wt Pacbay M/F burghandy blank with classic twist brown and black wraps.

Sincerely,

Ricky V.

Wow! Great tutorial. Those grips look really good.

excellent-p-

You are welcome. I turned a rose wood cigar pen one time and I wonder if that would be a decent grip. I know it's heavier, but I'm in love with the rose wood finished product and I need to put a 8wt or higher together soon. You tried any other non-standarded grip woods?

Lots of local colour and soul. Excellent.

I didn't even know we had birch. I've been trying to mess with mesquite and Osage orange some, but I'm starting from square-one on most of the fundamental skills. (It's good to have interests, though, and instant mastery would probably be boring.)

Thanks swellcat. I actually made these from north wood but Texas has red birch and black birch trees here and a lot of hard woods to choose from. They have a burl tree here in Texas where you can see the burl at the bottom trunk and they grow all along my street and am just waitting for one to fall so I can get my hands on it. Will find out the name of them and post it up. They have river birch here too which would be nice to work with. I hear yah on the interests. Challenges is what keeps us guys alive. I am going up next week to Virginia for a couple of days to finally get my stuff out of storage (we had to have stuff decontaminated due to mold in the house we were renting there). Am going to try to harvest some white birch bark while I am up there. If I get the chance then I could send you some if you want.

Sincerely,

Ricky

Hey Quiksilver. I have tried all kinds of wood for turning reel seats and grips. Rosewood would work great. My wife actually got in to making pens at a class at woodcraft back in MA. Next thing you know she is coming home with a lathe with extension bed, sharpening wheel with angle attachment, helmets with guards, aprons, all kinds of lathe tools, pen pressers, pen kits, pen blanks by the bag load lol, buffing wheel attachments, 5 different finishes and sand paper rolls up the whazoo lmao. Got me in to turning again and making all kinds of things. We made the sign in pen for our wedding out of white rock and it was cool. Also made beautiful pens in cases for the parents at our wedding. You can usee all kinds of wood to make grips but I would stay away from certain wood like ebony and bubinga due to they are very hard and a pain to work with. They have a woodcraft here in Texas too and you could get wood shipped to you for cheap money.
Check out these woods.
http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2083103/33078/tasmanian-eucalyptus-burl-2-x-4-x-4.aspx
http://www.woodcraft.com/search2/search.aspx?query=rosewood&pagesize=120&Uses=Handle Stock

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2081315/30710/mesquite-black-3-x-6-x-6.aspx

I like to buy bottle stopper sets because they are great looking pieces of wood and cheap to buy.
http://www.woodcraft.com/search2/search.aspx?query=bottle%20stopper%20blanks

Burl cork rings are great to use as middle, accent strips or end caps and come in all different types of thickness. FTU sells them too.
http://www.mudhole.com/Cork-Rings_2/Burl-Cork-Rings-500?search=Shop+Our+Catalog

What blank are you building on and what are you using the rod for? Please post some pics of it when you get it done. Would be great to see it.

Hope this helps you out on getting some good wood at a cheap price. Rosewood is beautiful and should work no problem.

Tight lines,

Ricky V.

Sorry if the tutorial was all over the place everyone. Just learned how to shrink the writting on the screen on notepad to read all the stuff typed in the corners after I posted it lmao.

Please post some pics of your catch. Would like to see some of you guys with fish.

Tight lines,

Ricky V.

Thank you RexW. Hope it wasn't confusing to everyone. Was my first tutorial and was all over the place. I wanted to make sure I gave out all the tricks and tips I could think of in making them. Hope to see some pics of grips made by others here. Actually am a FFF member and thinking about getting my certification too next year. I believe I saw your name on the list to take the course from before taking the test. I also want to get certified in spey casting in the next couple of years. My uncle is a spey finatic and known through out the spey casting world as an instructor and steelhead guide. Would love to pull out that caertificate on him lol! Always telling me to practice and stop fancy spey casting and watch the D LOOP behind you. I get rode hard when I spey cast around him. My wife on the other hand is an excellent spey caster and he calls her his prodigy. Me, I get told to stop screwing around and be more like my wife lol! Also calls me a saltwater caster with bad habits lol! Was really glad to see there are FFF instructors here in Texas. Hope all is great and thanks for looking at my post.

Tight lines,

Ricky V.

Ricky, thanks for all the fantastic info and resources! Sounds like I may need to borrow your wife to come over and rub some of her interests off on my wife so I can get a lathe and more tools approved

I have never built a rod but really have considered getting into it during the winter since I snapped a cruddy 8 wt recently. I have turned a few pens and table legs with some beginners luck in the past.

I absolutely love building anything with my hands and wanted to do a stripped cedar canoe from scratch this winter, but my wife would destroy me. Rod building might go over easier so I've been researching it quite a bit. I love the idea of split cane but fear the tools and kiln necessary. I'm an old soul I think and like a lot of the traditional supplies and methods.

Evan

Hahahahaha. My wife needs to meet more people down here too since she knows nobody now. She grew up here and everybody moved since we just moved back here to live with the in-laws. You can build split cane rods without a kiln and make your own board for shaving them down these days really cheap. If you really want some info on building them or doing it for pennies on the dime then I suggest you talk to Cote's fly shop and rod building supplies. He has been building for 40 years and also has refirbished bamboo rods really cheap. Ask for Joe or Ray. They could also tell you who to talk to on building stuff to make them cheap. They make a rod wrapping jig for $25.00 that is great too. His prices are really cheap too because he sells a lot and the shop is in their home. He also has blanks he buys in bulk from the companies and has them put his name on them. He sells almost every companies blanks too. The reels in my pictures are ones I bought from him too. He has them made and they have a sale on the 7/8 wt model right now for $75.00 .I have hauled in some big fish with them and they hold an extra 50 yds of backing due to how wide the spool is. On my 9/10/11 reel I can get at least 250 yds of backing on it. On my 5/6 wt reels I can get 200 yds of backing on them. Great price for an incredible reel so I thought I would give you the heads up on them. Sounds like you are pretty handy and could easily wrap and build a rod. 508-892-3765.Business hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 AM to 6 PM. I have been dealing with then for 20 years and they are good honest people. Do you live close to Houston? I would be up to showing you how to build a graphite rod if you are interested? There are other companies like Sevier who make tiger eye blanks which are great and cheap priced. http://www.schneidersrods.com/private_label_sale_fly_rod_blanks.htm
You can also buy blanks of bamboo already treated from Cote's and other companies.
http://theanglersroost.com/products/bamboo-blanks/
Another place to look is Ebay for blanks.
If you could build a canoe then rod building would be easy for you. Hope this helps you out.

Tight lines,

Ricky V.

Bamboo with no oven? As Mr. Spock would say< "fascinating"