New Martha Marie on the bench

Mike Monsos

Mike Monsos

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
I glued up my latest rod yesterday. A great Martha Marie taper, glued up with Resorcinol. I like the narrow dark highlights of the glue stains on the corners of the strips of the shafts. The glue up went well and this morning I pulled off the binding strings. The shafts look great despite the dark residue of the glue I used. I'm looking forward to scraping and sanding the blond shafts to get them ready for the next steps in finishing process. I'm going to take a page from Ray Gould's book and give the rod a light flamed look using a leather dye this time. We will see how this all goes.
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    151.8 KB · Views: 48
  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    164.6 KB · Views: 49
  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    154.6 KB · Views: 48
I did a quick little test under the reel seat area with the leather dye that Ray Gould suggested, I think it looks pretty good. This is only one coat of Tru-Oil on top of the stain compared to a section with twelve coats of the TO over a flamed rod section. The leather dye is the top shaft I'm impressed so far.
 

Attachments

  • rod4.jpg
    rod4.jpg
    491.4 KB · Views: 57
I'm getting momentum again on the Martha Marie today. I have enough coats of Tru-Oil on the shafts, about 22 coats by my count to move on in the process. Today the cork rings got glued on, and the ferrules were finished up and fitted. I will shape the grip next and cut the serrations and crowns in the ferrules and mount them on Sunday or Monday. I got a great fit on my ferrule, nice POP when separating them. (y) IMG_4372.jpeg
IMG_4375.jpeg
 
Got the binding wire and masking tape off the shafts this morning. One of my favorite steps in the making process is assembling the rod sections together the first time after the ferrules glue is cured. Sight down the rod length, look for straightness of ferrule mounting and shaft straightness, CHECK! Now for the first wiggle test, oh that felt nice!!!!! CHECK! Time to map out the guide positions and start adding the wraps after I decide what color thread to use this time. This IS a Happy New Year!
 
Last edited:
I think you’ll need to test fish that rod! Tom Bowden, me and several others had a good day on the water today! Tom and I bent some bamboo! Happy new fishing year!
 
I'm wrapping the guides down now. Dave Dozer put on a presentation a while ago and he showed how he used a fly-tying bobbin to wrap his rods. The advantage is that the tension is made constant, created by the weight of the bobbin and thread spool hanging free. It really works great, and the thread follows easily as the rod is turned. I have had issues before with my tensioner not keeping consistent and this has cured it. I modified my wrapping station so now it lays on its side. Try it for yourself next time, I think you might like it.




thumbnail_image0.jpgspool3.jpg
 
Tying bobbin is all I have ever used, so have nothing to compare it with, but the affirmation is nice.

Gonna be a great looking rod.
 
I don't use a hanging bobbin but it makes good sense. Even if you have to back up a few turns to fix a gap or an overwrap the tension remains the same.
 
Tim Cottage said:
I don't use a hanging bobbin but it makes good sense. Even if you have to back up a few turns to fix a gap or an overwrap the tension remains the same.
Click to expand...
Absolutely right Tim, my wrapping station's tensioner is rather primitive (thread spool holder with a wing nut, washers and spring) and if I needed to back off a couple turns the thread would go slack compounding my problems. Using a bobbin, you can back off as many turns as you need without losing consistent tension (as long as it doesn't hit the floor). I did mention that the thread follows much better too. On my wrapping station I was always needing to shift the shaft slightly to keep the wrap close to the previous turn, still needing to pack them after a few turns. When I use a bobbin, the thread follows very close with touching wraps. If I feel I need to, I can elevate one end of the wrapping jig a touch to keep the wrap running uphill to keep the wraps touching. I still pack but there is much less of an effort to accomplish. This has been a real game changer for me, thanks to Dave Dozer.
 
Mike Monsos said:
Absolutely right Tim, my wrapping station's tensioner is rather primitive (thread spool holder with a wing nut, washers and spring) and if I needed to back off a couple turns the thread would go slack compounding my problems. Using a bobbin, you can back off as many turns as you need without losing consistent tension (as long as it doesn't hit the floor). I did mention that the thread follows much better too. On my wrapping station I was always needing to shift the shaft slightly to keep the wrap close to the previous turn, still needing to pack them after a few turns. When I use a bobbin, the thread follows very close with touching wraps. If I feel I need to, I can elevate one end of the wrapping jig a touch to keep the wrap running uphill to keep the wraps touching. I still pack but there is much less of an effort to accomplish. This has been a real game changer for me, thanks to Dave Dozer.
Click to expand...
This is very eye opening for me! I had the great fortune to get a one on one tour of Dave Dozer's workshop a few years ago...great guy and beautiful work. But I didn't recall his wrapping system as I was too amazed by all the cane working equipment and process which were completely outside of my experience. Keeping tension even, and light enough, has always been a bugaboo for me. Thanks Mike for sharing this. Ron
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top