OK, now I have the first couple of rods under my belt, and am starting to notice the critiques of rods that other people make. Recently, there was a rod for sale and it was criticized for having "bulgy" epoxy, and crummy cork. I have tried to put my epoxy on in a football shape, is this one of eye of the beholder things, or is it more of a standard to make it just as straight across as possible? Also, how can I find out more about differences in cork? I just bought a couple of new grips, and I can see a difference in them, but don't know if the better of the two is still not very good or not. Also, they came with rings to be glued on to accept the reel seat, and I wonder how to prepare this ring. Do I just glue it to the grip, then put the glued-together grip on a lathe and sand the ring to the proper size? Too many topics for one post?

Many factory rods have the "football" effect simply because they do not have time to do it any other way. Rather than have any possible dry areas and not having the luxury of being able to apply two applications, they glop on enough to make sure everything is covered. This usually results in the center-bulging football shape.

Excess weight is the enemy of fishing rods, particularly near the tip area. So, less epoxy is usually a good thing. However, I doubt your footballed finishing jobs are really going to harm anything.

Most pre-formed grips are good enough from a functional standpoint. Many if not most are also filled with material that hides any large imperfections, at least until the first few uses whereupon the filling will fall out.

One of the nice things about custom rod building is that you can, if you wish, make your own cork grips from individual rings. This allows you to choose the grade of cork you desire and the size and shape that feels right to you.

Yes, the ring included with many fly seats can be glued onto a stack of your own rings and turned into shape along with them, or carefully glued to a pre-formed grip and then shaped and sanded to blend into what's there already.

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Karen,

I think I would answer "yes" to all of your questions. A lot of rod building is a matter of personal preference. I also like the high build finish and the bulky look. Strictly, in my opinion, personal taste.

Cork quality is another issue that will only escalate as supply of the "good" cork gets harder and harder to find. I have no idea what "flor grade" means anymore. Grading is all over the place. I just can't see spending upwards of $2 a ring for cork. Being a natural substance, the pits and fissures don't bother me at all. Filled cork is not as appealing to me as the natural. I definately think I am in the minority on that, as most people I deal with seem to prefer the filled grips.

If I were you, If using a preformed grip, I would try to do the inlet by using a dremel to rough out and then finish by hand. If you screw it up, you can cut that ring off, glue the inletted ring on that came with the seat, and finish on a lathe. Invariably, the ring provided will stick out like a sore thumb as far as matching the color of the rest of the grip. That has been my experience. If you do a lot of grips, the recessor pro bit offered by Rod blanks.com, a sponsor to the left, is great.

I thing being too critical of anothers work is not good. Creativity and originality is a major part of this sport. I wrapped a rod that I keep as a loaner, and every guide has different color thread. They are all double foot snakes, and one foot has color preserver and the other does not. I don't have to worry about anyone forgetting were that rod came from.

Herb

I also use a high build finish but by careful application of finish to all three layers of thread avoid the "football" look which usually occurs when too much finish is applied.

I think footballs have a certain elegant look to them, if they are smooth. Personally, they are not my cup of tea. I prefer a smooth level finish. A wavy finish doesn't look good and a wavy football looks even worse. I've never been 100% satisfied with my finish jobs. I fall apart when I see a wave. Sometimes I have time to correct it, sometimes I don't. To me, the best wrap can be ruined by a bad finish job.

I build cork grips and also use preformed and have gotten good and bad in both. Recently I had what I thought were good looking rings. When they were glued and I was shaping them, they durn near disintegrated. The surface of the rings were literally the tip of the iceberg. There is a point when you have to look at it with new eyes and forget the work you put into it. If it's bad cork, toss it aside and start a new one. Cork is a crap shoot. It may be good, may be bad. No way to know until you get it, and sometimes when you work it.

The rod I'm doing now, I got a beautiful foregrip done, the dry fit was great, and when I put epoxy on, I got it down to 1/4" of the reel seat and the whole thing split wide open on me. The whole inside of the cork was rotted out completely.

I think that Tom is correct that unnecessary weight, particularly toward the tip where the weight has logarithmically more effect, should be avoided. However, I also feel that the amount of epoxy on the wraps is parcially a function of how the rod is going to be used. I feel that the so called football effect is undesirerable, because of the added weight, on a lighter rod, like most fly rods or a light trout rod or even a steelhead drift rod but on heavier rods that get a lot of abuse like heavy boat rods it is not necessarily all that bad. A little more epoxy does give the guide wraps a little more protection on these heavy rods that get heavy use and on these rods the added weight is of much less concern because it is such a small part of the overall weight that is added with guides, wraps etc.

Karen,
For your cork question, my personal preference is to do all shaping and such prior to any gluing unless I'm joining pieces together. When it comes to cork rings for reel seats, I use the same philosophy of sanding and reaming everything as well as careful fitting before any gluing occurs.

As far as the football effect, Tom is absolutely right about fast gobbing on of epoxy. I also agree with Herb that it's a very personal thing. I've seen people just for fun making perfect octagonal tube-like finishes out of their finish on heavy trolling rods! It's all up to you!