I freely admit to being a traditionalist to a fault, AKA an old fuddy duddy. And I previously thought alignment marks were for those without benefit of an idea or instruction as to how to properly assemble a fly rod. However, I recently built up a fly rod with spigot ferrules and the spirit moved me to embed small feathers in the ferrule wraps as alignment marks. Am now a convert for alignment marks. Guess old dogs can learn new tricks. The question is, what do you use for alignment dots / marks other than feathers? I'm thinking either paint pens or a drop of Testors paint in complimentary colors ought to work.

Feathers are a great idea for alignment marks. Thanks Donald

Rodmaker Magazine showed a dowel with two small nails coming out at 90 degrees, one a little farther out than the other to match the difference in height required between the male and female ferrule. Just a little paint on the nail tips, touch to rod, and they are transferred in proper alignment. Works quite well.

Also, decal connection has alignment dots that you transfer by rubbing the back side with a hard object, like a burnishing tool. Only issue is that they transfer well to a hard surface, like the blank surface. But not as well to a wrapped female ferrule. The epoxy is too soft to get the proper transfer.

I use a Deco Color paint marker available at many craft stores. Comes in lots of colors and self feeds the paint to a small round tip.

Hello Donald.

RodMaker has had a few articles on this subject, the two that stand out to me are a marking tool like Michael speaks of in Volume 14, Issue 4, Page 22, called "Multi-Piece Alignment Marking Tool" and the other is in Volume 6, Issue 1, Page 10, and is

called "Ferrule Alignment Mark Methods".

There must be a million way's to mark the alignment points on a blank, use your imagination.


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Donald,
I agree with David, feathers are a brilliant idea and I will rip-off your idea in the future. Up to now, when the need arises, I have laid a bright, contrasting color thread parallel to the blank about 10 turns from the end of the wrap, 2 wraps over to lock it, hold it back for 1 or two wraps, lay it back over those wraps and wrap over, then repeat one more time before tying off the wrap. Similar to weaving letters. The two tiny, contrasting dots may leave tiny bumps on the wrap, but I just consider it Braille.
Again, I love your feather idea. Thanks

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.