Sunday, September 18, 2005
Dan Craft FT 8 weight... swift water salmon duty
Time soon for swift water salmon wrestling. My blank of choice this year will be the Dan Craft Fast Taper 8 weight.
The details...
FT908-4
ERN = 10.63
AA = 73
9'0“
4 Piece
8 Line Weight
4.5 Tip Size
0.415 Butt O.D.
Blank Weight 2.5 oz.
I've elected once more to use the Pacific Bay Bamboo Burl
preformed cork handles. In this case a Full Wells handle extended with a portion of their 7" rear grip spinning handle.
The friendly folks over at bellinger reel seats have supplied me with a nickled silver slide band and pocket end cap drilled to fit the blank.
Now this is a very simple straightforward project, just a little sanding gets me here.
So far so good. Everything seems to fit and I've marked the area to be sanded for receiving the reel seat.
Pretty cool, huh?
In no time I've gotten the cork handle sanded, fit and bonded to the blank with U-40 Rod Bond . Care was taken to align the reel seat to the blanks spline.
OK... time for some magic.
You know... My magical Worried Shrimp. The very Special ones that were blessed by an Ancient on the outback coast of Australia so many years ago. The ones that possess the ability to come to life when touched by water. The very ones that are hidden in caves all over the world.
Here's a plucky one.
Well lets seal the critter up with some additional bamboo burl cork.
I'll remove the bulk of the cork mass with my handy dremel tool and fine shape the fighting butt with file and sand paper.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Here are some pictures after a single coat of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil has been applied and the reel attached.
Lets examine for a moment my guide selection, the size and type with images.
How bout 10 Fuji guides.
From Stripper to running guides they are.
1 NSG #20
1 TNSG #16
1 TNSG #12
1 TLSG10J
1 TLSG8J
5 TLSG7J
As usual every guide foot is sanded and polished and laid upon a fine black silk thread underwrap. Additionally I've wrapped each female ferrule up as far as 1/4" beyond the depth the male ferrule inserts. Finally, I've landed a guide on every ferrule.
I've TipTopped this rod with a Fuji TILGT 7MM Ring.
Well, the blank weighted 2.5 oz. It appears the cork, thread, guides, finish, hardware and glue amount to 1.7 oz.
Lets go tussle up some salmon.
Next blank?
Anybody got an extra TCR sage 5wt?
She'll be laughin' mate.
TWS
The details...
FT908-4
ERN = 10.63
AA = 73
9'0“
4 Piece
8 Line Weight
4.5 Tip Size
0.415 Butt O.D.
Blank Weight 2.5 oz.
I've elected once more to use the Pacific Bay Bamboo Burl
preformed cork handles. In this case a Full Wells handle extended with a portion of their 7" rear grip spinning handle.
The friendly folks over at bellinger reel seats have supplied me with a nickled silver slide band and pocket end cap drilled to fit the blank.
Now this is a very simple straightforward project, just a little sanding gets me here.
So far so good. Everything seems to fit and I've marked the area to be sanded for receiving the reel seat.
Pretty cool, huh?
In no time I've gotten the cork handle sanded, fit and bonded to the blank with U-40 Rod Bond . Care was taken to align the reel seat to the blanks spline.
OK... time for some magic.
You know... My magical Worried Shrimp. The very Special ones that were blessed by an Ancient on the outback coast of Australia so many years ago. The ones that possess the ability to come to life when touched by water. The very ones that are hidden in caves all over the world.
Here's a plucky one.
Well lets seal the critter up with some additional bamboo burl cork.
I'll remove the bulk of the cork mass with my handy dremel tool and fine shape the fighting butt with file and sand paper.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Here are some pictures after a single coat of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil has been applied and the reel attached.
Lets examine for a moment my guide selection, the size and type with images.
How bout 10 Fuji guides.
From Stripper to running guides they are.
1 NSG #20
1 TNSG #16
1 TNSG #12
1 TLSG10J
1 TLSG8J
5 TLSG7J
As usual every guide foot is sanded and polished and laid upon a fine black silk thread underwrap. Additionally I've wrapped each female ferrule up as far as 1/4" beyond the depth the male ferrule inserts. Finally, I've landed a guide on every ferrule.
I've TipTopped this rod with a Fuji TILGT 7MM Ring.
Well, the blank weighted 2.5 oz. It appears the cork, thread, guides, finish, hardware and glue amount to 1.7 oz.
Lets go tussle up some salmon.
Next blank?
Anybody got an extra TCR sage 5wt?
She'll be laughin' mate.
TWS
Comments:
Have you had a chance to cast that rod? With that ERN it would seem to be a home with a 10wt line.
# posted by 
: 4:03 PM
: 4:03 PM
Anonymous,
I've loaded a used cortland 444 8wt line on this blank. I'm not much of a fly caster yet but have NO PROBLEM sailing this line out 65'. Don't have a 10wt line but maybe some day i'll be among some fly casters that want to swap reels, line weights and rods and then! we'll see what this FT 8wt can do...
btw, I'm just finishing up a Dan Craft FT 7wt...
post to follow soon.
I've loaded a used cortland 444 8wt line on this blank. I'm not much of a fly caster yet but have NO PROBLEM sailing this line out 65'. Don't have a 10wt line but maybe some day i'll be among some fly casters that want to swap reels, line weights and rods and then! we'll see what this FT 8wt can do...
btw, I'm just finishing up a Dan Craft FT 7wt...
post to follow soon.
Nice work, I like the look of the all cork handle and I am thinking of building a 7wt with exotic burl for an insert, BTW
have you had any problem with using the slide band with an 8wt? Or how about compression of the cork insert?
have you had any problem with using the slide band with an 8wt? Or how about compression of the cork insert?
# posted by : 2:13 PM
: 2:13 PM
no slide band/compression problems whatsoever. that's after only 2 seasons tho. i've continued this style of handle for all subsequent rods. having finished last week a DC FT 2wt and this coming month the 9'10" sig V 7wt... haven't yet had tiime to blog the results.
tws
Post a Comment
tws
