Plug Builders

[knotstable]

If your making plugs I would say you have a lathe. Has anyone ever thought of turning some reel seats? I can bore my own holes thru them.

[doyle007]

I've turned up a couple of reel seats, but I have not used them yet. My dad in his retirement has been making a lot of furniture, so he is using all kinds of exotic and high-end woods. He gave me some really nice burled walnut a while back, and I turned up a reel seat for a 3 weight fly rod blank that I have. I haven't used it yet, and putting a small recess on the seat for the reel foot was a bit trying, but it looks pretty good.

Now, one thing that I'd like to do is to make some new grips for some old fiberglass boat rods that I recently pardoned from the trash gods. I found three old rods in someone's trash, complete with reels (two Penn Squidders and one Ocean City), but the grips are cracked and chipped on two of the rods. I am going to try and duplicate them by turning freehand on the lathe, and see how I do. The grips are already loosened from the blank somewhat, so I'll see how it goes.

[knotstable]

doyle,
Let me know how it goes. If you turn any reel seats for any larger 9wt 10wt flyrods let me know I would love to put one on a rod with my birch bark grip.
What kind of wood you puting on the surf rod? If your using wood. Sounds like a good find.