Building a Rod

I'm building a rod for a member here and thought you guys might want to watch along   I glued the grip up today                 

that cork looks familiar

I posted a photo journal of a rod build on fishinfanatics last year.  The members enjoyed it, as did the guy I was building for.  He got to see the progress from start to finish.

ya....good idea....cant wait to see the progress...pics? cant see 'em....the photobucket thing.... :>(
 
got word out on the lathe...

Here is the grip all trued up and before shaping                                                                After the final shaping                                                                                                                                                                   No finish on it yet      Now on to the fighting Butt    

OK fellas here is the next part   I didn't have my camera here for the dirty part  3 Hours of reaming the Grip to fit the Blank  Hollowing the bottom cork ring to accept the Up-locking Reel seat but here is where the project stands now     The Reel Seat is Nickle Silver Struble Hardware with a Walnut insert                                                                         None of it is Glued up yet All I'm waiting for is the go ahead from the Future Owner   Well Bill What ya think  Go for it??

3 hours Skip??  You need a set of DreamReamers.  I chuck them in my cordless drill instead of using the handle.

I never used them on wood inserts, but on Andy's cork and natural cork, they are fantastic. Sometimes still have to touch up a bit with a rat-tail file to get the correct taper, but the long reaming sessions are a thing of the past.  I have heard of guys overheating them (melting the adhesive) by reaming wood too fast.

Skip, You gonna use CP or not?  If not, you might want to wet the wraps to give him a better feel of what color it will turn once the finish is applied.

hmmmm....I thought the brown would be darker....
 
I like the brown on the far right the best out of the 3....the middle is too "copper"...
 
How 'bout black?
 
what do you guys think?

I know....go figure....
 
the blank is green....I thought a darker brown would look nice with black guides...
 
that was my original idea...
 
i'm leaning towards going with black...

If the blank is dark green, black may not show up well.  Possibly a metallic color?  Dark gold?  Dark burnt orange?  Even a two-tone green look might be cool.

and the color you liked was?
 
I take it you didnt like the brown...
 
I'm leaning towards black...
 
thanks for showing all the colors..that really helped....

On most of the green blanks that I've built on, I use dark green nylon without CP and trim in gold.  In normal house lighting, it looks almost black, but is a very dark green in the sun.  The other color that I have used on the green blanks is classic twist orange/black with CP.  It kinda gives it a "wood grain" look to the wrap.  Olive green without CP is nice too.
 
Dk. green nylon no CP

 
 
Classic twist orange/black with CP

the "red X" thing...  :>(
 
I CANT SEEEEEEEE