Rod "crafting"

[upnorth]

Yes they are. I used a 1 1/8 hole saw and punched them out of the birch bark. If you are thinking of trying this here are a few pointers.

It works best to glue the discs together in about 1" sections. I put them on a piece of rod the same diameter as the hole from the center drill on the hole saw, I took the rod out after I clamped it so they wouldn't glue to the rod . I would also suggest that you re-drill the hole as close to the size of the blank as possible, that stuff is miserable to file to size. Also be careful sanding there is very little lateral strength until it is on the blank.

Also you really do need something on the ends to hold it together. The birch bark is plenty tough other than the ends, but it will flake off without wood or cork end pieces.

[Mike Wallace]

Thanks for the how-to upnorth. I have seen this and wondered how people harvested the bark and then turned it.

How do you shape it? I know some use a lathe, but how workable is it without a lathe?

Thanks

[upnorth]

I have a cheap lathe. It would be a lot of work trying to shape it without a lathe.

You could make some sort of a mount for a hand drill and chuck up a threaded rod. I have seen pics of people who have used a large hose clamp to mount it to V cut 2 X 4 that was clamped down and then drilled a hole in a clamped down 2 X 4 to stick the threaded rod into. I works well enough to shape handles with varying sand paper.

I like to hike so if I find a dead birch tree that is not thoroughly rotten I will pull of a few sheets of the bark. It is definitely unique.

[Mike Wallace]

I have a drill press that I use as a lathe. Takes a little getting used to working vertical instead of horizontal. Should work fine.

Looks great! Ever tried any other barks?

[upnorth]

I am thinking of it....just have not got to it yet. I have to look at some different bark and try to find a way to make it flat enough to glue together.

[upnorth]

Here are a few pics of a couple rods I just finished.

Here is a St Croix 6' SC111 UL.

Here is the wrap.

Here is handle, both sides. It is Red Cedar.

Here is St. Croix 7' md Lt SC11

Here is the butt Wrap...Horizontal Reversing Chevrons.

The handle..Walnut.

[so haaad]

Very nice! I really like the horizontal reversing chevron wrap.

[CustomRodFan]

Beyond very nice. The detail on the thread wrap is evident. To get reversing chevrons to line up through out the wrap is nothing short of attention to detail.

What product is the finish you used over the wood handle?

That, folks, is why building your own rod is better than buying one!

[Dark Cloud]

Way beyond very nice! Im working on a rod now and planning on a chevron, im trying to see the layout on that thing - could you take a few more pictures?

[upnorth]

DC I will take a few more before I send it on it's way. I will try to get a vertical shot, it may show more. But if have any questions just shoot, I am more than happy to try to explain.

[upnorth]

OK here are few more pics of the chevrons. Not sure if it is gonna help much. It is rather hard to get a pic of the whole thing at once since it wraps too far around the blank.

But a brief explanation. And since I don't know what you don't know,please don't take offense if you already know most of this.

This pattern uses square spacing, meaning the spacing between chevrons is the same as the circumference or Diameter X 3.14. For the horizontal Chevrons, simply wrap up and down to one side of center until you have however many threads of each color in the pattern. Then reverse the pattern up and down on the other side of the blank.

Looking from the handle up, I did 8 brown, 10 tan, 10 light green and 8 dark green to the right of center, then to the left of center I did 8 dark green, 10 light green, 10 tan and 8 dark green.

Hope that makes some sense.

[priorbass]

nice work upnorth...looks real nice

[upnorth]

Thanks to all for the kind words on the work!

Terry,

I use high gloss spar varnish. And I spray it on, depends on the type of wood, but normally 2 or 3 coats does it. I have seen people use epoxy, but it is really not a wood finish, it is formulated for thread work not wood work.

[Dark Cloud]

UpNorth - thanks, it helped. I was haveing a hard time seeing the layout. I have made quite a few diff diamonds but only a few chevrons...

[upnorth]

Dark Cloud, Glad it helped!!

[Mike Wallace]

That, my friends, is quality craftsmanship. It's so clean, it looks like a decal.

[upnorth]

Thanks Mike!!

[upnorth]

Few rods I finished in the last week. Both are St Croix 6' Ultra Lights. The star is on a SC11 and the Thunderbird is on an SC111.

Birch Bark Handle.

[Dark Cloud]

Sweet!!! - I really like the star and birch. Never done a birch but plan on it. Any tips or advice?

I got a big batch of real nice looking cedar on its way here that I cant wait to get on the lathe...

[upnorth]

That is the only birch bark I have done, but I will say it is bit more difficult to work with than wood or cork. It is miserable to cut and I wound up doing most of the shaping by sanding. I would also try to drill the hole as close as possible to the size of the blank as it is a pain to file/ream and can break apart at the rings pretty easily, the reason is there all most no lateral strength in the glued birch bark, so you need to be careful until you get it on the blank then it is fine. You also need either wood or cork trim on the ends or it will flake off on you.

I started up by using a 1 1/8" hole saw and cut the disks and then cleaned them up a little with 100 grit and glued them together in 1 inch sections and then glued the 1 inch sections to the length I needed. For some reason if you clamp the individual disks tight on the mandrel it is a real pain to get the mandrel out, so I wound up just getting it on the mandrel and just tight enough to keep them together and then pulling out the mandrel then tighten the clamp down. You really don't any finish on it either.

If you have any specific questions I will do my best to answer them.

You are gonna love that red cedar. It is usually some real pretty wood, easy to work with and light. I use a fair amount of it especially on UL and walleye rods.

[drowned minnow]

Looks real clean. The real seat must have been a little hairy. Have you tryed the spade bits w/centering arbor? Just wondering how that would work for the bark, used them on cork and wood sure saves time.

[upnorth]

I don't have the spade bits with the centering arbors, I should probably spring a few $$$ for those or a set or the new "Wonder Reamers". But if they work on cork and wood they would work on bark. It is hard to describe how that stuff cuts. I does cut, but being that is is very resilient it doesn't cut easy, tough stuff without being hard.

On a side note, if you are taking pics of thread work here is a tip. Take a few photos before the epoxy. Neither one of those wraps shows the color they way the should. The Thunderbird's background is a four color fade from bright yellow to a deep gold and you just can't see that in the photo. And the colors on the 4 point star look washed out and grayish. I was just in too much of a hurry to get them done to take a few photo before the finishes.

If anyone is interested, I can do a how to on one of these wraps with few pics to go along with it. It would at least get someone interested in thread art started on it.

[CustomRodFan]

Up, that is simply stunning. I have looked at that star a few times today and just figured out that the blue fades from back to front. Does it really? Is that just angle/light/expoxy???

Ok, I am in a how to. Throw it at us. Most if not all of my work is open chevron and diamonds. I just have never sat down and figured how to do a closed wrap of any sort and the taper thing throws me off too.

I for one would love some tutorial on the subject.

Good job.

Birch bark????? What kind of time do you have in that puppy?

CRF

Maybe the next rod you do give us pictures along the way so we can chime in with questions?

[upnorth]

The star fades from like a royal blue to a light blue in out in both directions.

Birch bark? I didn't keep track of the hours but I do know it was a log more than I normally put into a handle. Probably a good hour just cutting disk, 1/2 hour sorting the good from the bad, probably 1 hour gluing 10 or 11 1 inch sections, then 1/2 hour gluing the sections together, turning and shaping all 3 parts(fore grip, seat, and rear grip) 2 hours. I am guessing by the time I had it fitted 4 or five hours. That thing now sits on my wifes rod.

The taper off set spacing thing is something I have limited experience with. I do on rods try to accommodate the taper and it does work, but I am truthfully not sure I do it the way the some others do it. All I do is figure out the circumference at the large and then the narrow end and subtract the smaller from the larger and then take that and divide it by the number of repeats and add that figure(actually slightly less) to the distance of each repeat so each one gets slightly larger as it goes. I only do that if there is a pretty dramatic taper these ultra lights I don't bother.

I am planning on doing an Gold Eagle that has a blue base and red and white chevrons above next. I will snap some pics as I go as a how to, and try to explain what I am doing as I go.

Or Terry, you live close enough, you could show up with rod with a handle on it and I could get your started on one.

[so haaad]

Very nice work Upnorth.

Just curious, do you know if that SCIII blank is the same blank that St. Croix uses to make the Avid with "IPC" technology? The Avid seems to be relatively "fast" with a firm tip for jigging/casting. Have you fished it yet? I was thinking of making a 5'6" crappie rod on that same blank.