EclecticGuy

If you browse around on my blog you’ll discover that I love fly fishing. I enjoy being out on the stream chasing trout. I tie my own flies – frequently to match real flies I find out on the stream.

I also love building fly rods. I’ve made quite a few for myself but there are only so many rods one fisherman needs! So, I donate some of my rods to charity auctions and events. One of my more popular donation rods is a design I call “The Birch”. I got the idea fishing one day. I was in the middle of a very small stream surrounded by birch trees. I saw a branch hanging out over the water and immediately it hit me – “I should make a fly rod that looks like a birch tree!” Brilliant!

So, this is the story of how I do the birch-looking parts. There is lots of info on the Web on building fly (or any fishing) rod so I won’t cover everything – maybe I will in a future post. For now, take a look at what one of these rods looks like – at least the business end:

As you can see, the grip and reel seat look like birch bark, as do the guide wrappings. This post will show you how I achieve this effect.

First I start with all black hardware and a matte black rod blank:

In this case, I am making a 9′ 5wt 4 piece travel rod. The blank is a high quality, moderately fast IM6 graphite. The guides, tip-top, hook keeper and reel seat hardware are all made by Pacific Bay. All the hardware is anodized or painted black. I use white thread – color preserver on the thread saves a step.

I start with turning the grip from a 1 1/2″ square by 8″ long piece of basswood. I bore a 3/4″ diameter hole about 5/8″ deep with a forstner bit at one end. This recess will house the hardware for the reel seat. Once the recess is bored, I drill a 3/8″ hole through the middle of the block. This allows me to mount the blank on a 3/8″ steel mandrel for turning.

Turn the grip to 7″ long, 1 1/8″ diameter at the butt and 7/16″ diameter at the tip using first a roughing gouge and then a skew chisel. When I am within 1/32″ of the final dimensions I switch to sandpaper on a block – starting with 80 grit and working up to 600 grit. Here is the final shape sanded to 600 grit:

Once the shape is complete, I like to turn a small groove using a small (1/8′) gouge 3/4″ from each end. I then burn the wood by pressing a steel wire into the groove while the handle spins in the lathe. It helps to rough up the wire with sandpaper to provide lots of friction.

I put a couple of coats of Minwax water-based polyurethane (satin) on the handle to seal it while it spins in the lathe. Once the polyurethane is dry, paint the center section with several coats of White acrylic paint.

I like to use Delta Ceramcoat paints thinned with just a bit of water. Once the White acrylic is dry, sand lightly with 600 grit sandpaper. Now the handle is ready for the faux birch bark painting.

I start by mixing a little Maple Sugar Tan with white and some water. Using a 3/8″ flat brush, streak the paint to create blotchy stripes around the grip – the key is to keep it subtle. Here is the result – along with the matching reel seat.

The next step is to dry brush short (1/4″ or so) stripes of Maple Sugar Tan to start to simulate birch bark.

Using the same dry brushing technique, brush small stripes of Mudstone. Keep these light and don’t paint as many as you did with the Maple Sugar Tan.

Finally, dry brush a few streaks of Rain Grey.

That takes care of the basic birch bark design. The final step is to paint the dark semi-circular “scars” frequently seen on birch trees. I mix Black and Burnt Umber starting with a thin layer of very dark brown using a fan brush dapped on using a semi-circular stroke. I apply 2 more lighter brown coats over this. The final result should look like this:

I usually put 2 of these on the grip and reel seat, one at the base and the other on the opposite side at the tip.

Apply several coats of clear polyurethane while the grip spins in the lathe. Here is the final result with the reel seat hardware installed on the rod blank:

Painting the guide wraps is even easier. First wrap the guides with a white thread. If the thread is NCP (no color preserver) apply a color preserver before painting. Using the same White and Maple Sugar Tan paint the thread and apply the blotchy Maple Sugar Tan streaks. Finish up with dry brushing just a few Maple Sugar Tan, Mudstone and Rain Grey streaks on each wrap. There is no need to apply the dark scars since the wraps are so small. Apply wrap finish like normal. Here is a close-up of a painted wrap: