EclecticGuy

As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I was asked to contribute to a fishing exhibit being created for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.A group of 5 of us – The Van Buren Boys – are creating a period rod, reel, horse hair line, creel, flies and baits. Our ringleader, Dr. Todd, is documenting the work and Van Buren’s fishing history in a book that will be offered at the museum.

My contribution is the reel and a horse hair line. I’ve already blogged about how I rediscovered line making, so I won’t cover … Continue Reading

I found this 19th century treadle lathe a couple of weeks ago. I finally got the leather drive belt material so I am ready to getit up and running. Although a lot of the plating is missing, mechanically the lathe is quite functional.

There are more photos here: Boley Treadle Lathe

Over the summer, my publisher, Todd, called me to tell me the great news that he had been asked to create a fishing exhibit for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. He immediately assembled his team of craftsmen to create this display of mid 19th century fishing equipment, I am one of them. Todd calls us the Van Buren Boys and there are 5 of us all together. The National Park Service has asked us to document our efforts so I have set up a blog for the group to use. The Van Buren Boys Blog will … Continue Reading

Over the last few years I have produced a number of fly fishing related items out of personal interest. Surprisingly, I get a fair number of inquiries to purchase these items – including tenkara flies, several other fly patterns, ice fishing tip-ups, hand-made brass fishing reels, horsehair fishing lines, Walton’s Engines (aka twisting or furling engines), and custom rods – all by … Continue Reading

Well, I just finished my latest batch of Walton’s Twisting Engine and photographed them together. The one with the slender round handle is more traditional and the other with the big massive flat handle is more practical for actually furling lines and leaders.

It also looks like I’ll be writing an article for The Home Shop Machinist magazine on how to build these.

Several months ago, I blogged about my rediscovery of an old book that presented a different technique for making continuously tapered, knotless horse hair fly lines. I reproduced the technique and improved on it slightly. That was all covered in the original post.

Given the large response (believe it or not!) I had to that post, I decided to write an article for the Webzine Power Fibers covering the same topic with a lot more detail and full color photographs.

Power Fibers is published quarterly by Todd Talsma … Continue Reading

My new friend from Texas emailed me a few reels from his collection of early fly reels to photograph and measure. I’ve been looking for an early clamp foot reel to photograph and measure with the thought of reproducing them. I would like to have a few to fish with my wood strip rods that I make.

Well, the reels arrived today! They are much smaller than I imagined. The largest is only 1 11/16″ in diameter! One of the reels is a clamp foot and is dated to the late … Continue Reading

In my previous post, I told about my trip last weekend to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum to see Dr. Ishigaki present and demonstrate tenkara. It was a great experience. After the demo, I presented Dr. Ishigaki with a replica of an 18th century fly I tied – complete with a horsehair snell. He was delighted and in return, gave me 2 of his tenkara flies – right out of his personal fly box! It turns out that he only fishes one pattern, in multiple colors, usually size 12. Tenkara is more “presentation” than … Continue Reading

テンカラ – Tenkara

Yesterday, my son Nick and I drove 4 hours (each way) to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor, NY to see Dr. Hisao Ishigaki give a presentation and demonstration on tenkara fishing (Japanese fly fishing). How I learned about this event and tenkara fishing is an interesting story in itself!

Followers of my blog might have seen a comment made last Thursday (May 21) by CM_Stewart on my Horse-hair Fly Line post. “Chris”, as it turns out, is an early practitioner of tenkara here in the US. He is interested in horse hair … Continue Reading