recent work

[Ray Cover]

I have been hiding under my rock a lot lately trying to get somewhat caught up and that has prevented me from being very active on here the past few weeks.

Here are pics of a recent job. This is a fly rod I built and engraved. the reel seat I made out of titanium and stabilized wood the blank is a sage 4pc 8'6" 5wt. with titanium nitrate snake guides. Metallic gold underwraps and green silk overwraps. The butt wraps are done with metallic gold thread with feather inlays on top. The handle is stabilized wood and burl cork.

This is the second serious rod I have built with my new reel seat design. It really bothered me to do all the engraving and turning on a traditional real seat and end up with a nice piece of artwork with a bunch of machine threads in the middle of it. So I designed a reel seat that put the threads on the inside of the seat where they can't be seen. I still have a locking reel seat but there are no threads on the outside to detract form the overall design.

I also customized the rod tube by covering it in leather and engraving the cap.

Ray

[Brian Hochstrat]

Ray, I think I seen that same rod at Wal-Mart the other day, they wanted $19.99 for it, I thought that was insane who would spend that kind of money to catch a poor helpless fish:willy_nilly:

Seriously now, thats really awesome, it really shows your versitility, engraving, turning, ect ect, I am definitley impressed and I don't even flyfish. I would though if those fish lived in the willows behind me, becuase thats where my flies usually end up. Brian

[Tom McArdle]

beautiful artwork Ray. You will be inundated with requests for those, I bet.

Tom

[Don Cowles]

Beautiful work, Ray. Does the completion of this project meant that you can get to work on your knife now?

[Steve Lindsay]

Wow, that is very beautiful Ray! It doesn't get better than that!

[Barry Lee Hands]

Fabulous, as always Ray. Thank you for sharing that wonderful work.

[Zernike Au]

So beautiful! So beautiful! So beautiful.
How long for you to make it?

Zernike

[Steve Ellsworth]

whats my commission if i sell some of those
call me on skype - coincutter
i am here most of the time

[Ray Cover]

Thanks folks,


The fly rod was a nice change up from the usual knife stuff. I have a few more on order to make I will try and get those posted as they are finihsed.

Ray

[Danny C]

Ray - the overall is fantastic!! That is truly world class stuff. I hope you don't mind making a lot more of them! Those with money to burn will definetly want one - or one each in 3 different line weights! Any way of making 3 different overall looks for 3 different rods so they could tell the difference at a glance? (There choice of course).

I saw some $50K to $150K guns this passed weekend and they weren't anything like those!

[KDavid]

Ray

Your work is as always a pleasure to look at. What type of fly rods do you order and where might I order one.

David

[Ray Cover]

David,

This one is built on a Sage blank. I also like Winston, Thomas & Thomas and Scott blanks.

You should be able to get such blanks from any fly shop or rod building supply that carries good quality stuff. I would recommend building a few on cheaper blanks for your first few rods though. There is more to building a rod than you see at first glance. The above blanks are going to run in the $300 - $400 range for the blank alone. It would be a shame to screw one up while trying to get the rod building figured out.

Ray

[Dave P]

Ray, that is one fine rod. I messed around with rod making a few years back and always thought it would be a great idea to do what you did with that Sage. The engraving is obviously nice, but your rod making skills are every bit as good. And your engineering of the reel seat and woodworking is absolutely beautiful. How fun to mix all of your creative pleasures together like that.

How about showing us what you've done with a reel or two? I know you wouldn't just hang any old thing on that rod.

Thanks for raising the bar a notch or two. I know what I want to do when I grow up now.

[Ray Cover]

Thanks Dave,

Here is the reel that went on that rod. Its an Abel .5

[Dave P]

I am so outclassed by you guys, but it is so refreshing to be able to communicate with true masters. Such is not the case with many other fields.

Thanks for sharing both your work and your expertise.

Dave

[ron]

excellent job Ray , as always and I thank you for posting .. ron p

[Dave London]

Ray
Thanks for the fantastic engraving and as I said in another thread.Thank you and the other masters for thier time to show the beautifull work and for the help to pass on the skills to others. Dave

[MJ Hofbauer]

Hey Ray, absolutely gorgeous rod. Talk about an inspirational piece. I was wondering though, if you could post a couple close up pics around where the flaired area that you typically see a makers mark printed and/or hook holder at. Just curious what you did there.

Great work, -MJ

[Ray Cover]

MJ,

Here is the best close up I have of the butt wrap area. On this rod its all thread wraps with feathers inlaid into the epoxy finish. I have about 5 layers of various feathers on this one with metallic gold thread wraps as a base layer

If you look close you can see the I have # 30 scud hooks inlaid around the base of he rod just in front of the winding check. There are a dozen hooks around there in all.

Thanks,

Ray

[Don Cowles]

Ray, the jungle cock is a nice touch!

[Andy]

That's an amazing piece of work, Ray........