Chapter IX: Rod-Making: Handgrasp and Reelseat

The handle of a rod is termed the handgrasp. It preferably is made of superimposed perforated disks of solid cork, cemented together and upon a common core, and then trimmed to shape and smoothed up with sandpaper. In most instances the core is the lowermost section of the butt rod-joint itself, but whether or no, the usual practise is to incorporate the handgrasp with its adjacent reelseat inseparably with the butt-joint.

In contradistinction to this, the author wishes to emphasize at once his hearty agreement with the plan advocated by the late Henry P. Wells, of fitting to the rod an _independent grasp_, chiefly for its eminently practical value in preventing the rod from becoming permanently bent or set under unusually severe strain of casting or the playing of a heavy fish. With this arrangement the whole rod may be rotated at the handgrasp ferrule, so that it may be used either with the guides underneath or on its upper surface, the reel always remaining properly seated, on the under side of the reelseat; and the maximum strain thus is transferred alternately from one side of the rod to the other. A further innovation made by Mr. Wells (the law was his vocation though angling was his loved avocation) consisted in shaping the grasp more perfectly to the grip of the hand than had been the custom; and this whole device, combining the two distinctive features of separability and shape, has since been known to anglers as the “Wells grip.”

It is true that a rod so built is increased in weight to the extent of the added pair of ferrules which are necessary for the seating of the butt-joint within the handgrasp--perhaps three-quarters of an ounce. But it is weight in a good place; furthermore, this may be offset by use of the extremely light yet very serviceable fly-rod reels that are available today, and by dispensing with the solid reelseat of metal in favor of simple _reel bands_, the so-called skeleton reelseat.

A metal reelseat is altogether unnecessary in the rod adapted for fly- and the lighter bait-fishing, and again, the inclusion of all this “tin” certainly adds nothing in elegance of finish to such a dainty contrivance. When it comes to the short, bait-casting rod, with the strenuous reel work that is imperative in its use and the manifest advantage here of some form of locking reel-band, that is an entirely different story, and we welcome the metal reelseat as a most appropriate feature of the rod, under these conditions.

Not only do we prefer the specially-shaped and independent grasp, but we like it very well when made of our common native red cedar--for the lightest rods and except for prolonged use. This makes a very attractive handle, as cedar is very light, is easily worked into shape, is of a pleasing color, takes a beautiful polish, and does not show soil after use. It affords the best material for the reelseat, whether or no the grasp itself be made of cork.

The pattern of grasp that we shall illustrate fits the hand nicely and we shall therefore be at some pains to give the exact dimensions, and to explain just how it, with the reelseat, is built from one piece of wood.

You should, some months previously, have gone to the woods and chopped down a small cedar tree, which you have had ripped at the sawmill into boards 1½ inches thick, and which since then have been seasoning against the time when you would be ready to make use of them. Your grasp you now proceed to carve out of a piece of this cedar, 1½ inches square and 10½ inches long; and it is not difficult, as already intimated.

The thing first to do is to bore a hole in the end that is to receive the female or socket ferrule, before any attempt is made at shaping the wood. The ferrule size at the grasp, for a ten-foot rod, is 7/16 inch, but the hole must receive the outside ferrule, and _its outside_ diameter is 15/32 inch. You will need for this job a drill-bit, which you can obtain--with a square shank for use in a brace--in this diameter; the wood-boring bits are more coarsely graded in size than are drill-bits. For the nine- or nine and one-half-foot rod, the handgrasp ferrule is ⅜ inch, and you want a 13/32-inch drill-bit for boring for its handle socket.

Place the piece of cedar in the vise at such an angle that will enable you to sight conveniently along the bit as you stand and bore; and bore slowly, and as _straight_ as possible down the center of the wood, to the required depth.

Now you want to find out just how nearly you have succeeded in centering that hole. To do this, take your butt-joint or any straight stick that will serve--winding the end with thread if necessary for a snug fit--and thrust this down into the cedar block to the full depth of the boring. Next sight along your joint or stick and see if you have it properly aligned with the grasp. Most likely you will find that the present condition of affairs is that represented in Fig. 1--you have quite a decided angular deflection between joint and grasp, despite all your care to have that hole straight. In order to correct this, by accurately centering the joint in its socket, you must plane the cedar block down to one-inch square, in the manner indicated by the dotted lines of the illustration. You then sight along another of the surfaces of the block, adjoining the surface first marked as shown, and plane again as may be necessary to straighten up the other two sides. Now your hole is centered, and grasp will line with rod, in all positions of rotation.

Withdraw the joint and you now are ready to shape up your grasp. Cut a pattern of cardboard or stiff paper to conform with the diagram, Fig. 2. The diameters are as follows, to which you can gauge the finished grasp with a pair of calipers: At B, one inch; C, 3/4; D, 1-1/32; E, 11/16; F, 7/8. Distances are: A-G, 10½ inches; A-B, 1 inch; B-C, 3/4; C-D, 2; D-E, 2⅛, and F-G, 3⅝. Lay this pattern on two opposite faces of the cedar block and trace the outline in pencil. Place the block in the vise and cut away the wood with a chisel, from A to F, down to the penciled lines. Then trace the outline on the two remaining surfaces, and cut away similarly. Next saw the part from F to G down to a full ¾-inch square. You now have the whole thing in the shape shown in Fig. 3.

Take your jack-knife and cut away the corners equally, till the whole grasp is reduced from the square to an octagonal shape on cross-section.

Next we seat the female ferrule. Before cementing this, get a winding-taper or -check (A, Fig. 4) that fits nicely over the ferrule and up against the welt; fit this over the thin edge of the wood, around the mouth of the hole in the grasp, mortising it in flush with the wood by filing a recess to receive it, with the triangular saw-file, and cement it in position. This will guard against splitting of the grasp as you force the ferrule into it; but for the first attempt, it will be safer to seat the ferrule in the cedar while in block form before starting to shape the grasp. You now can melt some cement, spread it evenly over the whole outside of the ferrule up to the welt, as you hold it over the flame with a pair of pliers, taking pains the while _not to get any on the inside_; then thrust it into its hole, and by pushing down hard against the floor or the solid door-jamb, using your whole weight, _quickly_ force it home to the welt.

Great care should be taken to have the hole positively accommodate the ferrule, though snugly, making use of a round (rat-tail) file to enlarge the boring if necessary to this end. The ferrule expands a bit on heating, and if the hole be too small the ferrule will stick before reaching the whole distance down into the grasp. Meanwhile the cement has cooled and thickened, and the only way that you now can remove the ferrule without injury is to split off the wood, making it necessary to _begin all over again_. Be encouraged however in your perseverance to have the grasp right, by the knowledge that when once completed one of these independent handles can be used for several different rods for the use of one angler--a nice insurance furthermore against the borrowing of your pet rods.

Finally, round up the whole with the convex surface of a wood-rasp or coarse file, followed by number 2 and then number 1 sandpaper; mount the reel-bands and fit the butt-cap. The sliding reel-band should have a milled raised edge to grip with the fingers. The German-silver butt-cap and reel-bands selected by the author are ¾ inch in diameter, and were obtained from the T. H. Chubb Rod Co., of Post Mills, Vermont, at a total cost of forty-six cents. Before cementing on the cap D, (Fig. 4), and in order to seat the reel securely, file a flat surface on the side of the reelseat that corresponds with the line-guides when grasp is jointed to the butt in the position, with relation to rotation, that gives the most perfect alignment of grasp and butt-joint. It is a good plan to glue a little piece of leather to this flat surface for the reel-plate to jam against when the reel is seated; a strip of an old hat’s sweat-band is just the thing.

The completed grasp will appear as represented in Fig. 4. A indicates the taper hugging the ferrule-welt, B is a band that largely is ornamental and may be dispensed with, C is the reel-band proper, and D is the butt-cap.

But when it comes to a real fighting implement, and for continuous, prolonged usage, there is nothing in the same class with a solid-cork grasp for the rod--not a mere veneer of cork; and to make one of these you may proceed as we now will direct.

If you purpose making an independent grasp, first you construct a short bamboo-section, not tapering but of the same thickness throughout, and of the proper size, when rounded, to receive snugly the handgrasp ferrule, which is both cemented and _pinned_ to one end of it, as shown in Fig. 5. Bore a short piece of cedar and shape its end to receive a metal taper, just as in making the all-cedar grasp; then slip this over the bamboo-core and up against the ferrule-rim (welt or shoulder) and cement it fast, as seen in Fig. 6. Next slip on and secure with glue or ferrule cement successive cork-ring sections sufficient for the needed length of the actual hand portion of the grasp. Cement them in place, several at a time, and allowing these to set before putting on the next installment. Jam the last ones you are placing, firmly against their predecessors by putting the bamboo-core between the vise jaws and pushing the cork up against the ends of the jaws; then tighten the vise and leave things awhile. It is a good idea to have the grain of each disk of cork to cross that of its neighbor.

These cork rings or solid disks that you can perforate as required, may be had of selected quality from your tackle-dealer, or you can utilize the best of large corks obtained from the paint or drug store, such as are used for gallon cans or for the wide-mouthed vaseline bottles. To perforate these, you file a cutting edge on the end of a brass ferrule or other piece of metal tubing of suitable size; you either may fit this with a handle, or secure it in the vise by means of your wooden holder (see chapter on “Ferrules”) and bore the hole by turning the cork backward and forward against its sharp end.

Finally, make a cedar reelseat of similar style to that described above, but with a hole, an inch or more in depth, bored into its front end for fitting that over the other end of the bamboo-core and up against the hindermost cork-ring, where it is glued into place and reinforced by insertion of a piece of the pointed end of a small brass escutcheon-pin. Your cork-ringed fly-rod handgrasp now will be in the state indicated by Fig. 7. It remains to finish up the reelseat, including the mounting of reel-bands and butt-cap, as already detailed, and to work the cork part or grasp proper down to shape as shown by the dotted lines of the above illustration. A file cannot well be used here--it would tear the cork--and the result is accomplished, after shaving to approximate shape with a _sharp_ thin knife- or razor-blade, with sandpaper wrapped about a round stick of about five-eighths inch in diameter. This is manipulated with an oblique sliding and turning motion--slide it away from you as you turn toward you. Finish by twisting the grasp within a fold of fine sandpaper held snugly in the left palm.

The process employed is somewhat different for the bait-casting rod. Here the grasp is not removable, and because of the increased strain on the handle of this rod, the butt-joint should extend down inside the grasp to within two inches at most of the butt-cap, this part of the joint first being filed down to a uniform size. In this rod the reelseat is placed above the grasp. A pattern for the handle of cedar is shown in Fig. 8, one piece of wood extending from A to I. G–I represents a German-silver reelseat, slid over and cemented to its cedar-core. This reelseat has a simple but effective locking reel-band (H) and it was obtained from James Heddon’s Sons, of Dowagiac, Mich., for one dollar. The ridge at E projects between the first and second fingers of the rod-hand, insuring a secure grip and obviating the necessity for the somewhat ungainly forefinger “trigger” (hook) with which many bait-casting rods are equipped, as indicated by the dotted lines at F. A is the butt-cap; B, the end of the butt-joint. Measurements are: A–G, 5⅝ inches; G–J, 4⅜ inches; C, 1⅛ inches; D, 21/32 inch.

We rather favor a solid-cork grasp for this rod, and like one with a cedar butt-cap of a mushroom shape (Fig. 9). A shaped cork-grasp for a bait-casting rod--and any other individual parts of their standard models--may be purchased from the Dowagiac people; and not only the individual cork-rings or solid disks, already mentioned, but cork-grip handgrasps, in a more or less finished state and in a variety of patterns, are obtainable from most of the larger tackle-houses.

ROD-MAKING:

VARNISHING AND FINISHING