Some of you might remember a thread i did on building and fishing with hazel rod a bit more than a year ago. Well, fishing it was a lot of fun and it did catch its fair share of fish, including some nice big chubs, graylings, rainbows and even a small hucho. As it was a first try, with no expiriences, the rod broke a coupel of times during its usage. Last time it was actually broken at home and the last season was spent withouth a hazel rod. During a walk the other day i noticed a nice hazel branch and...No.2 is in the making.

Taper

No. 1 had a primitive taper made by spliting the rod, removing material along the split and glued together. In reality hazel is so weak, that any "action" is very relative and making a taper, except making the upper section lighter, has no true benefits.

Action

Well, the rod is basicaly a stick, so no bamboo like action is to be epected

Handle/reel seat

As in No. 2 handle and real seat shall be made of cork, sliding ring. Just keeping things simple.

Flaming

Rod shall be flamed, but not for any "hardening" of the wood, but simply to make it darker/less visible as i do a lot of fishing by stalking.

Why hazel rod?

It is fun. For me, it is a lot of fun. And you do catch fish. Hazel flyrod is not for somebody who is all tense just to get anything that swims around, but if you know how to relax, accept a fact that some fish you shall just not reach and find fun in casting and fishing with stick...you shall have fun with it.

So, first thing that we need is a hazel bush with a reasonably straight stick. Don`t go for thin ones as they shall brake. No.2 is going to be much thicker than No.1



Cut the rod to desired lenght (below you see a trunk which served as a nice seat). Btw. lenght shall be short as hazel is heavy:



Use a pocket knife to remove the bark:



Finished product, a branch which is now a blank:



Working in nature is not bad at all



A chub in one of the pools a bit later:



Hopefully by the 1st of April when thi section opens, the rod shall be ready:



At the moment my "blank" is drying in a nice warm place to reduce the water content, after that, it is a very starightforward process...

BlueOne

Hi BlueOne

Look forward to seeing your new rod take shape.
Some people should read what you doing, you truly understand the importance of good fishing.
(That above all else it should remain fun)


Lovely looking stream in the last shot mate
Truly spectacular in every way

Gary

hello blueone i remember putting my thoughts to your idea and have always advocated you dont need to spend money to fish a rod and line, since time began people used hazel for many things as i did, rod, bow and arrow as a small boy. let us know when you finish the building of this nice wand and hope you will test against our modern counterparts. my feeling is your will perform well

I've bookmarked this one to assure I can follow along.

Fred

__________________
"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

Hey BlueOne,

I bet it'll be a nicer/better rod than that Calviello!

Cheers,
Steve

That Calviello and you of course, got me a bamboo infection which i think shall last a lifetime, so if i ever get married and my wife shall be hitting the roof about the price of bamboo..........i'll just point a finger at you hehe

BlueOne

Fun project. All you need now for the improved mark II is some nano silica resin to resolve the fragility issue

I'm drying out a piece of hazel at the moment to make my wife a walking stick. I never thought of making a rod out of hazel. Will love to see a SBS on the making of your rod.
Thanks
Ian

I left the rod to be to dry for 2 days over radiator, and the blank is now considerably lighter. If i had guides and cork bottle stoppers, i could finish it in few days, but as i don`t, it will take a bit longer.

Here is a blank after drying, next to No.1. As you can see No. 1 has been flamed and has intermediate wraps. Those wraps were ment to "stabilize" wood fibres, but it does not work so they shall be left out, although they do look nice:



As you can see No.1 has a handle and reel seat made of cork stoppers which were glued to the blank and later grinded to shape by hand. I could use premade handles and seats (with an insert into blank to fit a normal reel seat on), but as it is after all a branch, such seat looks great on it (for my personal taste of course). Apart from some physical effort while grinding, such handle/seat is also very cheap. Sliding rings are made out of stainless steel tube, dressed in cork (again from stoppers). I was very very tempted to use handle/reel seat from No.1 but as its blank is much thiner, that would be asking for trouble. Most probably i shall use the sliding rings fron No.1, although i still have plans for it.

So, with a bit of sandpaper i cleaned my "blank". Now here is an interesting part that might be usefull for those who are making your own bamboo rods. I actually figured that out while making No. 1, it is possible somebody came to this idea before.

Anyway, although it is not a season, i managed to get some frozen raspberries and blueberries in a restourant where i ofen go. So they were kind enough to give me a few of those. For No.1 i was able to get raspberries in nature, but now that is not possible. So, berries (in plastic bag), sandpaper and burner.



Here is the interesting part, take those berries (a few is more than enough),





and smir them over your blank:



You coudl do that in the beggining and let the blank dry like that, or let it dry from now on, but i don`t like to complicate things and as heat shall be applied anyway, i took a shortcut, wiped the blank and gave a few passes with burner to dry.

The idea or better what this coating of berry juic shall do is, that you get darker and nicer color (also quicker) than just by flaming wood. In hazel iz works great. Should try that with red wine some day, that should do the trick as well, specially if i wuld boil it first to make it denser with even more color.

So, after juice treatment and flaming, this is the result:



It could actually be even better if i would first apply fine sandpaper to the blank, but i did not feel like it so i had some deeper groves in blank from knife and rough sandpaper. If surface would be smoother, the result would be even nicer.

Anyway, after i shall apply yacht varnish, which is what i used on No.1 and it worked fine, blank shall look like No.1 in this picture.



And this is what i started with, almost white hazel blank:



So, if you like to experiment, try juice or wine or similar application before flaming. In hazel it works great.

Oh yes, the blank of No.2 is all bu straight. Still, i am going to use it, after all it is a branch so no problem if it looks like one

BlueOne

Thats looking great. I like the idea with the berries.