... as befits post #1,000.
A pre christmas splurge finally landed a Mark Steffen S glass blank on my worktable. Rather than his much admired and still coveted 7'9" #3/4 I opted for a more seasonally appropriate 8'6" #10/11 heavyweight, to bomb out pike chickens on 3-400 grain sink tips and raise wrecks off the seabed.

Details -

• Blank 2.2mm tip and a hefty 16mm butt - this is a very fast physical taper with enormous lifting power, action fast side of medium by any standard, flex point around the upper third and good recovery speed.
• Struble U18 seat mounted downlock, excellent fit to the blank
• Recoil snakes PVD finish
• Amtak TIC stripper #16
• Pacbay Minima T TIC intermediate strippers #s 8, 10
• 8mm TIC tiptip
• Rust A257 nylon no cp finished with low build spar varnish, accents tipped colourfast tan

Modified FW grip turned on my drill lathe, rubberised ends. The turn up at the front end makes for a firm grip when deep hauling


Shorty screw in fighting butt mounted on a nylon bolt, receiving nut epoxied into the end of the blank. A slightly longer one can follow if needed.


Complete with totty toffee tin flybox and accoutrements, perch fly courtesy of Kozak, christmas decoration coloured water special my own. Cheers!



Thanks for looking

Great build nice job.

great build - you sanded the blanks?

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"Please God, don't let me die at the hands of the Swiss". English, J, Sir

Superb, you thought through what you needed for the job, particularly the rubberised grip. Well done

Very nice looking bit of kit there! Nicely done.

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@flyauction on twitter

How easy was it to get the blank over to the UK.
Always fancied a Steffen bros rod ,once the Smallstreams Adams favorite maker ,and think they had some input from the legendary Russ peak .

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

Thanks for comments

Andy - not so easy to source as a blank as he doesn't take plastic and only ships by courier, which gets pricey. I picked this one up whilst out there.

A group order of 10 or so might land blanks at about £130 taxed/VAT'ed and delivered, 2 piece pretty much any AFTMA max 8'6", 3/4p + £20/40. He rolls and spigots them himself so up to 2-3m lead in time. Enough takers I'll ask, PM me over the w/e if interested.


DB - blank unsanded as made, any colour so long as its brown!.

Wont be for a while , finances strained , new hot water boiler replacement has bu**ered my spring salmon fishing allready ,yes thats buttered not marged !
Also ,my new grayling beat needs assesment of whats needed ,only had the one trip and covered maybe a third of the water so not 100% sure of ideal specification ,i have worlds best 16 and 14 salmon rods ,the best boat rod in the world ,a pretty good reser bank rod ,and have the ideal Denford rod after 10 years there ,so a few more trips to the new beat back end will give me a clue on whats needed there ,

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

Super work Mark. I would also be interested in joining a bulk order for blanks.

Cheers,

Ben

Same here and No 1 son is working in New York for 2 months in the summer