Ggeorge

In theory you can take more control of failing points in your wood by eliminating things like knots and pairing dense grain with similar on the laminated halves. Epoxied or glued wood joints are usually stronger than the surrounding wood. I had a look at those ebay cedar blocks and noticed the usual heartwood, small knots and varied grain patterns. Not suggesting they are no good, just observing that they are pretty typical of that species. By gluing selected slabs one could actually improve reliability on the lathe as regards chip out or grain feathering or total destruction from surprise failures. I guess it depends on what you are comfortable with.

Epoxy 1/2 inch slabs together to gain the thickness you need.

Stretcher I wish that lumber supply was accessible to me, serious, real and truly old school. They actually know something about wood and keep a stock of unique items. Living proof that customer service combined with practical ideas about stock can hold it's own in the Big Box world.

These woods aren't rare, well rare if you shop at the big box "lumber yards" I guess. I`ve been in wood related things for 30 years and it pisses me off to see how tough it is to source ordinary woods in the lamestream. Blame Lowes and Home Depot for this, they are the cause of the disappearance of real lumber yards. To come up with anything not in the big box stores try wholesaler / jobber outlets. To find one of these wood sellers contact a local cabinet or kitchen manufacturer and see who they source these woods from. Cedar from a typical lumber supply is wet by design, the wholesalers and shippers and the mills who harvest this wood keep the stock under sprinklers to prevent excessive drying until it reaches the end seller. Kiln dried does not mean bone dry, it means dried until a desirable level of moisture is achieved. In the case of building grade woods this is close to 20% moisture content. In contrast cabinet or finish grade lumbers are dried to closer to 10% moisture content. These are the sorts of things that would be common knowledge in the lumber world but not in places like Home Depot where they aren't really in the wood selling business so much as the money making business. Big difference. For an easy and reliable supply of quality woods find yourself a shop that is dedicated to selling wood to cabinet makers and woodworkers. Try Yellow Pages / Lumber Wholesalers or similar.

In terms of personal health, if you are in good shape with no preexisting respiratory issues or a smoker then the risk is low assuming you follow good ventilation and and protection practices. Exposure to something like this becomes an issue when it is repeated and sustained over the long term. We inhale all sorts of things on an ongoing basis and for the most part our lungs can manage this. However when we inhale toxic items over the long term in concentration our lungs don't have any chance of rejuvenating. Another poster mentioned that our lungs have no ability to remove or break down the lacquer crystal. From that conclude that the build up of long term exposure is worse than with items that we do break down and process. It is this "build up" that leads to disease. It will happen with any excessive exposure, it just happens to be worse with some, lacquer is one of them. Not as bad as asbestos but easily on par with chronic smoking when exposure is sustained, if you need a real world comparison.

Not to be an antagonist but having read the two sides of the spiral wrap discussion and looking at the photos related to the fellow who suggests spiral wrapping is no advantage I have to conclude that these two have profoundly different perspectives of what constitutes a well built rod. I've been knocking together rods for 25 plus years on an amateur level and started out wanting to do designs and mixed color cork set ups and was drawn in by the shiny gold guide frames and all that sort of thing. Then one day one of the best in the game, a builder who managed a Loomis facility as well as a custom retail outlet for Loomis / Sage / Fenwick / Lamiglas.....you get the idea..... pointed out the great benefits of less is more on a rod. Less thread, less epoxy, less cork, lighter reel seats etc etc etc. I don't use hook keepers or metal winding checks or trim colors on most of my guides, I don't even use reel seats unless it's a baitcasting / trolling design (as this discussion pertains to). I stick to just cork and slip ring reel seats in most cases, I add little tape or a wire lock to keep them in place. Sparse as possible, less to break, less to lift and cheaper overall. Bells and whistles are noisy. Based on the photos posted showing the work of Freon I'd say this builder has not in any way grasped the less is more concept, for him it seems weight and un-compromised blank action are low priorities. It certainly appears that the thread art and cork inlay work is intricate and complex as well as highly refined. In my opinion these qualities add nothing to the function or usefulness of a rod and unless heavier and stiffer with a dulled sensitivity is the goal. Contrastingly Mattman seems to be very focused on action, function and the idea that a sparse and light approach gets you the best result. Spiral wraps do make sense because friction through guides is consistent regardless of the guide ring axis orientation. Line drag is related only to line qualities and guide qualities. Angle of contact remains unimportant, regardless the friction coefficient between line and guide is the same. Blank torque on the other hand is negative and eventually most blank breaks occur as a result of either compression or rotational torque. If a blank spends tons of time in a rod holder arched toward a heavy lure or downrigger and also torqued sideways due to standard wrapped guides, the wear / stress factor is amplified. Same function occurs during casting but is not sustained so breakage is further away but it will eventually occur if side load rotational torque is repeated often enough. These guys are arguing apples and oranges here in the sense that they appear to have very different view points regarding what constitutes a well built rod. I happen to agree with the idea that less is more, in all aspects. Less thread, less glue, less stress on the blank all results in less stress to the user which keeps you sharp and fishing longer better....thats the "more" In terms of pure engineering and physics there is no difference between spiral and standard when it comes to the efficiency of line traveling thru the guides. However if you are going to spend or expend the effort for a high end custom casting or trolling rod with or without Captain Morgan woven into the butt wrap you might as well get the most life possible out of it. The standard wrapped blank will fail sooner than the spiral wrapped blank due to rotational stresses. Might be talking about an almost immeasurable situation due to variables of day to day fishing experience but under strict controlled testing I'll guarantee the rod that bends in a straight line outlasts by a huge amount the one that is twisted or torqued constantly Want to test this yourself, take any fragile and bendable stick, pipe, rod blank you don't care about or Golf Club, or hockey stick and bend it till you get the sense it's near breaking. Once you have your test item stressed this far twist it without increasing the bend. It should be obvious without actually doing my lame experiment that this amounts to extra stress and will eventually cause breakage. But if you don't believe me give it a try. People are freaked out by change

I once did this with a Lamiglas fly rod in the S Glass family. Basically the same approach except instead of wax I used a flexible spray on urethane I found. Don't recall the brand at all, it has held up for many years and the rod looked new when complete. I think the wax idea might have real merit as it can be rejuvenated whenever you feel like it, probably involves the least amount of added weight (not much of an issue anyway) and minor scratches etc can be treated anytime you need to. On another subject, I finished a guitar I built with wax when typically a harder chemical like laquer is the norm. Same sort of result, easy repair and rejuvenation. I think sometimes we look for these so called "permanent" and "easy" ways to finish and protect things like rod blanks and lures or guitar bodies or furniture only to find that down the road they contribute to the temporary, throw away mentality that is so common. Simple old finishes like wax, added on occasion to maintain protection work just as well and allow us to extend the life and beauty of these things without the headache of stripping the whole item raw. Hey it's a green solution as well. Less crap in the land fill as well as less chemicals used. Double bonus.

I uses Sledges to cast for Musky, I guess they have this feature. Sometimes they land and sit all wrong on the surface, occasionally they won't retrieve correctly either. They act so badly that I have inspected them for leaks thinking they are filling with water. I guess this is the answer, the rattles are just getting out of whack somehow. Probably ceases to much of an issue with very small baits as they cast fairly reliably however if a long jerk bait like a Sledge gets tumbling in the air it usually winds some line thru the hooks and your cast is wasted. In the way of an educated guess, it matters, just maybe to a lesser degree with shorter and smaller baits. As long as the rattles / weights are not trapped in the rear of the bait.

Some logic to the question of whether or not to custom build. These days almost everything is on the rack somewhere however if you are after a genuine top quality rod the cost is about the same. Most high end brands are not built production style so are often similar in layout and quality to custom stuff. Ugly Sticks for example are spun fast and furious on production lines in China or similar while Sage flyrods are built one at a time on a one man rod lathe start to finish by at most a couple guys. Usually a guide wrap guy and a handle maker. Production stuff doesn't see that sort of attention. I know that just prior to Loomis becoming a Shimano holding most of their rods were built by actual rod builders in a production environment. I suspect that anything coming from offshore is no receiving that attention these days. I believe St Croix rods are built much like those Loomis rods here in North America or a furthest for the cheap stuff Mexico. If you really want something unique don't shy from the initial cost. An example; twenty years ago I built myself a 13 foot Loomis IM6 float rod for steelhead fishing. Cost then about $300.00 in parts, best of the best in the day. As recently as last year I was offered twice my original expense. That rod has caught literally thousands of steelhead and other trout. I used it nearly every day for a couple years and most weekends for a decade or so. I broke the upper half once and had it replaced at cost (partial warranty). I can't say for sure what compares to that Loomis quality of the eighties and nineties but if you can find that kind of quality and warranty combined with a competent builder you won't regret it. I built dozens of rods for myself and many more than that for friends, taught a few guys how to build rods and custom tweaked a bunch of stuff that was broken or past it's best before date over the years. I'm an ordinary builder at best but all my stuff is still intact and working better than most rack rods I ever owned. You get what you pay for, always. If it seems cheaper it almost always actually is. Sometimes you luck out the rest of the time you buy the luck that I had with that float rod. No regrets, not for sale. It's a lifetime rod.

My dirty water experience with lures is rare but when drifting egg imitations for trout you run into all sorts of filthy water deals. The colours that seem to hold up in muddy or tannin water are chartreuse, hot orange and red. My thinking here is that egg imitations don't make much in the way of noise in the water and typically artificial's don't offer much odour so it must but sight that gets dirty water trout to hit these baits. Check into light spectrum colour function stuff, there are charts that explain what colours remain visible at what depth and relate that to the amount of available light. Essentially it's the same issue in dirty or stained water, light penetration is reduced so colour reflectivity changes despite not moving deeper. Once you understand how this works you have a foundation to select lures for water that lacks light penetration. Oh and black obviously is a great addition to anything that you want to keep visible I didn't mention it at first because it's not a colour trout guys use much in egg patterns. Red and black are interchangeable at some point of low light they both appear the same. Check out the stuff you'll find if you google "Color C Lector for fishing", lots of info there regarding peoples experiences as well as the facts. A simple rule; dirty(water|) = dark(colour) and clear(water) = light(colour)

Check into the sign thing, perhaps you missed my meaning. The period, punctuation mark ca be set at any size you want on sign vinyl. Hundreds would fit on a typical small sign.

Look into leather hole punches. I'm pretty sure if it will cut a consistent whole in leather it will cut typical sticky back vinyl. The type I'm thinking of are cylindrical chisels. A very sharp circular beveled edge like a wood chisel . Tap with a small hammer on a soft wood surface. You could probably make your own using various sizes of metal tubing, only trouble I see with this is they would dull quickly compared to the hardened edge of the leather punch. Another idea, go to your local sign shop. Ask them to do a vinyl cut letter sign of nothing but periods in the sizes you need. Tell them not to stick the vinyl cut to anything. You can peel those yourself. They can do this in almost any colour you can dream of. Not sure about your area but the shop I use for typical signage would do this for about 50 bucks for a sign size typical to what Real Estate agents use. I imagine you could squeeze several hundred if not thousands of period dots onto a sign that size.

As woodworker by trade I can tell you that regardless of how you sand, the capillary (veins that carry sap) structure of the wood remains the same. In other words whatever size the pores in the wood are, they remain that size despite appearing smoother due to fine sanding or machining. It is thru these veins or pores that moisture enters wood and begins the rotting process. You can't change that and realistically you can't prevent it either. There is always some moisture content in wood so you trap that inside with sealants such as linseed or lacquer or whatever. Eventually your lure or furniture or whatever wood item you've tried to seal will break the seal because the moisture trapped inside will cause expansion when there are barometric or temperature changes outside the wood. This expansion results in microscopic cracks in an otherwise perfect seal coat. Over time these increase and grow until new moisture from outside can now enter the wood and the process accelerates. So no simple fine sanding will not seal wood. In reality nothing really can seal wood perfectly. You choose the best option for the function you want, apply sensible maintenance and get the best mileage you can. I'd look to the experts here for the best option for sealing lures with clear coats.

My first thought was moisture, I don't really know these sorts of delicate air brushes but with larger spray systems, a wet compressor tank and or water in the lines wreaks havoc.

Oil less don't last as long as oiled, that is why the noise difference as well. I've been banging nails for years with both types and there is no doubt lubrication is beneficial. Not sure with smaller paint oriented compressors but for certain with the larger construction oriented models that oil less are also disposable whereas the oil units are more repairable. Of course you get what you pay for......I like the idea of using an "Air Pig" to run an air brush. For hobbyist doing a lure or two at a time this seems like a great option. You could keep your noisy compressor out of the house and run for hours on a 5 gallon tank. I'm working toward lure painting this season and plan in the short term to use my Porter Cable nail gun compressor. I think I could pressurize it, shut it off and paint for a good long time based on the tank size.