Terry Henson

Here is the 18 inch mark on the rod. Peacock around jungle cock and goose quill.

Here a close up of the inlay stonefly. Am working on a follow-up to this one.

Finsihed the stonefly rod. The feather work is a pheasant base, kingfisher and blue cotinga feathers with a jungle cock. Veiled in Florcian bustard, Kori bustard, peacock and macaw feathers. Sides are goose quill and jungle cock.

Finish the rod with LS Supreme and you are done. The rod pictured here was not done. I usually add a trim band to hide the feather ends you see in this picture. Sorry, but this is all I had to demo the technique. Good Luck

Step 5 Applying permagoss, smooth the feahter into place, trying to make it look natural laying on the rod. Let it dry and you are ready to coat it with a finishing epoxy like LS Supreme

Step 4 Set the feather on the rod and apply permagloss to the feather and smooth it in to place.

Step 3 Using a tacky needle, touch the feather picking it up with the needle. Lay it on the rod where you want the inlay to be.

This is step 2 of inlaying a feather. Coat the area where the feather goes.

Prepared feather is ready to be inlayed on the rod.

Cut the fuzz off the bottom of the feather if desired. Cut of long stems or any undesireable part of the feather

This is step 1 of inlaying a feather. Perpare the feather to be used. Cut the fuzz off the bottom of the feather if desired. I try to marry the fibers of the feathers as much as possible before I lay them in the rod. This gives the feather a natural appearance and makes it much easier to work with. SELECT THE FEATHER

Here is the finsihed handle that fell victim to my mandrel catastrophe. Has Cherry burl, Ebony, Ivory and burl cork.

I am going to post an unfinished rod that will show what a bright underlay can do to a feather pattern. This pattern is a bright teal green thread and no color perserver. Note the bright teal color. What this does is brighten the feathers. Now you can put the same feathers on darker thread and get a completly different look. For Terry Morrell...See posting regarding feather enlays

Rod is now turning and despite the advice of the board, for this particular rod, I had made an enlay and had placed the fly in the Ivory. Then I chose to just cover the fly and feather the sides of the epoxy to the Ivory. I gota tell ya, WOW! Did the LS Supreme feather nicely into the Ivory or what? Could not even feel the slightest ridge. Near Perfect! Then I sanded the whole piece down 1/64th and gave the whole seaction a coat (THANKS EDEN AND MARK!!!!). I must say it turned out nearly perfect! Hope it dries that way. We will see. Now after sanding and working the rod, it is too small for the 4wt rod it was intended. It is more properly sized for a 2 or 3 wt because I took the handle down a bit. The handle is perfect for a 2 wt rod. Know a good one I can mount the handle on? I was looking at my stock and I have several hundred flies to mount similiar to this one. I have some Stoneflies that are an inch and half long. Can't wait till the next attempt. Thoughts? Terry

This is just after the handle was turned and a level spot was made on the ivory for the fly to be enlayed. Might turn out like crap or might be alright. We'll see.

Started a new handle today and decided to tap in to the several specimens I have perserved. Picked out a small stone fly and here is the next handle. Nice pure white IVORY, burl cork, carolina cherry burl wood and a brownish little stone fly from the LOWER OWENS last year. After the epoxy dries a day or two, I can turn this down and if all goes well, should be a very interesting stone fly enlay on the IVORY. I'll post the finished handle. Going on a 8'6" 4 wt for tubing and larger streams What do you think? Terry

This is a swelled butt rod where I used a LARGE INDIAN CROW feather as the base feather. I have a few of these large feathers and they are nice base feathers. On the sides I used scarlet macaw and peafowl to weave an interesting red and green effect. Also, in the sun, this rod looks nice. I have had fisherman spot me from 20 feet away and say, what kind of rod is that. A little loud, but a nice effect I think. The ends were intentionally left ragged to show an effect, not smooth tiped like of most feathers are enlayed. Terry

Peacock pheasant, and really nice INDIAN CROW feathers make this enlay pop in the sun. What I like about this rod is the Black buffalo horn that appears to be very rough. It looks like a mistake, but is very smooth in this area and the flaw was intentionally placed on the top of the handle. I like it.

Really simple feather enlay with pheasant, King fisher, bustard, peacock, florcian, Argus, goose biots and few other feathers make this an easy but effective enlay. I like the simple pattern, especially in the sun.

4 wt float tubing rod. I went a little crazy with the jungle cock which I do from time to time. This one has Argus, vulturine, bustard, peacock, florcian, Toucan and 24 ct gold chain. Oh! yea it has some jungle cock as well.

Finsihed the reelseat for the 1 wt. It is a black buffalo seat with a fossil ivory cap. Scrimshaw? Still thinking. Hardware is Bellinger

Winston 5 pc 2 wt. Did not swell the butt on this one and made a really small feather pattern with Kingfisher and other feathers. SIDE VIEW

Winston 5 pc 2 wt. Did not swell the butt on this one and made a really small feather pattern with Kingfisher and other feathers.

Stripper guide on Sage with a small enlay.

Here is the Sage I finished today with a nice enlay with buffalo horn, cherry burl and buckeye burl handle. Feathers used were Amherst, Peacock Pheasant, Peacock, Blue Chatterer, Jungle Cock, Florcian Bustard, Kori Bustard and Macaw. Tunred out OK, but as I uploaded the photo, I can see that I didn't dust it off after I washed it. Oh well.......Can't wait to get it wet.