Putter

I built this rod and gave it to our local Fisheries Biologist today (Wednesday). Third try with the waterslide decals using nothing except Scotchbrite for preparation on a matte graphite blank. Finish was put on within 15 minutes of decal placement. It didn't turn out quite as good as the previous two. It had a bit of air under the edges in a few places (3 decals). I'm ordering some microsol and microset from Jimi soon.

I got tired of the clamp style phony plastic brackets that kept breaking and slipping off. I bought a long pipe nipple and a piece of flat iron. Cut the pipe nipple, drilled out to fit lamp, welded to base and welded a gusset to strengthen it. I was going to spray paint it, but decided to marble it for kicks. Its very strong and I don't have to worry about my lamp crashing down anymore. Neccesity is the mother of invention.

You can see the other photo for particulars; the rod was done for Mother's Day, reel later. This is the third reel I've marbled. I've had one out fishing and in and out of the rod locker. No wear problems yet, I think the rod finish is going to hold up fine.

I got my wife's purple project completed today. I had built her a 6'0" IM7 jigging rod in time for Mother's Day. After I started marbling reels, she wanted me to marble her Shimano Stradic 1000 reel to match her rod. If you look in the upper left photo, you can see a butt cap with a decal in it with my logo in it. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Finished this up between others and finally got photos that turned out. Had to use the doily again. I like the black metallic under; its almost onyx (sp) in color. Pictures really don't do it much good.

I'm not sure about the Fuschia with the white/red undermarble on the guide. I like it, but the wife doesn't. Oh, well, it'll drill, I guess. We've disagreed before. I'll probably do her Shimano Stradic to match her purple hologram buttwrap, next. I gave her the rod & reel for Mother's Day last year. This was my first try attempting decals with my new Alps printer and Jimi's (Decal Connection) waterslide decal paper. That part is GREAT! Kudos, Jimi!! Comments on the Fuschia?

I grabbed my index card for this rod to get the camera to focus. This is a white base, red marble job for between the feet of the guide. I'm going to use metallic and plan on using Fuschia. I love the faint metallic in the Shikari's blank finish. The flash kind of goofs it up in the center, but the outer edges show the glitter pretty well.

Well, I've still got the guides to wrap. This is the last Shikari SHXi blank that I have. I sure wish that I could find some more of them. I marbled with a white base first. I actually used red pigment from the hardware store, not red Testor's. The rest were Testor's, though.

This is a Cabela's Prodigy baitcaster in left hand with one of Gator Grip's custom handles on it. Marble is red, white & silver.

I managed to fit three parts on my rod dryer and got a lot of time off from the last one that I did. I've got to do the rod, now.

First day fishing since last September and the large female walleyes were on the post spawn feed. We caught a nice limit of fish including this 24 1/2" and my partner's 25". Too busy building rods to be able to go. We fished White Earth bay on Lake Sakakawea.The purple rod and reel didn't scare them off, Billy.

I disassembled the reel,prepped the surface, masked off any area not to be covered including all screw holes, and over the next few nights I marbled the reel one piece at a time. The handle is a Gator Grip; I use them on all my baitcasting walleye reels. It took me 11 hours to do this.

Heck, it only took me 11 hours to do the reel, then 5 hours trying to get a picture uploaded here. The reel is an Okuma line counter.

Diamond wrap that I did in April. Royal blue hologram, red hologram & gold hologram

Finally got this one uploaded after a dozen tries. Lamiglas TiMS ML78 titanium butt blank with green marble. I was given an OK to cut 4" off the butt to bring the overall length to 6'2"

I posted this to show the step-down of the Lamiglas butt. The Titanium was 21 3/32" long. It was .371" right next to the blank. The blank was .310" right by the Titanium.

I finished this one in the wee hours this morning for a surprise for a friend. I put quite a bit of white in it to get the dark blue lighter to match the guide wrap color.

This kind of shows how white adds so much to the marble. It offsets the main color and makes it stand out. On the red & gold one that I posted just before this one, white would have helped it out. What do you think on this?

This is the butt wrap on the spiralled rod I posted the double foot guide picture with the red and gold marble under the guide. I think it would look better with some white in it and next time...

Both guides I posted tonight have red hologram threads split with gold hologram. I posted this for a difference when putting marble under the double foot guides.

I built a spiralled rod recently and put a red and gold marbled butt wrap on it. I also marbled under the double foot guides.

I'm gettin' addicted to this!! I really like the purple; it goes real well with the new hologram guides, too.

Just finished a couple. Thought I'd share. I used pigment from the local hardware store.

I just finished this; it was still turning on the rod dryer when I took the photo. Marble is addicting!!

I thought I'd include this of a butt wrap I did quite a while ago. Its so easy and very striking.