There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Allow me to continue the tale of this beautiful fly rod with a lesson learned well.
Any amount of time spent examining the various books and innumerable on line sources of information on cane rods will produce lots of advice and opinions on the important act of finishing the cane with a tough and impervious varnish of some kind to protect it. These numerous sources all share a few points of emphasis. They all emphasize that the finish should be cosmetically as close to perfect as it can be, since that is one of the very first things someone will notice about your rod, and since it denotes a pride in craftsmanship that hopefully extends to all of the dozens of steps and considerations that produce a finished rod. They also all emphasize that the best way to get a finish like that is to apply it under optimal and dust free conditions.
To that end I built a sealed drying cabinet to protect the freshly varnished rod from dust and dog hair. I built a home made system employing a 1 RPM motor, a thread spool, a small pulley, a length of PVC pipe, 20 lb fly line backing, and God knows what else to dip and extract the blank in spar varnish. I carefully cleaned the sawdust from my shop, and set everything up according to the various sources I consulted. I made the sign of the cross (although I am an agnostic-going-on-atheist) and one February day I dipped the rod. Imagine my surprise and horror when, on extracting it from the drying cabinet the next day I found bubbles and runs in the finish. Not many, but some.
So I did more research. The culprit seems to have been not thinning the varnish and applying it on a cold day in a barely heated workshop. I looked at the rod. It looked pretty good. Maybe I could hide some of the imperfections under silk wraps. But the more I thought about it, the firmer my grim conclusion. About two weeks ago, using a sanding block, 220 grit paper, and great care, I removed the finish. All of it. It took four hours...well, closer to five. I just felt like I (and George) had put so much care and pride into it, that I just couldn't do anything to it that was half assed. Last weekend, in warmer weather and with thinner varnish, I refinished it. 2 coats on successive days. Now it looks like I want it to! There endeth the lesson!
In the next few weeks, I'll be working on the various tasks to take it down the home stretch to a finished rod, and over the next few months, I'll be building the second tip. Watch this space!
