The Hobbyist - Tom Pipic

Recently Tom Pipic, a.k.a. tiptop, of the Fiberglass Flyrodders forum completed a very striking build on a Kabuto 8053 blank which is complete with custom wood, cork, and metal work of his own doing.

Tom provide some excellent narrative in his F.F.R. post but then passed along additional information to share here as well...

"This is just a hobby -- I've only finished out a few rods.  I do have some experience with silver and gold smithing and have a good selection of bench tools for jewelry making so that helps."

"I did like working with the osage orange wood which is very dense with closed grain -- one of the hardest, if not the hardest wood in North America. It was prized by Native Americans for bows and clubs.

I turned the cork grip myself on a mandrel and then hand fit it and epoxied it in place. Because of the bit of extra weight due to the dense wood reel seat and brass fittings, a little lighter reel can be used but even a medium weight reel balances the rod well."

"I finished it with three coats of spar urethane. I think I didn't mention that the YLI thread is silk -- I thought everyone would know but shouldn't assume that -- a lot of guys use nylon. I did turn a tapered 3/8" birch spigot/extension on my lathe and removed 3 7/8" of the glass and epoxied the spigot in for the reel seat."

"Kabuto Rods was great to do business with -- great communications and only a week to receive the blank once it was shipped. That's about it I think -- that is until I get to fish it anyway!"

Is it just me or is the Kabuto blank and Kineya Tackle Model 300 Series reel just a perfect match?