Billy Vivona " Spider Pattern " practice wrap

[DockShootinJack]

I built one 20 years ago. Simple blue and gold wrappings. Made heavy for catching flounder. At the time rods were flex coated entirely. The rod was wrapped by hand and the flex coat was turned by hand to level it out and not have any runs. I have long since moved away from anybsalt water to catch flounder. But it does serve duty as a catfish rod to this day. Hard to beat a rod that you built by hand. It will always be your baby

[skeetbum]

I like the pattern and detail involved. Had I not built a few I wouldn’t have noticed the crooked you spoke of. Very nice work.
Working for others can be difficult. My thoughts. If I wrap rods for anyone else, they won’t have the fancy butt wraps unless they pay dearly for them. If someone wants a fancy showpiece, it would depend a lot on the conversation between us when we’re going over the detail he’s after. Some people can’t be satisfied and after you give it a large investment of time and skills and materials, they may balk and leave you holding that rod for your life. I spoke with a couple of builders over the years that had this happen to them, one of them on an expensive blank. So you can see that for me it would be something I would shy away from. I would rather build rods for me that others appreciate and maybe sell one to them after I built it to my standards. There would have to be groundwork laid before I entered into it.

You also asked if your speed will improve. From my experience I would say yes. I’ve done three of the but wraps I showed in the pic and the first one took forever. The learning curve and double checking and maybe undoing something you aren’t happy with adds to the time and as you become more comfortable with it, some of that won’t be a factor. The third one I did was about a couple of hours where the first was most of a day. I’ll add that when I get frustrated with something that I can’t seem to get right, I stand up and walk away dor a bit. This ain’t something I can force myself to work on. I have to have my head in the right place for my work to be at its best. You have the skills.

I also recently bought a winding machine from a friend and will say that the stability of that and the motorized options they offer, and the dryer, help a lot. Much easier to get the thread tension cinsistent. They do take room so they aren’t for everyone. Hope all this helps.