Spiel

Thank you John.

The butt cap is now complete. The reel seat has seen final polishing. Then off to mortising, it was touch and go. Revealing a large void that'll I'll need to fill in. Maker's Mark. Assembly check and we're good to go to blank installment.

You're very welcome. It's a dandy, takes me way back to my first home away from my parents home and the wild times that were had ....

I took my daughters to see them at Copps back in 2019.

Seems fishing related with all of the "fishing related lyrics."

"Let's keep it going....."

Anyone? I'm certainly not the only old guy here......

Nothing wrong with your memory Lew, my photo file data states, February 2nd, 2003 and as I recall, no Musky were harmed.

58, that's fantastic Lew. I spent hours this morning going through archives of photos on multiple discs trying to find one I know I have of you and Diane at Lakair, with Marvin and failed to find it. I did however this one of you ice fishing for Musky ...... JK 😆 Happy 58th Anniversary to you and Diane, may you both enjoy many more.

I could but it would be more effort and time than what's required.

Made a little progress this morning. Unfortunately the seamless hood piece broke into 3 pieces as I was parting it off, which of course slowed down my morning progress. I did however manage to salvage it and get back on track. There is one chip out you can see at the top right seam that I can repair once the entire reel seat and handle is assembled onto the blank, it will never fail nor will it even be visually marred. It will take time though to get a (near) flawless finish on it as there's many micro cavities in the wood.

Last night's Trout Fajitas. Home made vinaigrette slaw, sauteed onion and bell pepper and a slice of my home made dill pickles.

Sounds delish Doug, thank you.

Well I never did make it back into the shop today to continue working on my latest piece. I spent 6 plus hours in the kitchen, cooking of course. I had my weekend meals planned out which would have included wild Turkey breast tomorrow but when your friend drops by with a couple of fresh G'Bay Steelies, you reschedule some meal plans. However when you have meat and produce that needs to be dealt with, immediately, you deal with it. So my old school Tuna Casserole was made for future meals this coming week, a small Pork Loin was cooked and stored for future use and one Trout will be tonight's Fajita dinner, with home made slaw and the last of my my big ass Heirloom Beefsteak tomato salsa. The other Trout was filleted (custom fillet knife made by Aplumma ), boned, skinned and vacuum sealed for my daughter. The wild Turkey breast will have to wait. Happy Thanksgiving Folks.

So I went back at it this piece post dinner to make a little progress and I'm at a stall now until morning. Break outs are a problem along the burn lines slowing me down as seen here in the first two pictures. This piece will be the recessed hidden front reel seat hood in my seamless fore grip design, hopefully!

Thanks Brian. Thanks Barry, this piece is proving to be a bit of a PITA even though it's stabilized it by nature wants to tear out so I'm forced to go at it slowly and back fill as I go. More pictures added below in a few minutes.

Started on this piece this morning for a long time customer/friend. It's a rare piece of stabilized Douglas Fir that had been hit by lightening. I'v made much progress on it thus far but it is proving to be a piece that will require much TLC if I'm to get it to completion.

I can't believe that I somehow I missed this summer tour when they played in TO.

It's a damn good thing Albert that you weren't miles offshore. Good advice, if I had a kicker I'd head out right now and check it.

Thanks John. ❤️ Anytime you're down in the vicinity of your old stomping grounds I will endeavour to make time to share a meal with you, just give me a little heads up.

Thank you. Thank you Albert. Thanks Brian. IMO quality natural cork is the nicest choice every time. Mind you I did do a carbon grip from scratch once for a friend. He was thrilled with it.

Thank you.

Just finished the Blue Spruce Cone handle and awaiting customer approval for installation onto the rod blank.

Mmmmmm, Moose!

Due to the nature of the cone itself along with my router bit rotation in the same direction of the cross feed, tear out's are a big issue. Taking micro bites at a time and dropping in quick dry CA into the tear outs I was able to successfully finish this seat which is now clamped with the Dark Bronze hardware as per the customer's request. That's enough stressing for today! A quick break off my feet (and a beer) and then out for Gordie's third walk of the day, spoiled dog.