Making wood reel seats for bamboo fly rods

I make all my own reel seat inserts for my bamboo fly rods. You don’t need an expensive lathe, I just use an old craftsman lathe. But, if you’re going to put a mortise on your reel seat, I’ve found that you need a good router table. The precision of the mortise cut is very important or you’ll ruin the insert. I make my cut on a Rockler Router Table with a convex edging bit, sometimes called a finger nail bit (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5713). After final sanding, I put two coats of shellac, followed by 8 coats of a high quality tung oil finish, and then a couple of coats of wax. Here a little video of my building process..I hope you enjoy it:

4 thoughts on “Making wood reel seats for bamboo fly rods

  1. i am haveing a hard time finding the fingernail router bit to do the moretis for the real seat.can you help me please..than you

  2. Hi Dave,
    When you did the final drilling out of the insert did you do it on a drill press or did you use the lathe with a drill bit? This is where I have problems because it seems the bit likes to wander.

    • Hi Peter,

      Thanks for the question. Once I’ve cut out the basic 1x1x4 inch blank, I drill out the insert on a drill press. I clamp the blank in two Jorgenson clamps, and then use two small bar clamps to hold the Jorgenson clamps to the drill press table. I think the key to prevent the bit from wandering is to go SLOW when you’re drilling. Especially with some of the hardwoods I use for my inserts, it’s very important that I take my time when I drill.

      Hope that helps,
      Dave

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