First rod build in a long time

Finally finished a rod that I've been picking away at for quite some time.  Many of you know that I built rods as a business for more than 10 years and with a growing family and increased work responsibilities I pretty much quit rod building a couple years ago when I added grad school to the mix. 

I think that having been away from the craft for a couple years was good.   I re-discovered my enjoyment of this artistic outlet without the pressure of dealing with customers, timelines, maintaining a website, and the other administrative aspects of doing this as a business.  I think I'll be keeping it this way! 

I had this Rainshadow SWS597 blank in my shop that was begging to be built.  This one is a 7'10" composite blank rated for 15-30 lbs... I have been using its big brother (15-40#) version as my go to rock fishing rod for years.  That one I trimmed down to 7'6", but I left this one at full length because I wanted a bit more action for a rod that performs equally as well with rockfish jigs as for salmon trolling and keeping the tension on with barbless hooks.  I think this one will do the trick.

I went with the blue water camo grips to accent the decorative abalone veneer inlay, Fuji palm support reel seat (my favorite), and Fuji titanium framed SIC guides, acid/spiral wrapped of course.

Looking forward to breaking it in at Albion.

That's a beautiful art work!  Thanks for sharing Erik.

Absolutely gorgeous. Good read as well, keeping it fun is the wtg.

Badass dude good job she's a killer for sure

Amazing work on the rod, nice that you were able to do it, your schedule sounds intense! Thanks for sharing.

that is crazy, man that is hecka nice. good job!

Really cool, I will keep my eyes peeled for it at Albion. A beautiful rod and it's sure to be a real fish getter.

Drooling...

Nice one, Erik!  Your work has definitely been inspiration as I get into the craft.

Nice rod KZ, really nice!  Grad school, brings back memories, most of them I would of prefered to have forgotten...lol

Doing fun things for fun is the only sure way to keep them from becoming WORK.   Glad to see you're back at it.

Stunning....

 still trying to get the "WAF" rod built I won at a raffle from ya a long time ago...

I got the eyes on...  and then became discourage when I was told the hard work is next.....

guess I should get some basic rod building tools and get back to it...

Strong Work as usual....

and ya...  keep your Vacation away from your Vocation....

Meh...................TOTALLY kidding!
Great job KZ.
So what's your boy? About 20 years old by now? It's been a while bro. 

Gorgeous! Love the grips!

It's really nice to see your work on display again. Nice job, as always. I look forward to shamelessly recreating your ideas as my own!