The mother-of-pearl lacquering is complete and now is the time to wrap reel seat and guides onto my whiting rod. Since the last two rods I made (haze and tanago) have been guide-less, I had forgotten how tricky this is, but today I managed to get the reel seat on without too much mishap.
I lacquered the wrapped silk thread today and it is curing now. The guides I have yet to make a start on. I also lacquered my upcoming mabuna rod, which wants another 2 or 3 layers before being complete. My ongoing tanago rod is a the stage where the wrapped joints are done, and it wants a little adjustment of the fit before lacquering the body of the rod. The joint lacquering – a kind of speckly-metallic semi-transparent technique called nashiji in Japanese – came out a little better than I expected, and although it was my first attempt at this kind of finish, it should look better with time.
