ROD-MAKING: HANDGRASP AND 

 REELSEAT 



The handle of a rod is termed the handgrasp. 

 It preferably is made of superimposed perforated 

 disks of solid cork, cemented together and upon a 

 common core, and then trimmed to shape and 

 smoothed up with sandpaper. In most instances 

 the core is the lowermost section of the butt rod- 

 joint itself, but whether or no, the usual practise is 

 to incorporate the handgrasp with its adjacent reel- 

 seat inseparably with the butt-joint. 



In contradistinction to this, the author wishes to 

 emphasize at once his hearty agreement with the 

 plan advocated by the late Henry P. Wells, of fitting 

 to the rod an Independent grasp, chiefly for its emi- 

 nently practical value in preventing the rod from 

 becoming permanently bent or set under unusually 

 severe strain of casting or the playing of a heavy 

 fish. With this arrangement the whole rod may 

 be rotated at the handgrasp ferrule, so that it may 

 be used either with the guides underneath or on its 

 upper surface, the reel always remaining properly 

 seated, on the under side of the reelseat; and the 

 maximum strain thus is transferred alternately from 



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