HANDGRASP AND REELSEAT 179 



Not only do we prefer the specially-shaped and 

 independent grasp, but we like it very well when 

 made of our common native red cedar for the 

 lightest rods and except for prolonged use. This 

 makes a very attractive handle, as cedar is very 

 light, is easily worked into shape, is of a pleasing 

 color, takes a beautiful polish, and does not show 

 soil after use. It affords the best material for the 

 reelseat, whether or no the grasp itself be made of 

 cork. 



The pattern of grasp that we shall illustrate fits 

 the hand nicely and we shall therefore be at some 

 pains to give the exact dimensions, and to explain 

 just how it, with the reelseat, is built from one piece 

 of wood. 



You should, some months previously, have gone 

 to the woods and chopped down a small cedar tree, 

 which you have had ripped at the sawmill into boards 

 i% inches thick, and which since then have been sea- 

 soning against the time when you would be ready 

 to make use of them. Your grasp you now pro- 

 ceed to carve out of a piece of this cedar, i% inches 

 square and 10% inches long; and it is not difficult, 

 as already intimated. 



The thing first to do is to bore- a hole in the end 

 that is to receive the female or socket ferrule, before 

 any attempt is made at shaping the wood. The fer- 

 rule size at the grasp, for a ten-foot rod, is %e 

 inch, but the hole must receive the outside ferrule, 



