My handcrafted fishing "stuff".

[Royce Meritt]

A few days ago I posted a question in the "off topic" forum concerning finding a market for my items. A couple people requested a picture or two of some of my things. Here they are:

#1- Wood rod tubes (walnut/yellowheart; maple/walnut; walnut/maple)

#2- detail of cap end of rod tubes

#3- interior of rod tube


Thanks for looking!

[David Tiell]

Looks GREAT!!!

[Wes Newman]

Royce, Really nice work. What are the asking prices?

[Lars Thomas]

Good looking tubes. Care to offer any construction details?

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice work and attn to detail...There is a market for this albeit a bit small but well financed!

[Royce Meritt]

Asking price: It is my HOPE to, someday, be selling these (if I can reach the appropriate market). Retail price would be in the $75-$90 range depending upon length and wood type.


Construction details: Construction is fairly straight forward. Rip 8 strips of wood with 22.5 degree bevel on each edge; lay several strips of duct tape, sticky side up, on bench; lay beveled strips on dauct tape; apply glue SPARINGLY to bevels; roll strips up into octagon using tape to hold in place; apply more tape if needed; laminate contrasting woods for bottom and top cap; cut octagon shapes for bottom and top cap; trim octagon tube to length; glue on bottom of tube; cut octagon shaped piece to INSIDE dimension of octagon tube for the inside of top cap (holds cap in position; sand, finish etc.; I line tube with thin walled PVC tube lined with nylon fabric; should also put foam in bottom and inside of cap.

Hope this helps. Once you get into it and think it through it isn't too difficult, just somewhat time consuming.

[Jerry Clark]

There may be more of a market for wood tubes-- Maybe for Archery and others?? Nice looking and will be good seller at the right place.:D Thanks for the pictures and details.

[Perry Holbrook]

I hope you don't mind me saying so, but I think your pricing is too low. I would think that those prices would be your wholesale not retail. Retail would be twice wholesale.

Perry

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Royce, those look great! Thanks for the pics, really explains what you were looking for!

[Bob Weisner]

What is the thickness of the wood strips?

Thanks,

Bob

[Royce Meritt]

What is the thickness of the wood strips?

Thanks,

Bob

The strips are about 3/16" thick. The only real trick to the entire process is getting the 8 strips cut to the correct WIDTH so that the octagon ends up with the correct INSIDE measurement so the inner PVC tube fits snug but not TOO snug.

[Kurt Aebi]

Royce,

Have you considered contacting Orvis? They sell real high-end stuff and their clientel would really like something like this to house their multi-hundred dollar equipment. It would be worth trying, in my opinion!

[Bill Lewis]

An interesting point is being made here. You could possibly be too low, and may end up with few buyers. You may want to market to the high end, affluent, or professional fisherman.

Let me relate an analgolous story. My wife went to evaluate a horse that some of her clients of hers were having a hard time selling. They were asking around $5k for the horse. Now, that may sound like a lot of $ to some of you, but believe me that is only slightly above the general starting price for a decent horse in our area. After evaluating the horse, and knowing the training and capabilities, my wife recomended they at least double the price of the horse. This would cull out the looky-loos and back-yarder's and concentrate on the serious riders. In her opinion, the horse was well worth it. Well sure enough, they were able to get what she recomended, with a lot less time because they changed the focus of their clientele.

Now this may just seem like a horse trading story to some, but I think the point is the same.

[Lou Morrissette]

Royce,

Great looking tubes. As others have said, the market for this kind of quality is in the high end. I built this net and took it to an Orvis licensed shop and was told it would sell for around $100.-$125. depending on the type of inlay. Don't sell yourself short. We all know what kind of work goes into this stuff not to mention the cost of materials going through the roof. Good luck.

Lou

[Corey Hallagan]

Very cool stuff!!

Corey

[Per Swenson]

Now I see what you wanted with the tubes.
They are beautiful.
I live in Northwest New Jersey, In our
Yuppy Fly Fishing store you would expect to
pay three times as much. Why, they sell junk for twice the price.
Do not sell yourself short.
I would go into production and contact the
good people at the best things web site. www.thebestthings.com
Pm me if you are interested in selling wholesale.
Fly fishing season opens in yuppieville in a couple of weeks.
Really,
Per

[Royce Meritt]

Thanks for all of the kind words and encouragement! I've posted pictures and prices for some of my fishing items on a flyfishing web site I frequent. I'll see if I get any "nibbles". (Was that as bad a pun as it sounds?) :rolleyes:

[Bob Weisner]

Have you tried using those mini biscuits for fastening the pieces together?

Thanks,

Bob

[Steven Wilson]

I like the tubes. At $75 that would probably be my whoesale price. Nice aluminum rod tubes are around $50 and up (I get mine made by REC) and leather are around $250. I think that $125-$150 might be a good price. I might consider a couple of changes though. I would look at having leather handles and straps. I would also consider getting rid of the PVC liner; nothing wrong with just wood. Besides, most rods come with a cloth sack and that really provides enough protection for placing inside a rod tube.

[Royce Meritt]

I like the tubes. At $75 that would probably be my whoesale price. Nice aluminum rod tubes are around $50 and up (I get mine made by REC) and leather are around $250. I think that $125-$150 might be a good price. I might consider a couple of changes though. I would look at having leather handles and straps. I would also consider getting rid of the PVC liner; nothing wrong with just wood. Besides, most rods come with a cloth sack and that really provides enough protection for placing inside a rod tube.

Steve-
Thanks for the advise. I've actually tried leather for the handles, etc. a couple of times. However, I found that if you use the wrong color of leather it looks worse than the black webbing. I'm going to work on finding different colors of leather straps and see how that goes. As for the PVC liner, the main function is to line the inside of the wooden tube so I don't need to worry so much about cleaning up glue squeeze-out on the inside of the wood octagon from the glue-up. Thanks again.

[James Carmichael]

Asking price: It is my HOPE to, someday, be selling these (if I can reach the appropriate market). Retail price would be in the $75-$90 range depending upon length and wood type.


Construction details: Construction is fairly straight forward. Rip 8 strips of wood with 22.5 degree bevel on each edge; lay several strips of duct tape, sticky side up, on bench; lay beveled strips on dauct tape; apply glue SPARINGLY to bevels; roll strips up into octagon using tape to hold in place; apply more tape if needed; laminate contrasting woods for bottom and top cap; cut octagon shapes for bottom and top cap; trim octagon tube to length; glue on bottom of tube; cut octagon shaped piece to INSIDE dimension of octagon tube for the inside of top cap (holds cap in position; sand, finish etc.; I line tube with thin walled PVC tube lined with nylon fabric; should also put foam in bottom and inside of cap.

Hope this helps. Once you get into it and think it through it isn't too difficult, just somewhat time consuming.


Very nice, Royce, gives me an idea what to make my brother for his big "Five-Oh". Who'da ever thought Mr. GQ would get into fishing:-)