The "Treatyse on Fyshynge with an Angle" gives detailed instructions for rod, line and hooks; frankly, it seems a bit of a slog. Some jobs are best left to the trade, they've made the investment in production equipment; float-making isn't one of them. Nor is tying hooks to nylon, though it can save time...
There are plenty of suppliers of rod-building bits and bobs out there, even if you can't weave your own carbon-fibre blanks; you can also personalise an old rod by re-fitting it, getting the ring spacings just to your taste (not forgetting a keeper ring, and twin butt rings for centre-pin work) and adding little touches like paint-marks or whippings at (say) three-inch intervals, for depth-checking; whipping over your usual place for clipping on a sidewinder, to protect the blank; leading the butt of a cheapish rod to perk up the balance; giving it the stain/paint/varnish job of your choice and so forth.
Enjoy!
I can see how one might want to bend, trim and temper a hook just the once, so you could say you had, but making a habit of it would be just a little scary - after all, you could be fishing! And as for drawing silkworm gut - oh, we have no green-with-nausea smiley any more!
Once the bugs have been ironed out of our new home to the point where a technoprat such as I can easily include pictures in their posts, I might be posting a snag-by-snag account of a refurb (as much in search of tips as in hope of helping anybody else) - see you in the rod-building zone, with any luck!
i guess i`m just carefull (or just tight) not too loose many
