so I'm simply posting it again as it was too late to edtig.
I tried to edit my post to add this info. I get a lot of my rod building supplies from Mudhole.com. I also use Anlgelr's Workshop, and GetBit.com/ RodGeeks has good prices on quality blanks as well. There are several other good places, each offfering slightly different products, and prices. Though I purchased my cork handles from Mudhole, I got the winding check from angler's Workshop, and hte fighting but from another site that I don't remember, offhand. Shop around. There are literally hundreds of places that sell rod building suplies and tools. Many sell entire rod building kits, with matched blanks and parts to go with them. You simply put it all together.
Echo makes a great rod kit at a great price. They have a very good reputation for their fiberglass fly rods. You can purchase a completely built beginner's rod for right around $00, not including the reel.
Cafbon fiber, is more sensitive, and lighter in wheight that fibeflass, but is more brittle, and easier to break. Fiberglass is slower, and less sensitive, and is togher and more durable, but heavier. Fiberglass is easier, and more forgiving when casting a dry fly, and will lay the fly down onto the water more lightly. But their are great carbon finber medium fast ors that will lay down a fly as lightly as a fallng goose down feather as well. For dry flies, I like the Windston rods because of their medium fast action, with enoough backbone to handle whatever you hook into. Sage is very fast acction and is better for casting distance, and into the wind. All of the premium rod companies offer a range of blanks to suit most fishing needs. Better blanks are suppied by Orvis, Sage, Winstion, CTS, MHX (from Mudhole.com), Anerican Tackle, Rod Geeks, and St, Croix, each claiming to have the best. All of them are pretty great. My personal favorites for what I like to target when fishing, are Winston BX3, CTX, Echo, and Orvis, followed by Sage and St. Croix. Sage are great, but a little too fast action for my style of fishing. My son loves the Sage rods.
And if you are including a fly reel, that's going to add between $70, to $350 dollars to the total cost, depending on the reel. You can get good large arbor reels for around $60, or a bit more If you don't mind buying Chinese knock-offs. Many of the high priced reals are made in the same Chinese factories as are the knock-offs.
The Sage is a $450 build, by the time you pay for the blank, premium super, or floor grade cork, premium winding checks, reel seat, fighting but, trim rings, and high quality Fuji K Concept, SIC guides and tiptop. Depending on what the customer wants, you also purchase decals, and more pricey parts. I know of an elk-horn scrimshawed reel seat that alone will set you back $300. That same Sage rod, when purchased complete from Sage, will cost you in excess of $900. So building a rod, if you know what you are doing, is definitely cheaper than purchasing a completed rod, plus you can customize it to your fishing style, and determine the quality. To build a high quality ice fishing rod, I'm looking at a $45 build. I sold 7 last year, and a spin casting rod, for a total profit of $400. And I was charging only $5 per hour for my time. The rest of the costs were shipping, and parts. Now that I have the drying and thread wrapping motors, and jig, it should take much less time for the build.
There is money to be made, and a market for custom rids. But you must produce high quality rods. The thread winding must be perfect, the colors must be good, the rods must perform as expected, and it has to look, and perform better than what can be purchased at Walmart,
I checked out the ice fishing rods at Walmart to try and find out why I can't build and sell a custom ice rod for less that $70, and they can sell ice rods for $10 or less. The first thing I checked was the construction. I bent and found the spine of the ice rod and looked at the guide placement. There were too few guides, and they were aligned neither to the spine, or the belly, which will cause excess torque when landing a fish, which could result in the rod snapping. Also, the rod blank material was cheap, and no at all sensitive. I doubt it had much tensile strength. As a test, I lifted a 5 lb. weight with my completed ice rods. That's the difference between a quality custom rod, and a big box store rod. My ice rods had Pacific Bay, Airwave guides, and could be used as an ultra-light rod for catching bass and trout, and all panfish during the summer. The guides allowed for long casts that rivaled the casting of a good spinning rod. And the fiberglass blanks are tough enough to handle fish up to walleye size. Imagine fighting a 15 inch small mouth bass with that little ice rod. That would be a lot of fun. I let the purchasers know that they could use their ice rods in the summer as well. They appreciated that.
I love the versatility I can put into my rod builds, and how I can customize the rods, no matter whether a customer wants a spinning, casting, jigging, ice, or fly rod. I can make it stealthy, or full of shiny bling, though I prefer to make it stealthy, so as to increase the chances of not spooking skittish trout or bass. For steeelhead, and salmon, even pike, you're not so close to the fish, and so add all lthe bling and make the rod beautiful, with the colors and decals the customer wants.
Can you tell that I enjoy the creative process of bulding rods? A rod blank I really want to build on is CTS, out of New Zealand. They have a great reputation, and the reviews are really, really good for all of their rod blanks, fresh water, surf, salt water, and fly rods. They offer premium carbon fiber, composite, and glass blanks that are supposed to be among the best in the business, and not as expensive as Ross, Sage, Winston, or Orvis. But they are still pricey, coming in about $100 less than their competitors. I believe my next build for myself will be on a CTS Quarta Crystal Glass fly rod blank.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North