Extended Handle for an 11' 3" Three piece Diawa 6/7wt.

[Bobfly]

I have an old "softie" in the form of this loch boat rod that I used to use in Ireland on Mask and so on. Cheap and cheerful and would turn over a cast all day in front of the boat until your arm gave up. These days that is not very long, but now I have a 10' 5wt that does nicely. The Diawa Whisker is fitted with a single handle and no extension below the steel reel fitting. I was speculating about the scope for having an extension of about four or five inches fitted that would then create a shortish "salmon" rod for the Earn and the Allan that would be adequate for most use.
Better than have the rod largely unused but I am not sure that the rod might be a bit too soft. With scope for two hands it would still also do as a boat rod too, as well as on the river.

1..Any thoughts and suggestions as to whether this would be an improvement and worth doing?
2..Any ideas as to how and as to who could do it?

[Inchlaggan]

Interesting idea, I have no idea about how it would perform, or whether the modification would be worth it.
As for doing the job, it really depends on how the existing reel seat is constructed, how you take that apart/modify it, and how you affix the new butt. The joint needs to be concentric and strong without adding too much weight. Cosmetically it should match as well as possible. The  extension butts used by snooker players are pretty much the idea I would use, but there is insufficient length at the butt to make a slip-on version, and probably too little metal to take a thread. Fiddles and fixes are all possible, but a wee error and an old friend is lost.

[Bobfly]

If I drill a hole, say 5mm, into the centre of the base of the reel fitting I will presumably get into the hollow section of the butt and could insert and epoxy in a dowel and then build on that dowel. I could turn a handle piece on my old Graduate lathe and drill that out to match the dowel and epoxy that onto the dowel. Sycamore would be quite light. If it turns out to be a wrong un  and the action is rubbish for a shorter Spey roll caster I could cut it all off flush and still have the original but with a bit of dowel inside the reel fitting.

How big in diameter is the hollow section of a reel fitting when it is already fitted? If it is the full reel seat that is hollow I could  make a smaller hole to find out then file that out with a round file and take it to the full inside width if available. I can then turn a one piece extension that would plug in to a thin shoulder and even have a separate shorty plug if the two handed set-up is not required.

Perhaps I am getting carried away here, but it seems worth trying...!!!

[Malcolm]

I have a rod like that with a permanent extension handle although it is an 11ft 8/9 but very slow by modern standards. However it doesn't really work as a double hander as the foregrip is too short for me. I would be tempted to add 5 inches of cork above the current handle to give a bit of length. I'm sure it will work and the slow action shouldn't matter - I really like slower action rods though so I'm biased.

[Bobfly]

I have now made up and fitted the extension piece. The main thing was that I found a while ago a broken butt section of a rod sticking out of a carpark litter bin by the Earn and I took it away to cut down for use as a reel holder and line winder and that was lying in a drawer. Here is the original rod.
[attachimg=1]

The found-in-a-litter-bin butt section as first used as a reel/line winder. I then cut through the cork handle at the pencil mark and reduced the exposed rod part to 6cm out beyond the cork and I also cut off 2-3cm from the very bottom to make a fresh extension bottom with a little rubber disk.
[attachimg=2]

Here are the various bits.
[attachimg=3]

I glued the extension and its new butt end together and sanded and blended the lines together on the lathe.
[attachimg=4]

The base of the original steel reel fitting on the Diawa was drilled out to 11mm and in for 7cm and then the extension piece was a good fit and I put in with epoxy. So here are the two finished articles, one being the new double handle for the Diawa and the other is a bit of cane glued into the remains of the litter bin butt which is still enough to give me a wee reel holder for line winding using the ring or not.
[attachimg=5]

So, it looks to be OK at this point and I have to give it a day or two and then try it out. If it turns out to be a lemon I can cut through the extension 2-3cm below the reel fitting and I am pretty much where it was before. I am hoping it will do well with a WF7 line, so fingers crossed.... : :

[Inchlaggan]

Very nice work.