Leiderman Rods

This one slipped through a few months ago and I forgot to post it… A 8’ 3wt Morgan w a gorgeous piece of buckets burl….

Aaand back to the rod shop… a few builds to post from the last few weeks starting off w this little 7wt bomber.

All wrapped up. A fun project to resurrect an classic field watch from . New crystal always makes a massive difference. Added a few pictures of my watchmaking space as well… the tools may be small but they are very, very plentiful and specific. This is fast becoming a new business endeavor but no plans to stop building rods. If you have a watch in need of some love please reach out… or if you’re interesting in purchasing this one it will be listed for sale at $550 (it’s a bit small for me at 34mm but perfect for smaller wristed folks…)

Almost done… I mentioned the hands we started with were not original to the watch… finding 100% authentic hands would likely lead to buying a donor watch to pull them off or lucking into someone having them. Both not worth the hassle on a watch if this value imho. The hands I’m replacing them with are nearly a perfect match… the seconds hand is about a .5 mm too long… but the style is correct. The dial markers have patina’d tritium lume… this would have started life white and darkened over time. I definitely want to match that look so mixing some lacquer and pigments, I tried getting pretty close to the dial color. The result looks much better than how this arrived and the final picture shows a nicely patina’d original dial and hands. We’re pretty darn close. To top it off the strap I purchased it off was trashed but I was able to find a NOS US Army military strap from 1965 which is an exact match. Hamilton made military watches during Vietnam and I could see them finding a ton of old, unused straps in storage and using them up on these field watches years later.

Had to wait for a part to arrive but we are set to reassemble… I typically work under a stereo microscope… just find over longer periods it affects my eyes less than a loupe… took some getting used to but hard to go back now… there are a ton of very specific (and $$$) lubricants used in oiling a watch… all have their place based on wear and friction… in the end everything went together well and is running perfectly. A high amplitude and flat rate means you’ve done a good job. The movement in this watch is simple and high quality. No reason it won’t run for a very long time.

A quick but satisfying job is to clean up the case components using an ultrasonic cleaner… esp web there’s a solid layer of grime to remove. The case will start in a concentrated cleaning solution to knock the bulk of the dirt off then get a dish soap and water bath to rinse any remaining residue. In the end, it’s looking much better.

These watches have a parkerized finish over the steel which really protects them from many of the mild scratches that would affect a typical stainless steel watch case.

If you know me you know I’m a huge watch guy… I know a lot of you are interested in watches as well… last year I decided to dive headfirst into watchmaking and repair. I thought this would be a cool cross-post between my fly fishing side and watch side…

this is a Hamilton made Orvis field watch circa 1980s. Similar watches were retailed and branded for LL Bean and a few other stores. I’m a sucker for a vintage Orvis logo though. This watch certainly needs some love. It’s quite filthy, running poorly, and it has had incorrect hands installed at some point… I’ll be taking care of all of these issues and will post a few photo/videos of the restoration in the near future. But for now, here’s the starting point in all it’s crusted wrist-cheese glory.

Quiet but still busy on all fronts… finished up a few recently and the bench is loaded up w builds for spring… this clean Epic graphite commission kicked off 2023.
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Had the pleasure of handing this off today… I love building on these dark colored Kabuto blanks with golden accents. The Allcock reel with its leaded and brass finishes sets it off nicely and hopefully the pair will hit the water when warmer weather prevails

A busy start to the school year and some new endeavors I’ll discuss in the future have kept me out of the shop. But finally a little bit of a different Steffen off the bench… I wanted to check out the graphite Steffen blanks and I think this 9’ 6wt 4pc is the kind of rod where graphite really shines. Pleasant all-day capable moderate-fast graphite… just right for throwing the streamers and heavy nymph rigs a rod like this will see duty doing. Dark blue blank w navy wraps and preserved grey accents. If it looks good let me know and it can be yours right away for some late fall fishing.

This Morgan just landed in Michigan this week. Awesome 8’ 3wt w some fine redwood and patinated nickel silver to compliment the burgundy blank. I have one more of these 8’ blanks left. Reach out if you’re interested!

The end of summer and the start of the school year is always crazy in a dual teacher house but I managed to squeeze in a few rods at the tail end of summer… here’s a smooth and powerful 8’6” 5wt McFarland GTX… will tangle w some stream smallies soon I’m sure…