Turning Tenkara Line Spools

I turned some tenkara line spools out of spalted maple on the lathe.

Tenkara spools are something you can wrap your line around while in transit. Tenkara rods are longer than standard fly rods, collapsable, and have a fixed length of line tied to the end instead of a reel. When you move around, a spool makes it convenient to wrap up your line and collapse your rod. I prefer spools to the line keepers that attach to your rod because wrapping and unwrapping the spool is about 10x faster.

One is slim and the other is a little larger with a smaller secondary spool in the middle for locking the line. Both have magnets for storing/drying out flies. Each spot can comfortably hold 3 flies each. They have small notches cut out for wedging in your line.

I finished them with a 2:1 jojoba oil and beeswax blend, the same thing I put on spoons and other carvings.

Compared with a Nirvana plastic and foam line spool:

I first tried making them out of cherry, but I made a critical early mistake. I drilled the center hole about 1/8″ too large and it wouldn’t stay in place on the rod. I had to treat those as a learning prototype and try again. I ended up making the next batch smaller anyway.

Drilling out the magnet holes on the drill press:

One of these is a gift and I’m keeping the other. I don’t intend to mass produce and sell them. The design was heavily inspired by the ones Dennis Vander Houwen makes at Tenkara Path and if you want one, you should buy one from him.