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As you gain experience in rod building, you?ll find yourself striving to create rods that are not only more sophisticated but sometimes also more aesthetically pleasing. You can turn your grips and choose specific materials, but you can also focus on creating increasingly complex ligatures. Here are the first steps to making a ligature with a raised pattern, which will then allow you to build on that foundation and eventually create a Dragonscale ligature.
Creating a textured finish combined with a glossy varnish adds beautiful, luminous highlights and depth to your ligatures. For this reason, the use of metal wires is recommended for the highlights they produce.
Here's how to do it:
Step 1
Start your ligature by threading a ligature thread or nylon that is slightly thicker than your main line. Ligature thread is better suited for this purpose because it does not slip. If possible, use a thread that is a similar shade to your main line to minimize minor imperfections.
Step 2
Once you've made a good start on your knot, cut off the excess thread and pull it slightly so that it doesn't stick out from the knot.
Step 3
Next, wrap your secondary line around the blank, making sure to pull it tight so it doesn't slip and keeping even spacing between wraps. You can even use a white pencil to mark the blank every 5 mm as a guide.
Finally, once it's taut and wound tightly, secure it to your blank with painter's tape.
Step 4
Then tie your knot simply by twisting the blank. Take your time and be sure to tighten the coils with your burnisher as you go.
Once you've reached the desired length, remove the tape, continue for a little while longer, then cut the thread and finish tying the knot as you normally would, using a loop.
Step 5
Cut off the excess thread, and your raised ligature is complete. All that's left is to varnish it.
Using nylon with a D-thread
With a D-size line, I use 40 or 45/100 nylon to create my pattern. However, since nylon tends to slip more easily, it makes tying your knot more difficult.
Learn More
Once you understand the concept and have mastered the basics, anything is possible, as shown in the examples below, which use 2, 4, or 6 strands depending on the desired result.
