The Ugly Fishing Rod Rack

Ugly, but functional.

If you receive our newsletter, then you probably read about my first real woodworking project. If you don’t receive the newsletter (which you should, it’s full of good articles and some exclusive content), then I will sum up that project for you. It was a disaster.

For my second project, I decided to build something practical. My dad is an avid bass fisherman. He fishes an amateur tournament series every summer. Let’s just say he has a lot of fishing rods. Some may say he has too many rods (my mother included). So, I chose to build him a fishing rod rack.

I designed the rack myself. I decided to go with function over form. I used walnut lumber, because I’m a sucker for walnut.

I cut two sides out of a single board of walnut. Then, I cut three stretchers to connect the sides. For the top stretcher, I used the band saw to cut out nine divots for the rods to stay in place. I used a router to chamfer the edges of the cuts, and sanded it to get rid of the saw marks.

Abby approves of the functionality.

For the bottom stretcher, I used a Forstner bit to drill nine holes to match the divots that I cut in the top stretcher. I used the router to chamfer the edges here as well. Rinse and repeat.

The last stretcher was simply used to keep the rods from falling all the way to the floor. This is precious cargo we are dealing with.

I glued up two boards, and cut two feet from them. Finally, I simply used dowels and glued the piece together.

Looking at the piece now, I realize it’s ugly. It’s functional, but ugly. Even though it’s ugly, my dad uses it every day. That makes me proud. That fledgling woodworker made something that the person he looks up to the most uses every day.

— Jon Russelburg

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