Your buddy must be a true machinist. They always think METAL for everything .... lol.
Why not do it out of a piece of delrin or nylon - cheaper, lighter and won't hurt as much when it you land on it.
Plastics won't freeze to your flesh like metal can.
I've cracked enough ice off of my guides to learn that.
Ey Paul/PM - we have tons of scrap glass filled nylon, or delrin (black or white) where i work. If you need some I can always get some down to mikecc and you can pick it up. We did buy that Hardinge Super Precision lathe - gawd its TOO nice: we have may be one guy here worthy to use it. I'm a hack IMHO - I let the computer software do the work.
You know there is no $ to be made in these parts IMHO. Time is money period. I rather buy it and use it rather than waste time making it. Now if it is winter time and ya are bored that is one thing ....... lol. I have enough things to do around my home than to come back into work at nite and play with junk. If I had that much time on my hands I would be fishing MORE!
I like the old torpedo knobs on the older Penn's more so than those big ugly rubba ones. The handles on the Saltiga's are nice as well. Oh, I have some mahogony laying around ..... lol.
No insult to ya "vanstaal" for taking the time to wrap the nylon cord around that factory VS handle. Nice hand work.
BTW what size is that gold VS - I can't tell from photo. I know it isn't an VSB or 275.