Rod building is a lot of fun, but it sure can get expensive. (especially if you buy a lathe to shape your own cork handles from rings) It can also be done very reasonably. It is true that you can customize a rod to suit your fancy moreso than any factory bought rod ever could. Its also true that while the blank that you're building on may have a lifetime warranty, you still have to put new guides, wrappings, and epoxy on the new piece when you get it back from the factory.
Building a sage will definitly save you some money over MSRP, but is suggest practicing on some cheaper blanks before you run the risk of messing up an expensive blank. Last I checked,
www.rod-blanks.com had some SCREAMING deals on blanks that would be good to get started with. (Hint: if you got one of their 6' fiberglass spin blanks ($5) and built it up as a fly rod, this guy might even buy one of your first projects)
