Bamboo Rod
Making Page
John and I are fortunate to have Chris as a friend who offered to show us the
ropes on making a bamboo rod from raw Tonkin Bamboo Cane. The following is
a photographical diary of some of the key steps we captured with the
camera. This page will be updated with new images and expanded as time
permits to other bamboo related links.
Click Image to enlarge. Use "back" browser button to return
to this page.
The Rods
After casting a dozen rods of various weights, John and I found the rods we
liked the best from a casting standpoint. Chris has an affinity for Paul
H. Young rods (Michigan Rod manufacturer). However, he has made rods
by Garrison and others, including tapers of his own design.
John decided upon a Paul H. Young 7'-6" 4 wt. Perfectionist
taper
Scott decided upon a Paul H. Young 7'-2" 4 wt. Driggs
River taper
Bamboo Culm Selection
Raw bamboo generally arrives in 12' strips. These strips were cured in
Chris' garage.
Chris helped John pick the best culm based upon the rod John is making
Chris and Scott with a finished culm that has been flamed using a hand-held torch
(note, Chris is standing next to the "oven" used to heat treat the
bamboo strips after rough planing - just prior to final dimension
planing).
Splitting the Culm
These are the tools used to split the bamboo culm. A Fro (cutting knife)
is used with a wooden mallet to begin a split down the length of the bamboo
culm.
Under the watchful eye of Chris, John splits the half-length of bamboo in
half. A machete and a wooden bat are used to keep the knife's edge moving
through the bamboo.
John splitting the half culm in half again. Note the internal dams
(ridges) in the center of the culm. These all must be removed before
planing. Nodes are evident on the outside of the bamboo strips where the
dams are located.
Chris and John further split the culm into smaller and smaller strips until they
are ready for dam and node removal and then the straightening process.
The sections after rough splitting.
These are the larger butt sections after splitting. There is still plenty
of work to do on the nodes and straightening the strips. Larger strips are
split into smaller strips for the tip section (and these strips come from the
upper section of the 12' culm).
Fine splitting is done with the use of a vice and a screwdriver to
"steer" the split right down the middle of the strip. The object
is to split the strips into small enough sections in order to be planed down to
the taper dimensions. The plan creates a 60 degree triangle, retaining the
outer edge of the bamboo where the "power fibers" are located.
Filing Nodes and Straightening Strips
Once the strip is split to the width that is needed for the rod you are making,
The internal dam (lump on the lighter side of the strip) is removed using a
variety of methods, we used a knife to "whittle" the dams off.
Then the nodes on the outer skin of the bamboo strips must be carefully filed
off.
Here is a view of a strip of bamboo secured in a vice ready to be filed.
Care must be taken to not remove the power fibers located just below the
"skin" of the bamboo strip.
Here is a close-up photograph of the node after filing. I wouldn't call
this a great example of minimizing destruction to the power fibers.
However, it should work just fine. You should be able to see the power
fibers as dark lines running the length of the bamboo strip.
Heat from a heat gun is employed to straighten the strips to as straight as
possible for planing. The strips are first soaked in water to soften the
bamboo. Heat is applied and the bamboo becomes quite pliable at some
point. One must be careful not to break the strip while
straightening.
Scott straightening nodes on a strip of bamboo over a heat gun.
Staggering Nodes
Once nodes are straightened, the stagger of the nodes are determined so not to
have nodes on adjacent strips on the finished rod. Here we are using the
2-2-2 stagger with a 3" separation.
Once the stagger is set, then you must find the most efficient place to cut the
strips. The objective is to not have nodes at connection points (ferrules)
or close to the tip of the rod. Note the 2-2-2 stagger. The scrap
wood is for drawing a line to indicate the location of the end cut.
Doing the Math
Ok, I struggled a bit here. Mostly due to trying to grasp the concept of
the width of the strips for the taper of the rod and being forced to do math in
public! It's absolutely critical to have your numbers exactly right for
setting the planing form's taper.
Planing the Strips
Chris is the owner of a finely-crafted planing form. This equipment performs
exactly as configured to very high tolerances. Here, Chris is measuring
the taper and adjusting the form for the Driggs River taper on Scott's
rod. The white lengths of material is a Teflon top that the bamboo strip
is screwed down onto. The taper is set by raising the ridge up to match
the taper. The mill (fancy hand plan) is reversed here and a micrometer is
attached for exacting measurements.
Chris is shown planing the bamboo strip with the hand mill. The mill cuts
both sides of the 60 degree cut at the same time. There is a dial on
the top of the mill that lowers the cutting blades down in very fine increments
(2/1000ths of an inch). This creates a situation where the rod maker can
attain exacting specifications on a rod.
John planing his bamboo strip.
Closer view of the business side of the hand mill. John's probably only
taking off 4/1000ths of an inch on this pass).
Scott planing his butt section.
At times the planing process requires a bit of "elbow grease".
You want to make sure the strip is cut evenly and doesn't get off-center during
the cut. Slow and steady cuts are made.
Chris performing a measurement using a micrometer on one of our strips. He did an excellent job
on the quality assurance side of things during this process. He let us run
on our own, but kept a watchful eye....thankfully!
Scott "mic'ing" the strip (taking a measurement with a
micrometer). We measured the base of the triangle to the tip and used a
table to give us the width of the strip. It's all trigonometry! The
taper requires that the strip's height (and width) match the design of the taper
as measured at 5" intervals. The taper is set on the initial taper
calibration and thus you only need to measure a single point on the rod to know
when you are done.
Heat Treating the Strips
The strips are planed to a rough stop (larger than the taper requires).
The roughly planed strips are then bound by string and rolled straight as Chris
is demonstrating here.
This is where the wrapped rough planed strips are baked for approximately 15
minutes at nearly 350 degrees. Chris built this oven from HVAC steel pipes
and uses a thermometer to monitor the internal temperature. The oven is
double walled and a heat gun is the source of heat (blowing hot air into the
outer pipe and flowing into the inner pipe where the strips are hanging.
John unwrapping his heat treated butt section before going to final planing.
John and Chris admiring the product.
Dead-eye John making sure it's straight!
Gluing and sanding
Before gluing the strips together, you wrap tape around the assembled strips and
then cut the tape along one seam to "open" the strips up for
gluing. Two of the three sections of the rod are show enamel side
up.
Glue is (of course) applied to the internal, or non-enamel, side of the
strips. Resorcinol is a deep purple glue and can show up as dark glue
lines if there is gaps at the joints.
Resorcinol is liberally applied to ensure complete coverage. This is a
messy process!
The glued strips are quickly assembled once again and bound with glazed cotton
string tightly to ensure a tight bond. The rod is rolled under your hands
to straighten out any bends or sweeps in the rod at this point.
Adding Ferrules
The process to attach the ferrules to the rod ends is fairly straight
forward. First we measured the depth of the ferrules obtained from REC (we
used their Uniferrule brand product. These are nice ferrules made out of
solid bar stock and drilled. The holes come to a tapered point at the
bottom, so the rod must be trimmed in a cone shape at the end points to obtain a
tight fit. Pliobond was used for the adhesive.
These are the ferrules. The male ferrules must be "dressed" or
fit by lightly sanding them with very fine sandpaper (like 800 grit). The
process goes from "it doesn't fit" to "it fits perfectly"
very quickly. Care must be taken to make sure one doesn't over-dress the ferrule
and end up with a lose fit.
For perspective, I've added a dime to the ferrules.
Here is are two photos of the raw ends of the bamboo rod. Note the glue
lines (purple due to the use of Resorcinol).
A low angle photo of the rod tips (and the butt section for comparison).
Note how small the tips are on this 4 wt. Driggs River taper. Remember,
there are six end strips making up each of these tips!
Handle and Reel Seat
These are the components of the reel seat and the handle.
We used 1/2 inch flor quality cork rings for the handle. We
used 13 rings plus one more ring for the reel seat insert (for a 7"
handle).
We drilled a small hole in the base of the butt section of the rods to accept
the end-cap of the reel seat.
Light photo with raw cork rings glued (using Pliobond) to rod.
Darker photo. Note the glue lines. Pliobond is softer than epoxy and
won't leave ridges between rings.
The reel seat is a REC single up-locking ring made of Maple Burl
(PNLW model from REC).
It's a beautiful reel seat. However, not all reels are made equally, so
check your reel to make sure it fits!
I'm using a GLoomis Venture 3 reel and it locks in perfectly! Plus the champagne
color looks great on the rod.
Guides and Wraps
I used Snake Brand guides for my bamboo rod and generally stuck with
the Garrison spacing chart for a 7'-3" rod. I tested the spacing to
ensure there wasn't any flat spots or undue stress on any one
guide. The guides were the following sizes: 2/0, 2/0, 2/0, 1/0,
1/0, 1, *ferrule* 1, 1, 10 mm stripping guide. For the stripping guide, I used a
10 mm Agate guide.
I decided to wrap my Driggs River rod with antique gold wraps
(copper) and tip them with black. Instead of wrapping black thread on the
end of the wraps, I used a Sharpie (perminant marker) to color the thread for
the last 5 wraps. These photos are before the varnish is applied.
The silk thread becomes translucent once varnished.
This is the wraps after they are varnished. Beautiful.
The signature wraps represent my family (four wraps, one for each member of
the family). Yes it's a bit corny, but they are the most important thing
in my life.
Completed Rod
The rod was completed mid-May 2004 (after beginning August 2003).
After the wraps were varnished, the entire rod was dipped into a tube of varnish
(not the handle or reel seat). After the first dip, the signature is
applied. The butt section receives a total of three dips in varnish (with
rubbing out with a #7 rubbing compound between the first and second dips).
The tips only receive two dips as additional weight is unnecessary.
The rod simply glows with the mirror like finish of the varnish.
Another photo of the signature and signature wraps.
A fly rod is very hard to capture in a photo.
Fly Line
I cast a number of weight forward (WF) lines and one under-weight double
taper fly line. However, I found that the Wulff Triangle Taper line cast just
perfect on this rod. the WF line (Scientific Angler's GPX) simply over
loaded the rod slightly in a 4 wt. The Triangle Taper casts nice at 15' as
well as at 40'. I purchased the olive color as I'm just not a fan of
bright neon fly lines.
Thank you for spending time with this project!
Please direct comments and questions to Scott at: kings11@comcast.net
Please remember, I'm in the EARLY stages of learning and shouldn't be counted on
to provide any expert advice! However, I'll discuss my experiences with
bamboo if they will help you.
New News: A hook chip turned into a
crack on the butt section of the Driggs River. Here are two photos showing
the repaired section before final varnishing.
Up-close shot of the scarf. I used epoxy to bind the crack and wrapped tan
silk thread and coated with varnish. Should be as good as new!
Full section photograph of the repair.
