I've added a few new photos to the rod making slides. If you're looking for a quick photo tour of the bamboo rod making process check out the slide show in the left frame of this blog. A brief but more comprehensive online introduction to bamboo rod making is available on Harry Boyd's web site.
Yep...it's done. Woo hoo! From charred busted up pieces of bamboo to the finest sporting tool on earth...a bamboo fly rod. It's a 7 foot, 4 weight, 4 piece, with a mid flex progressive taper.
It looks pretty good. But more importantly, the action is spot on with the spreadsheet version of the taper. I designed this taper with a deflection analysis spreadsheet developed by another rod maker (Jim Utzerath). The thing performs much better than anticipated. Four piece tapers are rare in the rod making community. I asked why on the rodmakers list a few months ago. Several reasons were given, but my guess is that the cost of 3 sets of ferrules and the extra time to mount and fit them up is the primary reason. It's certainly not the performance of the rod...at least not in this case. The cost of the ferrules isn't a problem for me since I make my own. The extra time isn't a problem since I don't sell rods. If I'm making one for a friend...well, they can wait a little longer. I've already completed the planing for the butt section of another 4 piece with a different taper. I'll get back to work on that one in a couple weeks.
This rod is not perfect. There's a little trash in the varnish below two ferrules. I was using masking tape to attach the dipping fixtures to the rod sections. In those two cases, something from the masking tape bled down onto the blank. I'll find a different way to attach the fixtures on the next rod. I might clean up the finish on this one with a little wet 1000 grit paper at some point, but that's unlikely. I made the rod to fish, not to look at. I'm probably going to move on to the next rod...and do some fishing. I've spent way to much time in the shop this spring. There are more pictures of the finished rod in the rod making album.
If you've been following this rod making thread the past several months, I hope you found it interesting. If you're an experienced wood worker (I'm not) or just handy around the shop (that's me), you could do this too. Check out the rod making links to learn more. With the exception of a couple books, most of the resources I've used are listed in those links.
If you're interested in buying a top of the line bamboo rod, I've included links to a couple master craftsmen that are personal friends. I don't sell rods...and you wouldn't want to buy one if I did. I'd have to charge way to much to cover my time and my rods are not master craftsman quality. I might get there some day, but at the pace I'm making rods, it's going to be a very long time.
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With the wraps varnished smooth, the rod is ready to varnish. This is the final coat of spar, poly or whatever that will slow down (but not eliminate) the reacquisition of moisture into the bamboo and protect it from UV damage. This varnish coat is also the icing on the cake of a high dollar collectors rod. I could honestly care less about that on my rods, so it's purely a functional thing for me...primarily moisture control. If I leave it out in the rain at camp, I'm not going to have to worry about having a waterlogged rod the next day. There are several common methods of applying the varnish. There's dipping, draining, brushing, spraying and impregnating. I'm draining. A tube is filled with varnish, the rod section is inserted and then the varnish is drained out of the tube slowly to leave a smooth as glass thin coat of varnish on the rod. The generally accepted routine for draining or dipping a rod is 3 coats. Maybe 4 on the butt section and maybe 2 on the tip depending on the how thick the coats are. The thickness of the coats is a function of the viscosity of the varnish and the speed at which the varnish is drained...slower is thiner and faster is thicker. The general rule of thumb is 3 inches per minute. The drain is stopped at the beginning and end of every wrap to let the varnish catch up. If you don't stop, the risk of a run is high...runs are a bad thing. There are several pictures of the process in the Rod Making album with captions describing each step along the way. I've completed 2 coats on this rod as of last night. It looks really good. I'm trying to decide on a third coat this afternoon. I'll probably stop with 2 on the tip sections. Not sure about the butt yet...will probably do a third...we'll see.
Varnished the wraps this week. Three coats of secret stuff to make the wraps translucent and 6 or 7 coats of some other stuff to smooth them out. Turned out better than most of my other rods, but still not what they should be. I struggle to keep the coats thin. As best I can tell, the trick to perfectly finished wraps (in addition to the secret stuff) is to apply lots of thin coats and sanding between coats when there's enough varnish on the wraps to sand. Actually, the secret stuff isn't that big a secret among rod makers. It's sold by Goldenwitch as "walnut oil". Mike Brooks (one of the pros) has published a simple formula for making the stuff. That's what I did. It's 50% walnut alkyd medium (not walnut oil) and 50% Waterlox original high gloss varnish. It takes two or three coats of that stuff to make the wraps translucent. The other stuff I used for the last 6 or 7 coats is straight Waterlox. That could have been spar or poly. There's more detail in the rod making album. I'll be dipping (actually draining) the sections in Varmor this weekend. More photos and comments on that later. This rod is almost ready to fish.
I wrapped the guides last week...used YLI 100 silk color number 227 with black tipping. The tipping is also YLI 100 silk. I've read that #227 is very similar to java brown. It looks pretty good. I've been using a red #201. Several pictures of the wrapping process are in the rod making album with brief descriptions.
It works! But I suppose you could cast a fly with a broom stick if you tried hard enough. Actually, this one cast just the way it was designed to. It's a mid flex progressive taper with a little extra diameter added here and there to carry the weight of the extra ferrules. I plan to build the two piece version of this rod later this year without the extra diameter. It'll be interesting to see if the action is similar. That was the goal. We'll see.
The guide spacing I use is determined by an algorithm developed by a maker in New York and passed on through the rod makers list for several years. The guides are spaced proportionally from tip to butt with incrementally more space between the guides. I like to tape all the guides on and lawn cast the rod. For one thing, I'm dying to cast the thing. This is a taper that I developed. The chances of a flop are high. This is also a good time to tweak the guide spacing if something doesn't look or feel right. I've never had to do that, but it makes me feel a little better about casting it at this point.
We've come a long way baby! Almost ready to fish...but not quite. All we need now are guides. Actually, this is where the rubber hits the road in rod making. This thing is a work of art as is, but a master craftsmen (not me) can take the art to another level with the guide wraps, wrap varnish, and ultimately the final varnish coats on the entire rod. It seems to me that most amateurs (like me) can produce a top quality blank at some point early on, but the finish work takes a lot more experience to perfect. If you ever go shopping for a bamboo rod, expect to pay more for top quality finish work. And that's more than likely going to be done by a master craftsman with years of experience.
I need to mount the grip so I can move on to the guides. I'm reaming out the bore in the grip in this picture. That bore needs to be tapered and have a snug fit on the rod so it won't squeak after it's glued on. Remember to check the rod making album for additional pictures. I'm just including one picture per blog post. There are more on each subject in the album.
I've started sealing my blued ferrules with Nyalic. I ran across this stuff in discussions on the rod makers list. It was originally designed for the space shuttle program. It's a very hard clear sealer for metal. I don't think there's a distributor in the US. I had to order it directly from the manufacturer in Atlanta. Seems to hold up just fine.
I'm going to blue the ferrules on this rod. With three sets of ferrules, all that shinny nickel silver might make it look more like a tackle box than a fly rod. The bluing will tone that down a lot. There are several different bluing solutions out there. This one was developed by Jeff Fultz of the Fultz rod company. What I like most about it is that it's supposedly non-toxic. It takes a while but it works just fine. It won't blue solder very well if there are solder lines exposed on the ferrules. That wasn't a problem with mine since I used lock tight instead of solder.
The second scariest task...turning the ferrule stations. Hope they fit.
The scariest task in all of rod making...cutting em up. They say "measure twice cut once". I measure 3 or 4 times. Each of the sections in this picture is cut to a slightly different length to accommodate the depth of the female ferrules and the tip top. When the ferrules are mounted, all of the unassembled sections are supposed to be the same length and the assembled rod is supposed to be the correct length...we'll see.
I'm sanding the glue residue off the sections. This doesn't take very long if the excess glue was wiped off before it set. I removed the binding string the next morning and put fresh string on it so I would have to sand the string off. I've just got to be careful not to sand excessive amounts of bamboo off. See the rod making album for more pictures.
I've turned several cork grips, but this was the first time I've turned a cork reel seat insert. It turned out pretty good for a first try. Turned it on the lathe and cut the mortise on my bench top sander. Cleaned it up with sandpaper. This one's almost ready to mount. See more photos in the rod making album.
Made a set of reel seat hardware last night. See the Rod Making photo album for photos of the process. They will be at or near the end of the album.
Made a couple ferrules. These are 8 and 12 truncated super swiss. Made them from nickel silver tubing that was drawn to dimensions specifically for making ferrules. I just have a small batch of the tubing. Maybe enough for another 25 ferrules. I don't think any more tubing is available. I'll have to learn to turn the ferrules from bar stock some day. I can see why folks would avoid making 4 piece rods. The cost of ferrules would be painful if you didn't make your own. I did order the 17 for this rod. Didn't have enough of the larger tubing sizes to make it. It takes three tubing sizes to make one super swiss ferrule. There are a few more pictures in the rod making album.
Glued up one of the 4 piece blanks last night. Here's some photos of the process in sequential order. I'm using Titebond III.
Finally! One of the 4 piece rods is ready to glue up. It didn't take that long to whittle it out. I just haven't had much time to spend in the shop lately. It's a good thing I'm not trying to make a living doing this.
Finally. Progress has been slow. I've been a little distracted by a reorganization at work. It's hard to believe something as insignificant as having a job could get in the way of really important things like making fishing poles. Go figure. This is the tip of one of the 4 piece pack rods. It's ready to glue up. They're making shirts out of bamboo now. I wonder if I could glue up a those shavings to make a really cool fishing shirt...maybe not.
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