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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 2, 2012 20:08:23 GMT -6
Well it is a bit hard for me to get out fishing so it might be time to build a rod. I was thinking I could peck away at one and post some photos just for the fun of it. Everybody could add in their 2 cents worth and egg me on. Figure it would take me a day or two to collect together the dead clown tools to get this project off the ground for the first round of photos. I may have to bring in Darrell AKA Itchie as a guest speaker if he is still around to add some color commentary to keep thing moving along. So set your clocks to the midnight sun and hopefully enjoy. Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 2, 2012 21:36:01 GMT -6
OK, well this project required a little pre winter prep. So here goes the first installment to get you up to speed to where I am now. I ordered some Tonkin Bamboo, a kind fellow in Vancouver went down to see Andy Royer AKA the Bamboo Broker and picked up a swack of the stuff, and my cut was sent along on the bus to me. www.bamboobroker.com/about.html It has gotten expensive to ship the stuff direct as customs quarantines the shipment and fumigates it and passes the expense along to the end user. So this was great to avoid all those costs. Not to mention the waste as the stuff is fumigated by Andy already!!! Each culm was cut to 6 feet from 12 and marked so they can be matched. The bus will not take a 12 foot package. Also i put a split into each culm so as they sit around they do not split in some multiple random way wasting the bamboo. As you can see they are choice culms fat thick walled and good color with no bad marks on them, all important points when selecting culms for rod making. I should be able to get a few rods from these ans one rod if careful will take only about 1/4 to 1/3rd of a culm. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2012 22:35:47 GMT -6
Really looking forward to seeing the photos as you progress through. Just received two rods from Darrell the day before yesterday and they are truly works of art. If I wasn't so swamped with a full winter of fly orders this is something I might like to attempt but, hey, who am I kidding?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2012 22:46:01 GMT -6
WAY COOL! I'd be interested in seeing progressive photos of how ya turn a stick of bamboo into a work of art! Nick
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 5, 2012 9:05:33 GMT -6
For every step in building this rod I will tell you what I did, for every rod maker their is a opinion of how it is done and why. So this is more of a making a rod and not really a expert tutorial, I am by far and away not a expert. So a culm is selected, on six foot piece for the butt and one for the tip. I match the tip and butt from one 12 foot culm so they are much the same. The makers of old did not really do this and pieces were used all nilly willy, but since I do not have a high production agenda a little more attention to detail is possible. I look at the fibers of the culm and make sure that the finished strips will be from the part with the most fibers. If the culm is to thin then part of the rod will have pith in it and less fibers. If the culm is to thin then the fibers get to spare and make a wimpie rod. The tonking bamboo is said to be the best bamboo for rod building. www.wagnerrods.com/cane.html Next step is to file down all the nodes. The node is the bump on the culm where the leaf grows off the stem. The ideal culm has the least amount of nodes. The node is filed down flat but not to deep just enough to take the bump down flat. It is easier to do the whole culm before it is split even though the whole culm will not be needed for this rod. You can see the node has been flattened, it is still a rather rough job at this point. I cut the enamel a bit on the one side of the node but did not really cut into the fibers below the enamel, so i am still ok. The thickest density of fibers are just below the enamel so these are the part of the culm I want to preserve. Their is a sort of dip on the the other side of the node, the side I did not hit with the file. This dip has to be take out later on to make the strips FLAT so they can be planed into triangles. You can also see a sort of darker line in the center of the node, this is a dark line where dirt and such collects where the leaf connects to the node. The idea is to remove just enough of the node to make this line just visible and if the node ids not completely flat it can be heated and pressed out flat later. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2012 11:33:06 GMT -6
Wow, learning already! Definitely quite the niche talent you have! Not many people these days build fly rods straight from bamboo culms! Keep it up!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2012 11:12:21 GMT -6
This winter I decided to build an adjustable rod wrapping jig from scrap lumber. I'm working on a 10', 9Wt rod for pike & Musky adventures. The rod blank is a Sage XP. Should be a good one.
One of these days I may try a bamboo build. They sure look neat.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 8, 2012 22:51:15 GMT -6
Flyboy, great looking wrapper, with a 10 footer, you should really get a pull from a pike with that. Sage makes excellent rods, nice attention to detail. happy building Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 8, 2012 23:15:10 GMT -6
The next step is purely ascetic. With the nodes filed down I will flame the cum to give it a dark brown color, trying for that rich brown with a hint of red that might come out and might not. Some like the blond rods and some go for the darker rods. I am not on either side but decided to go for a dark look. Another way to darken the bamboo is to expose it to some fumes of some chemical that I can not remember right now. I will go for the straight forward approach. i used my knife forging propane torch, no shortage of BTU's here. Which is what is wanted. A real hot flame to darken the surface but not to harm/cook the fibers below the surface. The flame will also darken the enamel of the culm but that will be scraped/sanded off later so the real color of the rod will be something lighter than the initial color. I placed the culm between two steel chairs so i could go over the ends of the culm without "flaming" anything else and giving the culm a overall even color. It is a little hard to hold the burrner and the camera but this gives the idea. Here is the finished product, sort of I went back and darkened a few spots to even things out. And then did the same thing to the tip culm. If the culm did not have the split down the whole thing it might split in a few spots and leave less usable bamboo. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 6:10:13 GMT -6
That's neat! I never even would have thought of something like that. So the heat doesn't do anything to the integrity of the bamboo, provided you just brazen it!?
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 9, 2012 13:21:53 GMT -6
One camp will tell you it will damage the fibers, the other camp will say not. Many darkened rods have been made by top notch makers and used for many years. The higher the heat the quicker the outside is toasted before the inner parts heat up. Kinda like making a really rare stake, seared on the outside and just warmed on the inside. later on the strips are tempered in a controlled temp, which is different from this. My take on it that if you darken the Bamboo you have cooked the sugars in the Bamboo but I have not come across any evidence that the actual fibers have been damaged, the fibers are really what determined the properties of the rod so the effect should be minimal if not nill. So yes their is some darkening below the enamel or the rod would come out blond once the enamel is removed. Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 9, 2012 23:20:37 GMT -6
The toasted culm is ready to be split into strips, again more than one way to do this, splitting the strips to follow the grain is said to be the best, i am thinking it is the way that wastes the least amount of bamboo so that is good enough for me. It is tricky and takes a little practice but once you got it down it is good fun to do. Here I have a about 1/3rd of the toasted culm to make up the six butt section strips. That section is split into six equal strips just wide enough to be a bit bigger than the widest part of the final taper, that would be the part that ends up under the reel seat. Here you can see the strips and a little left over and some of the original culm. Plenty more for a few more rods. .
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 9, 2012 23:51:06 GMT -6
I could not split the culm and take photos so I have some more of how it is done form a previous rod when my Boo Gnome was helping me. Here is the culm split in half, you can see the nodal dams, the bamboo inside the nodes. This is whacked out with a hammer to gt as much out as possible. What the hammer does not remove is cut out with a sharp chisel to make the inside as even as practical. You can see the culm had a leaf scar which makes the culm a little lower quality as the strip from this part is not usable, well unless a small rod is made, or chopsticks, tomato stakes..... I had forged a knife that had been laying around for a while that was perfect for splitting bamboo, so now it is called a bamboo fro, promoted form shop knife gathering dust. The froe is given a tap with a hammer to get it started and then twisted a bit to get the split started. Then the strip is split by hand, following the split up the culm making sure it goes straight. Simple to say a bit tricky the first few goes at it. If the split goes off center pulling on the fat side will move the split back to the center. so the strips are successively split in half on down until they are the right number and width. 2 4 and 6 Sometimes it is worth making a seventh so if one strip is botched it can stand in saving the time of going back and doing one strip. The strips in these photos are much smaller and were for a tip section. They all came out straight and all the same width and from the same culm all good things. Here are two photos, as a side bar of knife forging. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Dale Martens on Jan 10, 2012 0:49:31 GMT -6
Cool stuff! Thanks for giving me a glimpse into the world of bamboo rod-making...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2012 22:59:11 GMT -6
Cooooool......this is awesome Ron! Lovin' it!
So each strip is 1/6 of what makes the rod blank? Hex blank?
Does the more strips added to the rod affect the rod strength/dexterity?
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 14, 2012 23:28:47 GMT -6
Hex is the most common around here, some make 5 strips penta, 4 strips quad, and 2 strips PMQ. I only have a form to make a Hex so yes six strips to the rod. PMQ is called poor mans quad, you do not need forms for a PMQ you just plane up 2 strips and glue them together a quick and easy beginners way to make a bamboo rod. Here is a PMQ I made a while back. www.rodbuildingforum.com/index.php?s=1c1e4819b2a3419e1feca35a0597317e&showforum=2 Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 14, 2012 23:50:22 GMT -6
So the nodes that were hammered out of the inside of the culm are rather big and have to be removed. The inside of the strip has to be flat so the out side can be pressed flat later on. Here you can see the nodes on the inside of the strips. Each of all the nodes one all of the 12 strips, 6 butt strips and 6 tip strips, have to be planed flat, Here you can see the flat strip next to a un planed strip. The inside of the culm is pith and removing the pith is not removing any fibers. In fact including pith into the rod will make it flimsy and weak. For me flaming the inside of the culm makes the pith all burnt and a real mess to plane out it makes everything black and clogs up the mouth of the plane. The plane used is a Stanley #3with a cracked tote (handle) rod making requires at least one plane. this one is smaller than the typical ones and works well with bamboo. more on planes later when the planing part starts, but really any sort of plane will make a rod. Just like cars some are more fun to ride in, but they all get you their. This plane is got to be 1930's or 40's and bought for about $25 which is a great deal for such a nice tool. It has little collectors value so it makes a great affordable user. So once the back of the strip at the node region is flat then the front of the node can be also flattened. Cheers Ron
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 18, 2012 0:01:27 GMT -6
With the backs of the strips now flat it is time to flatten the fronts, easier said than done, read not my favorite part. The bamboo is heated at the node with a heat gun until the bamboo softens and bends like plastic. How much is that, well enough to bend the bamboo but not enough to burn and damage the bamboo. Over heating may be the cause of the nodes being a weak link in the rod. I think if the nodes are not over heated they will retain their strength, but that is just my opinion. Some makers will plane the nodes flat this is the quickest way to get flat strips. For this rod I will do it with the heat gun. The heating method although time consuming is though to make a better rod, but it id hotly debated. If people are paying big bucks for a modern made rod pressed nodes is something that is looked for. So a trained eye can spot a planed node from a pressed node in a rod. So the strip is heated for about 30-50 seconds depending on the thickness of the strip with a paint stripper heat gun and fishtail top. I like to heat the strips on the 3 non enamel sides as these three sides will get planed. That way if I over do it hopefully the cooked cane will be planed away and no harm done Once heated and flexible the node of the strip is clamped in a vise with just enough pressure to straighten the node on the enamel side The sticks keep the jaws of the vise from squishing the jaw pattern into the strip. So just enough pressure will straighten the strip, not enough and it is not completely flat to much and the fibers are squished out of shape and the strip now has a dip in it. So starting at very end of the strip is a good idea and if it goes wrong it is most likely that node will be cut of or under the cork or reel seat. After a few, and their are a few nodes in 12 six foot strips the right rhythm comes. Heat a node press a node, leave it in the vise cooling while the nest strip node is being heated. A few good tunes also helps this along. Cautioning on the safe side their will be a few nodes that will need re doing as they are not totally flat. So how flat is flat. As flat as can be made is the answer. If the nodes are not flat then the strip at the node will be up in the planing forum a few thousandths making the strip thinner at this time making the node a weaker spot. As well it will no glue as well adding to the weakness. A few thousandths sounds a little picky but that seems to be the nature of rod making. At the planing stage a few thousandths becomes relevant. So time spent flattening nodes results in less grief later on. Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 19, 2012 0:01:41 GMT -6
Here is a photo of the end of the culm so the pattern of the all so important fibers can be seen. It is clear that the highest density of fibers are just under the enamel and decrease towards the pith. The culm selected should be big enough to get the most fibers into the strips used in the rod. This will show more when I get some of the strips planed. Looking at the culm from this angle it is also clear that the roasting of the outside of the culm did not cook the fibers below the surface Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2012 0:31:32 GMT -6
Wow that's cool! I didn't realize the amount of prep involved! It still amazes me that bamboo is strong enough of a material to make a rod, fly rod especially! Definitely a true art there Ron, keep it up! Nick
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 19, 2012 23:01:15 GMT -6
Thanks Nick for the kind words. The strips are almost ready to plane just one more step. Well the straightening never really end it is a ongoing thing. Also besides the nodes the strip as a whole needs to be heated and straightened to remove what is called the sweeps, the gentle bends in the strips so they will be straight in the planing form as well so the rod its self will be straight. At this point I scrape off the enamel with a furniture makers scraper. Not many use a scraper but I have used it so much making furniture it works well for me, most use sandpaper. Makers will leave the enamel on while planing but I will take it off now. This makes the strip sit flat in the forum and I will not have to account for it in my measurements since it will be gone. Also this scraping will tell me if the nodes are flat and if I have to go over some again. So here is what the scraping looks like. Scraped strips, scraped nodes and the set of six strips, six more to do for the tip section. Even though the nodes look lighter right now before the strips are in the rod they will blend in. The strips are still in a rather rough state still despite all the messing with them. You might have noticed the strips are not really scraped all that much. The strip has a radius since it came from a round. I did not want to remove too much just the enamel and not much of dense power fibers below. Most of the round on the sides of the strip will be planed away and I will be left with a flat strip, or so is the plan. Strips are never really flat, just wishful thinking. Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 19, 2012 23:24:23 GMT -6
Something I remembered this thread never mentioned the taper of the rod. This has to be decided so the culm can be selected to fit the taper. I had decided to make a Leonard 50df 8' 2 piece 5 wt. I got this taper from here: www.hexrod.net/Tapers/drtapers/index.htmlYou can see their are a few in the list, added to this I picked one and it was tweaked by a friend of mine, something beyond me. With the DNA program tapers can be changed to suit the makers tastes. The main change made was it has a more rapid swelling just before the cork. www.hexrod.net/ The beauty of making a Bamboo rod it their are a mind boggling number of tapers and variations of the taper, the possibilities are endless. Just chasing after the famous tapers would take me a lifetime. Course their are those ultimate tapers for which the numbers have been lost and endless searching has not located them yet, but maybe someday. For me this rod has a very skinny tip 0.050 inches, 50 thousandths of a inch which one strip has to be half of this, 25 thousandths. The rapid swelling of the strips near the cork also will be a challenge for me, but hey their is more Bamboo on the rack and botched strips will make some nice cappuccino chop sticks. Cheers Ron.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 19, 2012 23:36:49 GMT -6
So the strips are ready to be planed, here is one on the forum ready to go, well you can see it still has a bit of a curve in it but you get the idea. Some makers have a pre planing forum but I go with the real deal right out of the box. The forum is set to a wide opening so the strip can be started to take on a triangular shape. Setting the forum to make the taper will come later. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2012 20:58:53 GMT -6
Very cool thread.
I will enjoy living vicariously through this.
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 24, 2012 22:46:52 GMT -6
Something I forgot to show was numbering the strips. For me some numbers on the pith side, as well ans stripes so when the strip gets to thin to see the number I can count the marks, no real reason number on is in green just did it first and figured the red would show better. The strips are placed in the form and rough planed to get the edge of the strip to take on a 60* (degrees) angle. With a 60* angle the six strips will fit together. It is important to get as exact a angle as possible so the glue line is minimal and glue surface to surface is maximal. The better the strips fit together the better a rod it makes, we are getting to the attention to detail part here. Since the planing part is one of the more fun parts for me I figured I might as well treat myself. I have my # 3 Stanley on stand by of course, but for the majority of planing I built myself a pair of planes specifically for planing Bamboo. They are both about the length of most block planes and made of maple. I made the irons (blades) from 01 steel. The irons are rather narrow since the bamboo is a narrow strip. This way less sharpening time and if the plane tilts accidentally it will not gouge a chunk out of the forms. The irons are thick to give stability to the edge. Cheers Ron
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 24, 2012 23:03:21 GMT -6
So now it is a Zen sort of thing tune out the background static, throw on some good tunes and put the metal to the Boo, 12 strips 2 sides each. You do the math, well it is not all that hard really but it sounded good. The first stage is to get the rough edged strip to smooth out and take on the 60*. This does take some concentration with the plane. With the strip enamel side down to ones side the strip does not easily sit right in the grove of the form, which also is a 60* sided V. So the strip is planed a few swipes and then flipped to the other side for a few swipes and then back over again and so it goes. So with careful attention to constantly correcting with the plane the strips eventually become a enamel side with two other 60* sides. You can also see the heat gun in their so as I go along the strips can be massaged with some heat to lay as flat as possible into the forum. Cheers Ron
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2012 0:05:31 GMT -6
That looks amazing! I've built my own rod before, but not a bamboo...I can see I have alot to learn!
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Post by kilgortrout on Jan 29, 2012 21:51:22 GMT -6
The strips are rough planed to a 60* triangle. I did a photo of the strip in the form, I had to hold it down with my fingers so it lifted up some from the form but you will get the idea. The strip is taking on a good triangle shape, with good power fibers through out the strip.The strip will get smaller so the bit of pith (lighter color) will be planed off later. You can see the enamel side is the side to the right on the forum, or the side with the darker color and the highest density of fibers. I have this screw size checking gauge that has a 60* V in it so I can check the whole length of the strip to see it is 60*. It is surprisingly easy to tilt the plain a degree one way or the other and then the strip will be off, which is increasingly difficult to fix as the strip gets smaller., read the strip is tomato stake material. Cheers Ron.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2012 3:05:57 GMT -6
Cool thread, Ron!
Awesome to be able to see the details of the making! Looking forward to more.
Ken
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2012 12:04:52 GMT -6
Crazy to see how much work is involved and the precision it takes to make it right. True talent Ron! Keep it up!
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