Bamboo Rod Build

[DFoster 0]

Ok Winter officially starts tomorrow and here's a good winter project that I have been saving since spring.  

In the past I have restored too fishing condition two very badly beaten-up old bamboo fly rods.  The first one was a 1955 3 piece 9’  heavy weight South Bend rod that was given to me by my father-in-law.  It came out nice but It’s way too heavy for the small stream fishing I mostly do.  Next was a 1960’s ish  no name 7’ 6” 5/6 weight I found for $20 in a Maine antique shop.  It was in real bad condition with a nasty set and missing most of it's  parts.  In the end it came out straight, cast well and I do use it on occasion to fish with.  I stripped both rods completely to bare bamboo and replaced every thing with new components.  Both rods were more or less intended to be a learning experiences, for this-

I ordered a 7’ 6” 3 weight, two piece blank from Brain at the Olde English Fly Shop in Key West Florida.  I met Brian at the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show a few years back and he supplied most of the components for the other two projects. I found his stuff to be good quality and reasonably priced.  We're talking Bamboo here and it's real easy to spend enough money that  this project would land on my wife's radar, which is a bad thing.   Since I'm still fairly new at this I figured "reasonably priced" is probably a safe place to start.  My other 2 bamboo projects were junk to begin with so if I messed them up in a catastrophic way, no real harm would be done which takes the pressure off.  This time were talking new and pretty -"it would be a damn shame to ruin" stuff.  That's part of the reason I opted to pay the extra $75 to have the nickel – silver ferules installed before shipping.  The blank arrived and is beautifully flamed with 2 coats of spar varnish, not Bill Oyster perfect but pretty good and I'm satisfied.   The blank was $299 and included 2 tips.  The other components came in at about $130, so $430 all in.  This includes a high-grade cork grip, nickel- silver reel seat with burl maple insert, winding check, hook holder, 2 tip tops, silk guide wrapping thread, color preserver, all the necessary guides and a rod sock.  I already have a quart of quality spar varnish from my previous rods.

I will post start to finish photos as I go.  

So here's what It looked like after unboxing-

 

Here's the reel seat mounted in place with epoxy, followed by the grip and winding check.  I hoping to have the silk windings in front of the winding check and hook holder done before Christmas.  I will add photos as it goes.

If anyone else is working on a custom rod, doesn't have to be bamboo, over the winter I'd love to see photos.

[skeet3t 0]

Looks like a worthwhile project. A 'boo builder helped me get started and more along the way. I told him I would take him fishing if he ever was in Tennessee. He lived in Alaska!

[DFoster 0]

12 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Looks like a worthwhile project. A 'boo builder helped me get started and more along the way. I told him I would take him fishing if he ever was in Tennessee. He lived in Alaska!

Skeet If he ever gets your way you got to post about that day on the water, I would image it would be a great story. 

I've only learned what I do know about bamboo rod making from youtube.  I don't consider myself to be a "rod maker" but I'm familiar in a conceptual way with how a blank is created.  Even though I don't have the training or equipment to build a blank from a culm I do enjoy the finishing process.  I'm told you either love or hate the way bamboo cast.  I'm in the love category so this is a relatively inexpensive and less worrisome way to fish bamboo.  For me It would be difficult to enjoy the river- wade fishing I love using a $4,000 custom made rod- knowing that at any moment I could be one slip away from breaking it. The down side of not being the blank builder is that you have to trust that the tapers are correct.  Supposedly this rod is tapered to match a Thomas Payne.  It would really suck to put in all the time and effort to complete a rod only to have it cast like a piece of cooked linguini.   As I use 3 weights for 95% of my fishing my intention is to have this rod become my main "go to".  Fingers crossed!

[chugbug27 0]

4 hours ago, DFoster said:

The down side of not being the blank builder is that you have to trust that the tapers are correct.  Supposedly this rod is tapered to match a Thomas Payne.  It would really suck to put in all the time and effort to complete a rod only to have it cast like a piece of cooked linguini. 

Great that you're doing this df. To avoid the "payne" you fear (truly sorry, very low hanging fruit there), you could test your blank as follows:

1. Get the taper numbers for the Payne you are hoping to have purchased. If you know the one you've asked for it's easy to find the taper online. You can probably find it here:

http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/tapers/jpayne/payne.html

Measure your blank in hundredths of an inch flat to flat at 5" increments starting at whichever end the recipe starts with, and compare the numbers on the taper chart to your blank. Here's a cheap digital caliper on Amazon that would do the trick for $11: 

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Caliper-Adoric-Calipers-Measuring/dp/B07DFFYCXS/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=T5LHZO9AWVPZ&keywords=caliper&qid=1640098617&sprefix=caliper%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-5

It doesn't need to be a perfect replica, but it should resemble the original taper if that's what you were promised.

2. To check the quality of the cane, just tape your guides and reel on it and cast it. Here's a "tips" bulletin board discussing guide placement:

https://bamboorodmaking.com/Tips-files/Guide_Placement.html

Very excited for you df! 

[skeet3t 0]

When I started to build rods, I looked into the things requred for bamboo rods. At the time, it was a minimum investment of about $4-5K. Scratched that!

[partsman 0]

Very nice DFoster, It looks like your getting off to a good start with this build. I’ve built a few fiberglass fly rods and really enjoyed the process. Keep us posted with your progress.

Mike.

[Mark Knapp 0]

Have fun with it buddy.

[SalarMan 0]

Love it Dean...and I will follow this from beginning to end. Should be fun for both me and you.👍👍

Like you I have truly enjoyed fishing bamboo over the years. I've had the pleasure of owning and using rods from some of the great rod builders, but when they became too valuable I decided to turn them into cash...the kind that just ends up being pissed away on other fun stuff.

The only fishing that I made the total commitment to graphite was Atlantic Salmon and salt water. Much more efficient tools of the trade in those cases...but trout fishing just feels better with a cane rod in hand.

[DFoster 0]

4 hours ago, chugbug27 said:

Great that you're doing this df. To avoid the "payne" you fear (truly sorry, very low hanging fruit there), you could test your blank as follows:

1. Get the taper numbers for the Payne you are hoping to have purchased. If you know the one you've asked for it's easy to find the taper online. You can probably find it here:

http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/tapers/jpayne/payne.html

Measure your blank in hundredths of an inch flat to flat at 5" increments starting at whichever end the recipe starts with, and compare the numbers on the taper chart to your blank. Here's a cheap digital caliper on Amazon that would do the trick for $11: 

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Caliper-Adoric-Calipers-Measuring/dp/B07DFFYCXS/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=T5LHZO9AWVPZ&keywords=caliper&qid=1640098617&sprefix=caliper%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-5

It doesn't need to be a perfect replica, but it should resemble the original taper if that's what you were promised.

2. To check the quality of the cane, just tape your guides and reel on it and cast it. Here's a "tips" bulletin board discussing guide placement:

https://bamboorodmaking.com/Tips-files/Guide_Placement.html

Very excited for you df! 

Thank you for that info Chug I will put it to use.  I reasonable sure the rod will be Ok because I've delt with Brian on my other build and the information he's provided has been correct.  Still it never hurts to check!

[DFoster 0]

3 hours ago, skeet3t said:

When I started to build rods, I looked into the things requred for bamboo rods. At the time, it was a minimum investment of about $4-5K. Scratched that!

 

1 hour ago, SalarMan said:

Love it Dean...and I will follow this from beginning to end. Should be fun for both me and you.👍👍

Like you I have truly enjoyed fishing bamboo over the years. I've had the pleasure of owning and using rods from some of the great rod builders, but when they became too valuable I decided to turn them into cash...the kind that just ends up being pissed away on other fun stuff.

The only fishing that I made the total commitment to graphite was Atlantic Salmon and salt water. Much more efficient tools of the trade in those cases...but trout fishing just feels better with a cane rod in hand.

 

3 hours ago, partsman said:

Very nice DFoster, It looks like your getting off to a good start with this build. I’ve built a few fiberglass fly rods and really enjoyed the process. Keep us posted with your progress.

Mike.

 

2 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

Have fun with it buddy.

Thank you all for the well wishes with this project.  I have the week after Christmas off to work on it and by off I mean not only from my day job but my beautiful bride will be away skiing!!!    Just myself and our pup Oliver.  Seriously this is a big 'Dean and Oliver Time" deal, my wife and I are rarely apart.

Here's the plan-

1) Leave the toilet seat up all week except when it's necessary to put it down.

2) Man food for Oliver and I all week, Porterhouse steak, Beef Jerky, Brats, Buffalo Wings and any meat that can be cooked on a grate over apple wood.  Vegetable side dishes will be optional only.  All dinners to be followed by a mandatory premium cigar.

3) Straight bourbon over ice without the "are you sure you want to have another one of those" looks only a wife or cardiologist can give.

4) Tying flies from sun up until dark or when I'm not working on the rod- only stopping when I want to as opposed to when the grand children need someone to entertain them.

5) I recently learned of 2 streams near my home that are supposed to hold native Brook Trout. Both of them are on State land and have hiking trails that parallel the stream.  Time to take Oliver exploring.

I'll keep you guys posted of the rod progress if I survive being unsupervised for the week!

 

[SalarMan 0]

Sounds like a great week to me!!!🥃🍽️🍷🍺

[feathers5 0]

Looks good so far. I've never built a bamboo just graphite fly rods and a few spinning rods. Thanks for keeping us posted. It's interesting.

[Mark Knapp 0]

That sounds like a great time.

[Poopdeck 0]

What a fantastic winter project. I can’t wait to see the progress. 

[skeet3t 0]

In a way, bamboo rods are easy to line up and wrap the guides. Just make sure the guides are centered on the flat.