A split cane fly rod or bamboo fly fishing rod is formed by splitting, planing and straightening a series of bamboo or cane strips before gluing them together to form a fly rod blank. This fly rod blank may be composed of any number of tapered strips, most commonly a six-strip or hexagonal design.
The first strike
Before we can begin the process of hand splitting the culm into tapered strips or splines that form the fly rod blank, we must split the bamboo into individual strips of between ¼ and ½ of an inch wide. This is done by using a tool called a froe. This is a bevelled metal tool which is hammered into the cane to split the longitudinal power fibres. A standard two piece rod with a matching extra tip will require 18 strips of bamboo.With the matching tips made from the same culm of bamboo.
Unfortunately, these freshly split strips will often exhibit kinks, or warps, forming bends in between each node. In order to proceed each node and strip must be straightened by hand. This is done by heating the bamboo gently to make it more pliant, once done it can be bent into the desired position. If the strip is held in this position until it cools it will remain straight. Once satisfied that the strips are straight, they are laid out and cut to the approximate length required for the rod section we are going to build. Great care is taken in ensuring that the strips are of sufficient length to accommodate the chosen node stagger. The bamboo nodes are the horizontal rings running around the bamboo culm, these are considered to be the weakest areas of the longitudinal power fibres, in order to ensure that there is no weak spot in the rod the nodes are staggered so that when the rod section is complete no two nodes will be next to each other on adjacent strips. The most common staggers are either a 2:2:2 or 3:3 pattern.
Preparing the strips into equilateral triangles
Once we have split, straightened and cut the bamboo and decided on our node spacing it is now time to plane the strips into equilateral triangles. When bound and glued together these six strips will form the hexagonal rod section.
We achieve this uniform configuration by carefully hand planing each strip using a wooden jig which has been set to a 60 degree angle. The resulting uniform strips are non-tapering triangles of uniform length. Once completed the strips are assembled into a hexagonal blank before being tightly bound with string and heat treated in an oven, this serves to dry and temper the cane. When the cane cools and the string is removed each individual strip is then ready to be tapered.
Tapering the strips to form the splines
The diameter of the rod blank and how much bamboo is present at any given point along the length of the rod, match it to a given line weight and give it its overall action. This is known as the rod taper. As a natural material bamboo has remained unchanged, Rodmakers such as Garrison, Payne and Leonard dedicated their lives to perfecting tapers to build the best casting rods possible, the perfect balance of form and function, and which have come to be the embodiment of traditional fly fishing. When undertaking a commission we will offer consultation on the choice of taper. This will depend on the chosen action of the fly rod as well as its length, weight and number of pieces.
We begin the process of forming the splines by laying the bamboo strips on a planing form; this allows for the fine tuning of the bamboo tapers to meet the exact tolerances required to match the required taper. This is a lengthy process and the splines are continuously planed for finer and finer detail. Bamboo rod tapers are measurements, expressed in thousandths of an inch, and which are measured at five-inch intervals along the length of the rod starting at the tip and running to the butt section. Because a six-sided rod consists of six identical triangles, the size of each individual cane strip is one-half of the rods finished diameter.
The planing form consists of two parallel wooden bars with a sixty-degree groove running between the two bars along the length of the tool. This conforms to the equilateral form of the cane strip. One side of the form has a relatively deep groove for forming large strips for butt sections; the other side has a shallow groove for forming tip sections. The hand plane is then used to shave off the excess cane above the surface of the planing form. Once the strip has been planed down to the surface of the form, the size of the strip is a mirror image of the depth that has been set in the form. The tapered strip is now referred to as a spline. This process is then repeated to plane the taper into the five remaining strips.
This method of planing is extremely accurate, rod tips may measure only about .060 inches, and therefore an individual tip strip measures a mere .030 of an inch.
Gluing, Binding and Finishing the blank
Once tapered on the planing form the splines are inspected again for signs of warping and to be sure that the node spacing is in the correct sequence when they are aligned together. We then apply glue to the splines with a small brush (a toothbrush works well) and the section is then rolled into the familiar hexagonal shape of a bamboo rod and bound under pressure using a binder.
The binder serves to rotate the rod section and apply a binding cord in a spiral fashion along the rod shaft. Each rod section is passed through the binder twice, which applies two opposing spiral wraps. This cross wrapping assures good uniform pressure and eliminates any twisting of the blank. The rod maker now inspects and rolls the section for straightness sights down it to assess the blank for straightness and to eliminate any bends and kinks. The section is now referred to as being "in the string".
The section is then left to cure. Once the glue has dried the blank is carefully sanded to remove any excess residue leaving a silky smooth surface.
After the glue has cured the string removed and excess glue is sanded, filed or scraped off of the blank. The sections are again straightened and cut to the appropriate length. This is finally the point at which the work begins to resemble a fishing rod.
Depending on the commission the rod is then either varnished or impregnated to give a resilient and durable finish. Impregnation of the blank using natural resins will add considerable time to the building process but provides an impervious barrier and allows for nicks and scratches to simply be buffed out of the blank. When varnishing a blank we apply 3 coats of spar varnish which give an extremely resilient and glossy finish.
Finishing the split cane fly rod
At this point the ferrules can be mounted. Ferrules serve the important function of joining and holding the rod sections together. Premium ferrules are constructed of Nickel Silver tubing with a male ferrule (mounted on a tip section) that slides into a female ferrule. (Mounted on the butt section). Nickel Silver is the metal of choice as the zinc in this alloy makes it naturally self lubricating less likely to stick. It is imperative that time is spent preparing the ferrules to slide together well and are mounted permanently on the bamboo rod blank.
The most popular type of ferrule is called a “Super-Z” and was designed by Louis Feirabend. This type of ferrule is designed so that the inside diameters of both the male and female ferrules are equal, as opposed to the Step-Down or Leonard style where the inside of the male and female ferrules are different diameters. Both ferrule types are designated by the inside diameter of the tubing which is measured in 1/64ths of an inch.
The Super-Z design is often considered the stronger of the two designs, the reason being that since the inside diameters of a ferrule are the same, therefore less cane is removed from the rod blank when mounting them.
The overall fit of the ferrules is determined by our rodmakers. As standard all male ferrules are supplied to the workshop oversized, meaning that the slide portion must be turned smaller in order to adjust how tightly the sections connect. The serration tabs of each ferrule must also be tapered before they are fitting to the rod. Tapering the serration tabs allows the rod blank to flex freely at the join and gives a smooth transition from the ferrule edge to the rod shaft. Once this is done the ferrules are mounted by turning the cane to the required diameter and applying glue to the inside of the ferrule and the seating area of the blank.
We are now ready to finish the rod blank to the customer’s specifications. Each fly rod is fitted with either one or two premium black nickel and red agate stripping guides with matching snake guides depending on the length and weight of the rod. Each guide is wrapped with gudebrod grade A thread and 3 coats of spar varnish to give a refined and highly durable finish.
The rod is then fitted with a hand turned flor grade cork handle and Turkish walnut and nickel silver reel seat. The reel seat can be engraved with a choice of initials or family crest. Each fly rod is inscribed giving the length, weight, serial number and chosen inscription of the client.
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