i know there are a few here who throw bugs at trouts. So this is for those who might be interested along those lines. Started fly fishing in '71 when we lived in Hiouchi, Calif alongside the Smith River throwing flies and streamers at trout and steelhead (Living 18 miles from the OR border it still cracks me up to hear SF residents talking about living in NorCal). After a 28 year hiatus while serving in the military i'd resumed fly fishing and have been casting lustful eyes upon old school bamboo rods. Things finally lined up and i was able to attend a bamboo fly rod building class with Bill Oyster (former pro cyclist, and BMW moto rider) in Blue Ridge, GA. What follows is a very truncated photo essay of the 6 day process--on SAT evening you walk out with a custom bamboo rod built to the exact spec's you want, ready to fish.
Started on MON with two culms of tonkin bamboo
I flamed my two culmns as i was looking for a finished rod that would be a dark honey color.
After much splitting of bamboo each rod builder ends up with 12 selected sections (you keep backup sections at the end of your work bench in case you F something up with one of your 12 selected sections). Six are colored red for the rod tip section and six colored black for the butt section. I do most of my fly fishing off my BMW moto (aka the Bavarian camping tractor) so i wanted to build a travel rod. In this case that equals a four piece rod. As i fish *mostly* small streams in N GA, TN, NC i wanted a small stream rod so my goal was a classic small stream rod. A 7'6" 4wt travel rod. 'Most' bamboo rod makers plane or cut the rod sections to get the initial shape--but that literally cuts/planes out the 'power fibers' on the exterior of the bamboo culm. Under Bill's process we sought to preserve as much of the power fibers as possible so instead of cutting them to initial shape we ended up heating each node section and then crushing it into shape in a vice. Time consuming and yet another "don't fuck this up" step in the overall process.
I'm really truncating the process here but by WED you're setting up your planing form and doing a metric butt load of planing each of the 12 rod sections. You first set the planing form up for the rod but sections--plain them down to shape (+/- .002") and then you reset the plaining form for the rod tip sections and do they same for those six sections. i'm telling you in building a 4 wt rod when you start planing those rod tips sections they get pretty freaking small!
Roughly speaking the next step in the process is to get your butt sections lined up to where the nodes are opposite each other in each 6 section portion of the rod. The tip section and the butt section. Then you glue them up and bind them and let them dry over night.
The next morning when you cut the rod to length you can see the power fibers on the exterior--the dark fibers. These are what gives a bamboo rod its power--the soft white fibers in the middle do nothing for u in terms of casting power.
What ensues is much scraping and sanding of the rod sections. Since i was building a travel rod for moto fly fishing i cut my upper and lower sections into two: so then i had a tip, a mid-tip, a butt and a mid-butt section. once we had our rod sections scrapped sanded and steel wooled clean we afixed hard ware and mounted the cork grip. As my goal was a classic small stream rod i went with a rattan covered grip. So we glued on cork sections to the rod butts and then machined them down smooth on a lathe and then sanded the grip to shape on the lathe as well.
Yes the break room includes a beer tap. Some started in around 0900 but i generally held off on drinking beer until 1400hrs. It was good beer too.
Last couple days were spend on afixing hardware--rod farrells and line guides. i chose to use the 'white' silk thread when binding on my line guides and reinforcing farrells as the thread virtually disappears once u apply epoxy and varnish. The guys that chose to use bright colored thread had a real problem and lots of stress as any gaps in their thread bindings were glaringly obvious--whereas any mistake my dumbass made virtually disappeared once the epoxy and varnish went on. Plus, IMO the look of the white thread that goes translucent under varnish/epoxy is less garish and more classic looking in a fly rod. but to each his own.
and into the varnish. In all we put on three coats of varnish with much sanding and steel wooling between each varnish application
the only embellishment i put on my rod (other than the rattan grip) was a thin red marker line at 12" from the butt.
SAT night our rods were drying from the final (third) coat of varnish and we had a big spagetti meatball dinner and at the end of the meal Bill (and his able body assistant Riley) brought in our rod's fresh from drying the final coat of varnish. Mr Tom, a oral surgeon with houses in MT and WY, even brought in a special libation to celebrate the presentation of the rods.
So here's my little 4wt small stream travel rod--ready for my next moto fly fishing adventure. i am headed back to the Stan in a couple of weeks (man's gotta make a living) so it will be this Fall before i get a chance to fish it but i am really looking forward to that trip up to the N GA mountains and catching wild trout on a fly rod that i built with flies that i tied.
if any of y'all care to attend one of Bill Oyster's bamboo rod building classes ya got to sign up a good deal out--classes are already booked solid into mid '18
http://oysterbamboo.com/...ly-rods-classes.html
i've got a few rotations back to Afghan to knock out but i will eventually go back to build a bigger rod for bigger fish on Western waters--probably a 4 piece moto rod in 7wt @ 8' According to Bill Oyster in terms of power, these bamboo rods fish a little above the modern carbon fiber rods. So my 7'6" 4wt bamboo rod will fish about like a equal length 3wt carbon fiber rod.
Overall it was a stressful and absolutely wonderful six days and i've come away with a beautiful (to me) bamboo rod that i can pass down to my grand children when i've moved on over the the other shore.
To those who've born with my musings thus far i hope it's been informational and inspirationsal
Tight Lines Amigos'
Steve
Started on MON with two culms of tonkin bamboo
I flamed my two culmns as i was looking for a finished rod that would be a dark honey color.
After much splitting of bamboo each rod builder ends up with 12 selected sections (you keep backup sections at the end of your work bench in case you F something up with one of your 12 selected sections). Six are colored red for the rod tip section and six colored black for the butt section. I do most of my fly fishing off my BMW moto (aka the Bavarian camping tractor) so i wanted to build a travel rod. In this case that equals a four piece rod. As i fish *mostly* small streams in N GA, TN, NC i wanted a small stream rod so my goal was a classic small stream rod. A 7'6" 4wt travel rod. 'Most' bamboo rod makers plane or cut the rod sections to get the initial shape--but that literally cuts/planes out the 'power fibers' on the exterior of the bamboo culm. Under Bill's process we sought to preserve as much of the power fibers as possible so instead of cutting them to initial shape we ended up heating each node section and then crushing it into shape in a vice. Time consuming and yet another "don't fuck this up" step in the overall process.
I'm really truncating the process here but by WED you're setting up your planing form and doing a metric butt load of planing each of the 12 rod sections. You first set the planing form up for the rod but sections--plain them down to shape (+/- .002") and then you reset the plaining form for the rod tip sections and do they same for those six sections. i'm telling you in building a 4 wt rod when you start planing those rod tips sections they get pretty freaking small!
Roughly speaking the next step in the process is to get your butt sections lined up to where the nodes are opposite each other in each 6 section portion of the rod. The tip section and the butt section. Then you glue them up and bind them and let them dry over night.
The next morning when you cut the rod to length you can see the power fibers on the exterior--the dark fibers. These are what gives a bamboo rod its power--the soft white fibers in the middle do nothing for u in terms of casting power.
What ensues is much scraping and sanding of the rod sections. Since i was building a travel rod for moto fly fishing i cut my upper and lower sections into two: so then i had a tip, a mid-tip, a butt and a mid-butt section. once we had our rod sections scrapped sanded and steel wooled clean we afixed hard ware and mounted the cork grip. As my goal was a classic small stream rod i went with a rattan covered grip. So we glued on cork sections to the rod butts and then machined them down smooth on a lathe and then sanded the grip to shape on the lathe as well.
Yes the break room includes a beer tap. Some started in around 0900 but i generally held off on drinking beer until 1400hrs. It was good beer too.
Last couple days were spend on afixing hardware--rod farrells and line guides. i chose to use the 'white' silk thread when binding on my line guides and reinforcing farrells as the thread virtually disappears once u apply epoxy and varnish. The guys that chose to use bright colored thread had a real problem and lots of stress as any gaps in their thread bindings were glaringly obvious--whereas any mistake my dumbass made virtually disappeared once the epoxy and varnish went on. Plus, IMO the look of the white thread that goes translucent under varnish/epoxy is less garish and more classic looking in a fly rod. but to each his own.
and into the varnish. In all we put on three coats of varnish with much sanding and steel wooling between each varnish application
the only embellishment i put on my rod (other than the rattan grip) was a thin red marker line at 12" from the butt.
SAT night our rods were drying from the final (third) coat of varnish and we had a big spagetti meatball dinner and at the end of the meal Bill (and his able body assistant Riley) brought in our rod's fresh from drying the final coat of varnish. Mr Tom, a oral surgeon with houses in MT and WY, even brought in a special libation to celebrate the presentation of the rods.
So here's my little 4wt small stream travel rod--ready for my next moto fly fishing adventure. i am headed back to the Stan in a couple of weeks (man's gotta make a living) so it will be this Fall before i get a chance to fish it but i am really looking forward to that trip up to the N GA mountains and catching wild trout on a fly rod that i built with flies that i tied.
if any of y'all care to attend one of Bill Oyster's bamboo rod building classes ya got to sign up a good deal out--classes are already booked solid into mid '18
http://oysterbamboo.com/...ly-rods-classes.html
i've got a few rotations back to Afghan to knock out but i will eventually go back to build a bigger rod for bigger fish on Western waters--probably a 4 piece moto rod in 7wt @ 8' According to Bill Oyster in terms of power, these bamboo rods fish a little above the modern carbon fiber rods. So my 7'6" 4wt bamboo rod will fish about like a equal length 3wt carbon fiber rod.
Overall it was a stressful and absolutely wonderful six days and i've come away with a beautiful (to me) bamboo rod that i can pass down to my grand children when i've moved on over the the other shore.
To those who've born with my musings thus far i hope it's been informational and inspirationsal
Tight Lines Amigos'
Steve
Last edited by:
Steve Hawley: Jun 13, 17 18:38
