Building rods isn’t reserved for old retired guys. While most builders tend to be older, there’s no reason to not build if you’re interested. I started when I was 22.
I don’t remember the first bamboo rod I saw, but I do remember the first one I ever cast. It’s a little 6′ 4wt J.S. Sharpe’s Featherweight Scottie, built in 1981 over in Scotland. It’s a surprisingly crisp, lively piece of cane, and I’ve landed brown trout up to 20 inches on it.
I’ve always had a penchant for woodworking, and it wasn’t long after I cast that first bamboo rod that I decided to make my own. Of course, as with any project, it’s never that simple. But the process is fairly straightforward, and it takes more patience than anything else.
Before diving into the nuts and bolts of how to build bamboo fly rods, I want to mention that I largely follow the process set forth in A Master’s Guide to Building a Bamboo Fly Rod by Everett E. Garrison and Hoagy B. Carmichael.
This book is often referred to as “the Bible” in rod making circles, and it’s been the single-most useful learning tool as I’ve set about building my own rods.
The initial investment is a little steep, but I’ve found that folks are plenty generous with discounts, payment plans, and the like, to help a young newcomer get started.
And with that, let’s dive right into what it takes to build one of these rods.
Interested in buying a Bamboo Fly Rod? Check out these retailers: Trident Fly Fishing or Wyoming Fly Fishing. But, be warned, they aren’t cheap!
Selecting and Splitting Cane
Almost all bamboo rods are built from Tonkin cane, a species of bamboo that only grows in a small area in China. This bamboo is the best for rod building because it tends to have the biggest distance between nodes (the rings around a bamboo stalk) and the highest density of power fibers.
To quote directly from Garrison and Carmichael, “The density of the (power) fibers along the outer rim of the stalk results in great strength per unit of area, which gives the rodmaker a material combining almost unbelievable tensile strength with elasticity in a way which cannot be duplicated in any other natural fibre (sic)” (3).
To put that in layman’s terms, Tonkin cane is what you want because it has incredible strength and flexibility – something any good fly rod needs.
So, you want to get your hands on some Tonkin bamboo. You can buy it from a few different brokers in America, and across the world.
Once you have the bamboo in hand, then it’s time to split it into quarter-inch strips. This is best done by first splitting the bamboo in half. I mark the halfway point and use a chisel and hammer to start the split. Then, I use my hands to pull the rest of the stalk apart.
From there, you split the two pieces into thirds, then split those thirds in half, and half again. The end result should be 18-24 quarter-inch strips of bamboo. This video below will help illustrate that process.
Node Straightening
This is my least favorite part of the rod-making process. Bamboo is a finicky material, and so much bamboo rod making is an exercise in patience with this natural material.
Nodes are the areas in bamboo where the fibers don’t grow straight and form discs inside the bamboo itself. This helps ensure the integrity of the plant, but it gets in the way of rod making.
Before starting on this step, sand off whatever is left of the nodal dams on the pith side of the bamboo strip. I usually use a belt sander for this step. Then, I take a mill bastard file and file the node on the enamel side completely flush with the rest of the bamboo.
Nodes have to be pressed flat, usually in a machinist’s vice. I use a combination of heat and compression to get the nodes as straight as possible. If you want your rod to be straight when it’s done, you can’t skimp on this step.
Apply heat to the node, and bend the bamboo in the opposite direction of the kink. Then, press it in a vice for a few seconds to ensure the cane holds the new shape. You have to take great care here to not burn the bamboo, or to heat it up too much.
Doing so will result in damage to the power fibers, which compromises the integrity of the final rod.
Rough Planing
Once you have the nodes straightened, you’re well on your way to getting to the heart of rod-making – planing. But first, you need to put an initial 60-degree bevel into each strip that will make up your final rod.
As a review – bamboo rods are generally made from six strips of cane, planed into triangles, and glued together. A few builders out there make quadrate rods, and I’ve even seen a three-sided one before. But the vast majority are six-sided.
To make sure you have the proper fit, you want to plane the bamboo so that each of the six strips you’ll use for each rod section has a 60-degree bevel. You should never plane the enamel side of the cane. instead, you plane the two sides of each strip.
I use a rough planing form I built myself, and they’re fairly simple. A 60-degree router bit and a piece of hardwood is all you really need to make a good roughing form. Don’t worry about making the strips look pretty on this step. You’re focusing on just getting the strips planed to 60 degrees.
Heat Treating
If you choose not to flame the bamboo, you’ll need to heat treat your rod. Most of my rods are flamed, which I do to the entire culm before splitting. But if you want a blond rod, you’ll need to find some way to apply significant heat to the rod sections. I built my own oven, and they’re fairly simple. It’s powered with a heat gun – the same heat gun I use to straighten nodes.
The purpose of this step is to make sure that each strip has as little moisture as possible in it before moving on to final planing. This reduces the likelihood of the rod developing a “set” down the road.
While it’s common to see some rods with a fishing set (where a tip section is permanently bent from so much fishing) you don’t want a set in your rod before it even gets finished.