ROD-MAKING: SPLITTING OUT, STRAIGHTENING, AND ASSEMBLING THE STRIPS
That genius surely had an inspiration who first conceived the
idea of constructing an angling-rod hexagonally, in longitudinal
sections composed of glued and silken-bound triangular strips of
the strongest, outer part only of the walls of bamboo-cane, thus
achieving straight and practically solid joints, equally elastic and
resistant in all directions, and of a hitherto unheard-of strength
in comparison with their delicate caliber and astonishingly light
weight. Kit Clarke, noted veteran angler and author of _Where the
Wild Trout Hide_, and who died only recently, in his eighty-fifth
year, credits the invention to Sam Phillipi, a gunmaker of Easton,
Pa., about the year 1862.
But while the standard split-bamboo, as now known, is probably of
American origin, the credit for the first rods made of actual rent
cane-strips we have to admit belongs to England.[2] The Phillipi
rod-joints were made in three longitudinal sections. About 1860, E.
A. Green of Newark, N. J., made up for the trade a few rods in four
longitudinal sections, followed in 1863 or 1864 by an acquaintance,
a Mr. Murphy, also of Newark. Thaddeus Norris used one of these
Phillipi, Green, or Murphy rods. The first rods in _six_ bamboo
sections were put on the American market by H. L. Leonard of Bangor,
Me., about 1870, though Mr. Murphy claimed to have made one some time
previously.
William Mitchell says the first split-bamboo he ever saw or heard of
was made by William Blacker, of 54, Dean Street, Soho, London, to
order for Mr. James Stevens, the well-known sportsman of Hoboken, N.
J., and that in 1852 it was given to him for repairs and alterations.
Blacker was the author of _Fly Making and Angling_, London, 1855, and
he says on page 82: “The rent and glued-up bamboo-cane rods, which
I turn out to the greatest perfection [and thus we see where all
the modern makers obtained their literary cue], are very valuable,
as they are very light and powerful, and throw the line with great
facility.”
Thomas Aldred, of London, claimed to be the inventor of the
three-section or strip glued-up bamboo rod, at some date prior to the
Crystal Palace Exhibition, in 1851, at which Ainge and Aldred, J.
Bernard, and J. K. Farlow exhibited the implement. The Aldred firm
showed their rod also at the Exhibition in 1853, at New York. All
these rods were of three longitudinal sections, running the whole
length of the cane, and not in strips glued up with staggered knots.
In 1856 there was printed in London an edition of Walton’s _Compleat
Angler_, with notes on fishing-tackle by the publisher, Henry C.
Bohn. On page 325 he says: “The split or glued-up rod is difficult to
make well, and very expensive. It is made of three pieces of split
cane, which some say should have the bark inside, some outside,
nicely rounded.”
In the first edition of his _Handbook of Angling_, London, 1847,
Edward Fitzgibbon quotes Mr. Little, of 15, Fetter Lane, rod-maker
to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and speaking of the top- and
middle-joints of a salmon rod, as follows: “They are to be made from
the stoutest pieces of bamboo-cane, called ‘jungle,’ and brought from
India. The pieces should be large and straight, so that you can rend
them well through knots and all. Each joint should consist of three
rent pieces, ... and afterward glued together, knot opposite to knot
... but the best part opposite to that which may be imperfect, so as
to equalize defectiveness and goodness. The natural badness of the
cane you counteract by art, and none save a clever workman can do
it.... If the pieces are skilfully glued together, they will require
no redressing, except at the corners, to bring the rod from the
three-square to the round shape. I am prepared to prove that there
are not more than three men in London capable of making, perfectly,
rods of solid cane, rent, glued, and then correctly finished with
the bark lying on the outside.” Mr. Fitzgibbon himself adds: “In my
opinion, rods ... made entirely of rent and glued jungle-cane are the
best. They must be most carefully fashioned, and no maker can turn
them out without charging a high price. I am also of opinion that
they will last longer than any other sort of rod, and are far less
liable to warping. I have a high opinion of their elasticity, and
Mr. Bowness, fishing-tackle maker of No. 12, Bellyard, Temple Bar,
showed me once a trout fly-rod, made in this, my favorite way, _that
had been for many years in use_ and was still straight as a wand. I
never saw a better single-handed rod.” After this discerning comment,
it arouses one’s curiosity to note that in the second edition of
his book, published only a year later (1848), “Ephemera” writes: “I
have changed my opinion with respect to rods made entirely of rent
cane or any other wood rent. Their defects will always more than
counterbalance their merits.”
Allowing therefore a reasonable interpretation to the expression “for
many years,” this would seem to show indisputably that rods of “rent
jungle-cane” were made as far back as 1830–40.
The accompanying cross-section diagrams will at once make clear
exactly what part of the bamboo-stick is used, and how the strips
so split out and cut down to form are combined in the completed
individual joints or sections of a modern rod.
[Illustration:
A--Cross-section of bamboo stalk B--Rough-split rectangular strip
C--Split strip planed to triangular form ]
[Illustration:
Cross-section of completed (glued) rod-joint ]
It is to be understood that each individual strip of a joint is
in cross-section an equilateral triangle, except for the slight
convexity of its outer surface which remains untouched by the
cutting-tool; that each strip has a definite taper from its
butt to the top end; and that each joint throughout the whole
symmetrically-tapered rod, from the rod’s butt of one-half inch, more
or less, in diameter to its delicate tip of a scant one-sixteenth
inch or little more in thickness, is composed of six of these
exactly similar strips. The uninitiated on being shown, with this
explanation, the top-joint of an eight- to nine-foot fly-rod
weighing, complete, from four to five ounces, and easily capable
of bringing to the landing-net a five-pound streak of lightning
scientifically designated _Salvelinus fontinalis_, are very likely
to be incited to that somewhat trite though unctiously satisfactory
retort, “You’re a liar!” Yet ’tis even so. And now it becomes the
writer’s great pleasure to descend to brass tacks and explain in
detail how this miracle is wrought.
Having acquired his cherished sticks from the nearest available
source, the prospective engineer and constructor conveys them
homeward with a palpitating heart. Other tremors of that same cardiac
organ are due to occur ere his delightful and fearsome task is
completed. True to advice, he has selected well-seasoned stock having
a good depth of enamel, but he will see to it that his material
has further opportunity to ripen well before he makes use of the
completed rod. To this end he will begin immediately by splitting his
sticks lengthwise into quarters, thus breaking through all partitions
at the nodes and admitting the air freely to the pith side of the
bamboo tube. Remember this is Winter, and that many weeks are to
elapse before the advent of the blithesome Springtime--so there is
no hurry. Do not start this job if you are obsessed with any idea of
haste. Not that after a short time you will be unable to turn out
rods with a very respectable alacrity; but do not fail to _begin_
under the beneficent influence of the feeling of abundant leisure for
your project.
After the sticks have been quartered you may proceed to split out
rectangular strips roughly approximating the final size required for
use in individual joints. These also may stand aside in a dry place,
and _season some more_. The degree of seasoning and elasticity may
be tested by bending a slender piece sharply between the hands and
noting how quickly and completely it regains its former lines upon
releasing one end. You also may test the surplus ends of strips,
in selecting those for use, by bending them until they break. The
harder it is to break them and the longer the splintering fracture,
the better the material is suited to your purpose. Then, after
planing the strips down to final dimensions and collating them into
their respective joints, temporarily bound with coarse thread,
they may well _season some more_. After the joints are glued up
they will not be hurt by a little more laying aside and additional
seasoning before varnishing; and after the rod has received its last
finishing-touches, is jointed and hung up by its tip--well, it really
is all the better if it be let hang to _season some more_, before
putting it to use.
Professional makers prefer that a finished high-grade rod shall have
several months’ rest before reaching the hands of the angler, and
some even allow their glued-up joints to season a whole year before
assembling and mounting them into rods.
But now to our mutton, that is, our splitting. To be sure, splitting
is splitting, planing is planing, gluing is gluing, winding is
winding, and varnishing is varnishing; but most emphatically there
are ways, and other ways, of attempting each and all of these
things--do we not know it! If desirous of getting into trouble “right
off the reel,” take an ordinary jack-knife and a quarter-section of
Tonkin cane and, drawing toward you, just split off nicely and evenly
say a three-eighths-inch approximately rectangular strip from its
edge--just “free and easy like.” Try it and see where you arrive.
But bamboo, either Calcutta or Tonkin, may be split very easily and
true, and here is the way to do it. If the reader can improve upon
the method or any of the other technic carefully detailed in this
book, as _later_ he may, well and good; but take the advice that for
the _beginner in split-bamboo rod-building_, implicit conformity
to the instructions of one who has been there spells immunity from
the devil of discouragement and failure and hence is altogether the
better part of valor. This dose of preventive medicine should suffice.
[Illustration: 1--Halving stalks 2--Corrective bending over alcohol
lamp]
Procure from the hardware store a solid-blade better grade knife of
the kitchen utility style. The illustration conveys the idea, and
the cost will be twenty-five or thirty cents; or a cheap steel-blade
table-knife, such as you find in the ten-cent stores, will serve.
With the butt-end of the bamboo-stick on the floor--and yourself
mounted on a chair or a box--place the knife-blade across the middle
of the upper end and hit it squarely with a hammer, splitting the
cane in halves down to the first node. Now push the knife down into
contact with the partition at this node and with a similar blow cut
through that. Next, seize each split-off half-portion between thumb
and finger and pull them apart. This will split the stick evenly down
to the second node. Cut through this as before, again pull the halves
apart, and so continue until the whole length of the cane is divided.
With Calcutta bamboo, halve it through the depressions where the
leaves were attached, which are on opposite sides at alternate nodes.
[Illustration: Cross-hatched file]
The same operation repeated will divide your halves evenly into
quarters, when you now set about removing the outside ridges and
the parts of the partitions from the strips. For the ridges, the
effective tool is a medium-coarse _cross-hatched_ file (not a
mill-saw file, which will not take hold); and you should file
straight across, at right-angles to the strip (not draw-filing,
sideways), which is conveniently held for the purpose, convex side
up, between the jaws of an iron vise. Having filed all the ridges
level with the surface of the adjacent wood, you now may place your
quarter-section strips concave or pith side up in the vise, to remove
the partitions with gouge and hammer, flush with the inner surface.
The strips will now appear as shown.
Another effective way of breaking the halves into quarters, is first
to remove the ridges and partitions, then to place the pieces between
the vise-jaws, horizontally on the flat, and screw up the vise till
the bamboo cracks.
Of course the worker must have a workbench, which need not be over
six-feet long, with a level top not less than fifteen-inches wide,
and it is important that it be so situated that operations may be
conducted in a good light; and as to the vise, he will find that one
of cast-steel, with four-inch jaws having hardened faces, will serve
nicely, as well as for all other purposes of household carpentry
and repairing. (Don’t suppose for a moment that you are going to
manufacture “fishing-poles” in the house with impunity and balk at
mending a broken chair, or at some other little odd-job that wifey
jogs you about.) Such a vise will cost from three to four dollars
as against the six or eight dollars asked for one of forged steel;
and it will fulfill all the functions of the more expensive tool
excepting for such heroic work as bending a stiff piece of iron held
in the jaws, by striking it against the side with a heavy hammer.
[Illustration:
Tonkin and Calcutta bamboo stalks (at left)
Splintered strips of Tonkin and Calcutta cane (top)
Outside of section of stalk with ridges filed away; inside of section
showing remains of partitions; same with partitions cut away; and six
narrow rent strips (lower right) ]
Our quarter-sections of cane are now ready for further splitting
into approximately square or rectangular strips _just a bit thicker_
than actually needed just before trimming them down to their final
form, ready for gluing up into rod-joints.
We go about this second splitting somewhat differently. The section
to be split into these narrower strips is laid upon its back,
convex side against the bench. The knife now is held with its
length lengthwise of the strip, the point of the blade being placed
against the inner surface at the knots or remains of the nodes, as
it receives the blow of the hammer. Thus we now are splitting on the
flat, from within outward, and not endwise of the wood as before.
Begin at the top and split successively at each knot, moving toward
the bottom end of the strip. After the hammer-blow has sunk the
knife-blade through the knot, give the knife a sudden side-prying
wrench, which extends the split for some distance both ways from
the knot. When all the knots have thus been split through, take
hold of the top of the narrow strip to be rent off and complete its
separation by smartly pulling it away.
In assembling the strips to be used in individual rod-joints,[3] it
is necessary that most of them be cut _some inches longer than the
intended length of the completed joint_, for the reason that some of
the bamboo necessarily is sacrificed in the next process, which is
known as “slipping the joints” or knots. This means simply that at no
circumference of the completed joint should knots be found opposite
to each other; thus every weak spot, as indicated by the situation of
a knot, is supported by solid, long-fibered enamel all the way around
the remainder of the rod at this point. This staggered construction
is the American usual and preferable practise, although we know of
one of the most famed of British makers who systematically puts
three knots in line but on alternate faces of his joints. Probably
he thinks that a more subtly harmonious action of the rod is thereby
achieved.
[Illustration: Slipping or staggering the knots]
The arrangement of the six narrow strips of a prospective joint,
properly assembled preparatory to being trimmed to length, will be
something like that shown in the illustration. Insomuch as these
nodes in bamboo are situated varying distances apart, and even in
the individual stems--they are closer toward the butt end of the
cane--two strips split from parallel parts of one stalk, and one
being turned end for end and thus laid up against its mate, will have
their knots mismatched or staggered; and without demanding here any
sacrifice of bamboo in order to accomplish this result, so far as the
relation, one to the other, of just these two individual strips is
concerned.
The concave or pith surface of each strip is now planed _just
sufficiently to flatten them_, after which their sides are
planed only enough to make them smooth. For all planing, the
five-and-one-half inch “Stanley” iron-plane, number 103, and costing
about fifty cents, will do nicely.
[Illustration: Angular deflections in stalks (and in split strips) of
bamboo-cane]
The worker has by now observed this peculiarity in his
bamboo-strips--that most of them are far from straight, and that
their zigzag course is due mainly to _angular deflections at the
knots_. They may run fairly straight between knots, but at a knot
are likely to be markedly diverted. Our diagram is an illustration
of what is meant. In addition to these angular bends, long curves
are present, running in all directions. Thus, as we sight along the
strips, in some of which these irregularities are much aggravated,
it would seem to be a hopeless proposition that they ever could be
fashioned into a straight rod-joint.--But they can, and herein lies
one of the most fascinating elements of the work.
This brings us to the consideration of another very interesting
and characteristic feature of bamboo, namely, its action under the
local application of a considerable degree of _dry heat_. (It was
this one point that proved the “open sesame” to satisfactory results
in rod construction for the writer, and he was enabled, in return,
to tell the friend who told him, about a point in gluing-up that
also “straightened out” things for the friend. Until we consulted
one another on these two matters each had been dissatisfied with
his handiwork.) Upon holding the strip over--but not in--a gas-
or oil-lamp flame, turning it the while to and fro between the
fingers to expose all sides, a point is quickly reached, short of
charring deeply enough to cause permanent injury, where the _fibers
become so softened and pliable that all angles and sudden bends are
easily straightened out_ by cautious but firm manipulation between
the hands; or the hot strip may be clamped straight in your vise.
Immediately on cooling, the wood is _again hard, rigid, and elastic_.
Professional rod-makers place the strips in a steam-box.
In this straightening, only _abrupt_ deviations--whether curved
or angular--need to be remedied, but _it is imperative that all
such should now receive careful attention_, else later they will
prevent the strips from lying _flat under pressure of the plane_,
in the V-groove of the planing-mold, when cutting them down to
their ultimate triangular form. All long, sweeping curves may be
disregarded; these will lie flat under pressure, and largely nullify
each other when six of the strips come to be bound up together. Also,
it will be seen that further and very effective opportunity for
straightening the whole joint presents itself when the strips are
glued up.
In straightening over the flame, some considerable charring of
the woody fibre on the sides of the strip _excepting its enameled
surface_ need not worry the novice, as all this will _plane away_ in
the reduction to final form--and this is why we left the rectangular
strips somewhat larger than apparently was necessary; but you should
take good care that this outer or rind surface is least directly
exposed to the heat and so is not injured, and you do not want the
rectangular strips left excessively large, else they will not bend so
readily when heated as there is more wood for the heat to penetrate
thoroughly.
[Illustration: Compound lateral bend (both angular and curved
deflections), viewed from rind side of strip]
Occasionally the sudden deflection is compound instead of simple;
then it first should be reduced to a simple deflection and
straightened afterward, as shown in the illustration (1, before
remedying; 2, first bending; 3, direction of final bending). And
here we should state that concerning the deviations already
noted--mostly they are angular and at the knots--we have had in
mind lateral or sidewise deflections. Another condition of things
may exist--generally adjacent to or between knots--vertically
with relation to the enamel surface; they are sudden bumps or
depressions, and the direction of the corrective bending for these
then is determined according to whether they are upward or downward
deflections.
Our strips now are fairly rectangular, and quite straight, at least
as regards any aggravated or sudden bends. Here we again go over the
knots with the file, further to modify any bumpiness at these points,
when the strips are now ready for planing. It is well, first, to mark
the strips at their butt ends and on the rind side, to indicate any
preferable arrangement as to the order in which they shall be glued
up, using the modified numerals, I, II, III, IIII, IIIII, IIIIII.
These you always can decipher despite any subsequent cutting away,
either at the top or bottom, in planing.
A word as to the actual significance of split _vs._ sawed strips will
conclude this chapter. As already stated, the straightness of bamboo
varies greatly. Some sticks may be so straight that it really would
make very little difference either in the strength or action of a rod
made therefrom, as to whether the rod were built from hand-rent or
machine-sawed strips. But whereas in split strips the woody fibers
or grain perforce must run parallel with the sides of the strip
throughout its length, in the sawed strips you can have anything from
astonishingly good to atrociously bad results. Of course machine
sawing saves much labor, and hence is cheaper. If you have a very
narrow strip that has been split out, so that you know its grain runs
properly, there is no reason why you should not use a fine saw if
you want to rip it lengthwise exactly through the middle, into two
still slenderer strips, without risking an attempt at splitting, when
you have no margin to spare. In short, from a strip that first _has
been split out from the stalk_, another strip sawed out parallel to
the edge of the first is every whit as good as one rent from it. In
such sawing, place the strip, rind uppermost, obliquely in the vise,
with the end projecting only a little above it, and saw not more than
two or three inches at a time, the saw running between the jaws;
then shift the strip above the vise two or three inches more, and so
continue, sawing and shifting, little by little, until it is wholly
divided.
[Illustration: A--Sawed strip B--Split or rent strip]
The reader may judge for himself about how much of detailed care, in
seasoning, selection, and utilization of material, is represented
in a $2.75 department-store rod that is turned out in lots by the
hundred; and yet the writer knows of one such that weathered a
Nipigon campaign with flying colors. Our illustration suggests how
great may be the difference in the grain of two strips, one of which
has been sawed by machine and the other one split or rent out of a
stick by hand in the manner described and which alone guarantees the
best results.
ROD-MAKING:
PLANING THE STRIPS