Chapter VIII: Rod-Making: Windings and Guides

The silk windings (wrappings or whippings) of a split-bamboo rod, in addition to securing the line-guides in position and serving as a most effective reinforcing bond for holding together the individual strips of which each rod-joint is composed, are generally considered a factor in adding to the rigidity of the rod. In commercial practise the joints are held in a lathe-like apparatus while being wound, but this is not at all necessary for the limited operations of the amateur. Authorities on practical angling nearly all believe that closer winding will stiffen a rod appreciably. From this it might be inferred that a rod solidly wound throughout its whole length would be very much stiffened; however, solid winding does not work out this way in practise, making the rod logy rather, and it is not in favor with experienced rod connoisseurs. In fact, some of the very finest modern rods have no windings except those that attach the guides and overlap the ferrules.

As already has been mentioned, the writer regards silk windings as very much superior to any form of metal wrappings; but, when he uses them at all except for guide lashings, he applies the silk--differently from the usual method of a series of individual, narrow circular bands--in the form of a continuous trellised or diamond-patterned whipping which extends the whole length of the joints. And he whips with unwaxed silk, just as obtained from the drygoods store. For this method he claims the following very practical advantages, wholly irrespective of its highly distinctive appearance: It makes a good holding-ground for the varnish, the bare outer skin of bamboo offering, in this respect, a surface not much more acceptable than does glass or steel; it supports or stiffens the rod to a greater degree than could the closest practical individual bands, a good idea of its effectiveness being obtained by comparing the “backbone” of a top-joint thus wound--and even before any varnish is applied--with its unwound duplicate; it materially assists in preventing set; it reduces to a minimum the number of invisible-end fastenings necessitated in the complete winding of the rod.

Unwaxed silk is preferred as offering the varnish a better chance to penetrate, shrink it, and glue it down onto the wood. And we do not use the more brittle white shellac, white French lacquer, or thin white glue or mucilage as a preliminary coating for the windings, to prevent a darkening of the silk, which we do not regard as at all objectionable. (Equal parts of collodion and banana oil is used for the same purpose.) On the other hand, if the proper colors and shades of silk be selected, our personal taste approves this increased depth of color as imparting a less flashy, richer, and altogether more elegant appearance. But restrain your preference from running to delicate, weakly-defined shades, as you will be unpleasantly surprised to see how they will lose character under the effect of varnish. If you do not want the diamond whipping to contrast with the color of the bamboo, select for this a light orange or a yellow shade and it will be almost invisible except on close inspection. If you do use white shellac in alcohol for the primary coat, to preserve the original shade of the silk, make but the thinnest application of it.

The most satisfactory colors for windings are black, a bright green, or red, yellow, a good brown, or purple--neither of the latter in too dark a shade and all these used either in one solid color or in various combinations. Yellow and red, yellow and green, or green and black are good used together.

We employ the size A silk, commonly used in millinery and dressmaking, and thus readily obtainable at any drygoods “emporium.” This is about the thickness of what the tackle-dealers grade as medium or coarse; for the finer silk-thread in colors you must apply either to them or to jobbers in the trade, as you will not find it on general sale, though perchance on occasion at the “art-embroidery” counter of one of the larger department-stores. To be sure, you can split the A silk and make use of only a part of its strands; this, however, hardly without waxing. But if your ideal in rods is represented by a good serviceable article, not much under five ounces in weight, the A size is none too heavy. Rods are made much lighter than this and they are very exquisite; and may be very efficient, too--_for the expert under the usual conditions prevailing in the smaller streams_. Yet we have seen a sixteen-inch brown trout, _Salmo fario_, in a four-foot-wide stretch of water; and even though the size of the fish in the small streams may average seven to nine inches in length, the fisherman never knows when that whopper will grab his fly, nor in what difficult situation he may be obliged to control him promptly if the prize is to be creeled--and where is the angler who would not gladly sacrifice all his smaller catch rather than _lose that chance big fellow_?

The brands of silk-thread found usually in the stores are either the Corticelli, Belding, or Hemingway. We have no choice, but can indicate by the numbers stamped on the respective spools the shades in the Hemingway brand that will work out effectively. These are: purple, number 794--or very dark, 1044; brown, number 484; green, 891; and red, 633. There is a shade of green in the Corticelli brand very like the Hemingway 891, but having a yellower glint, that is a bit better.

Start the continuous winding at the butt-end of the rod-joint, by making a few circular turns of the silk away from you; the end is caught beneath these initial turns (Fig. 1), and wetting the end of the silk will prevent it from slipping when you commence. You now are holding the joint in your left hand and its butt or male-ferrule end is directed to the right. To ascertain the exact point of starting, A, you must measure off from the joint-end, B, a sufficient distance nicely to clear the other end of the ferrule, at C, as _the ferrule winding is to be a separate affair_.

Next, turn the joint butt-end to your left; hold the circular turns with your left thumb while cutting off short the silk-end, D, with a _sharp_ knife; and start to wind a spiral toward the smaller end, rotating the joint away from you between the fingers of the left hand, while you hold the silk (E) taut between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, pulling toward you and to the right (Fig. 2). The spool-end, E, is rendering from the spool as you hold the latter in your hand, or as it rests in a convenient receptacle to prevent its rolling away.

The symmetrically-graduated spacing of this first spiral-winding is guided entirely by the eye. For butt-joints, the writer starts the turns spaced from three-quarters to five-eighths of an inch, and gradually runs them down to one-half inch apart at the smaller end; on middle-joints, the turns are spaced one-half inch at butt, gradually diminishing to one-quarter inch; and for the top-joint, they run from one-quarter inch down to one-eighth inch at the rod’s tip. On the _butt-joint he lays up three courses of windings to each spiral, side by side, two courses similarly on the middle- and a single-thread course on the top-joint_.

To know when to terminate the spiral-windings at the female-ferrule end of the joint, you previously must have noted the spot (A, Fig. 3) by a pencil-mark, after measuring from the ferrule-end, B, a sufficient distance both to clear the ferrule and to allow space for the line-guide, D, that is to be located here. End the spiral by a few close turns at A; then turn the joint so that the end B is again directed to your left, and start the return spiral. For all spiral-windings _returning over the same course_ you must reverse your _thread_ by looping it and catching the loop with a few circular turns that are cast over it, as illustrated in Fig. 4. Do not mind any bunching of circular turns here, as both the loops and these circular turns are but temporary, and all will be _cut away later, when a smooth, permanent circular-winding takes their place_. This looping maneuver is necessitated in laying the second and third courses of each spiral-winding on butt-joints, and for the second course on middle-joints. To produce the diamond-whipping on top-joints, in single-thread spirals, it is not necessary; you then continue to wind ahead without reversing the _thread_, till the four spirals are finished, simply by crossing your thread--after completing one circular turn which terminates each spiral course--and by reversing the _joint_, end for end, which starts you back all right when a succeeding spiral is to be wound in the same direction _around_ the joint, but _lengthwise_ of the joint in a direction opposite to that taken by its immediate predecessor. Complex as this may sound, it really is the acme of simplicity in operation, as you will learn at the very first attempt.

In order to have the spacing of the second spiral conform to that of the one first wound, it is necessary only to see that the threads of the two spirals _cross at the same angular side of the rod-joint_, which you select in preference to a flat surface, for more accurate guidance (A, Fig. 5).

Two additional spirals are needed to produce the closer trellised or diamond effect sought, and these are laid so as to halve the space (as shown by the dotted lines in the illustration) between the spirals previously wound, the eye alone readily serving here as an efficient guide.

Intricate as the process may appear from the ultimate result, the reader soon will understand that it is only the first spirals over each joint that must be wound with a great deliberation and care as to symmetrically-graduated spacing. That does determine the outcome, but the subsequent spirals are wound with increasing rapidity. Attention is directed also to the fact that even the most serious mishap to any part of the continuous winding, after the rod is completed, _in no case necessitates rewinding the whole joint_, but only of the short interval between two consecutive solid windings, whether guide- or ferrule-wrappings.

All rod-windings are terminated finally by an “invisible-knot” ending. Before taking up the question of guide- and ferrule-wrappings and their location on the rod--the detailed layout--we will describe several ways of making the invisible knot or whip finish, which, after all, attain but one and the same result. The winder soon will find that the particular method which is most convenient will depend both on himself and on the particular location of a winding, or on other special conditions under which he is compelled to make the fastening. The mystery of this is the chief secret of rod-winding, and it really is no “knot” at all, but a trick of burying the end under the final turns in order at once to get it out of the way and to keep the winding from unwrapping.

The illustrations that follow, Figures 1 to 9, show windings made with a coarse thread instead of the actual winding-silk, for the purpose of clearer delineation.

Silk winding: (1) Starting the loose coils; (2) Free end of silk run under; (3) Loose coils wound tightly over terminal end--awl-point holds loop; (4) The loop drawn in; (5) Separate-loop method ]

We start a solid circular-winding in exactly the same way that we started the spiral-winding, that is by catching the starting-end of the thread under the first few coils. When nearing the end of your wrapping, hold the last tight coil, A, with the thumb of the left hand, while--after cutting the silk to allow a sufficiently long end--with the other hand you make several _loose coils_, B, in the same direction around the joint as previously, but a short distance from and winding back toward this last tight coil; insert the free end of the silk, C, under the coil, A, held by the left thumb; continue the winding by holding on to the loop, D, which unwraps the loose coils while at the same time it transfers them into tight coils laid up against the completed section of the permanent winding and binds the terminal silk-end tightly underneath; insert a large pin, point of a finishing-nail, or any similar pointed instrument (a shoemakers’-awl is most handy for this) through the loop, E, which holds it taut to prevent it from kinking, then draw the loop up close to this, drop or pull out the pin (or whatever your bodkin may be), and at the same instant quickly pull the end, C, up tight; cut off the surplus free end close to where it emerges from the wrapping, with a quick sawing motion of a _sharp_ knife.

A modification of the above method makes use of a separate loop of heavy, waxed linen-thread, for the purpose of pulling the terminal silk-end under the last few coils, which already have been wound tight. The loop (A, Fig. 5) is laid in place lengthwise of the rod-joint as you approach the end of a wrapping, several coils are carried over it, and then the free end of the winding-thread, B, is pushed through the loop and pulled under and out, where the loop emerges at C. In using very fine winding-silk, a fine needle may be substituted for the loop, and the end of the thread inserted through its eye.

Another method, that the author frequently adopts, consists in making the final loose turns both over joint and the tapered end of a miniature marlin-pin or a lead-pencil point laid alongside of the joint. The end then is turned back through these coils, between the marlin-pin and the joint, as Fig. 6 depicts; the forefinger of the left hand holds the last tight coil against the joint as the marlin-pin is withdrawn. The first loose coil, B, then is picked up by inserting under it the point of the shoemakers’-awl; the thread-end, C, is caught by tightening this coil, and the remaining loose coils are laid up against the rest of the wrapping, which is completed in the same manner as described above.

Silk winding: (6) Marlin-pin method; (7, 8, and 9) Method in which terminal coils are thrown first around joint]

The most ingenious method of all, but not always applicable, is first to decide under how many coils you wish to bury the terminal-end, and then to throw these coils loosely around the joint upon _beginning_ the wrapping. The silk is not cut until all is finished and pulled taut, so none is wasted. It practically is a reversal of the method first described. Referring to Fig. 7, suppose that it is desired to start at A and to wind toward the bottom of the page. B is the spool-end of the silk, C indicates four loose coils, and D is the loose-end of the silk. The first step is to catch the end, D, under the first turn of the wrapping, as shown in Fig. 8. You now can wind ahead, holding the silk at G and rotating the joint to the left, as far as you like. As the F-end of the loose coils is renewed from the spool as fast as the E-end unwinds, these four coils are carried right along throughout the whole wrapping. When ready to end the winding, passing the spool-end of the silk, B (spool and all), under the winding-thread, G, catches it as shown in Fig. 9. Continue the wrapping to dispose of the four loose coils, pull the end (B) taut, cut it short, and your wrapping is completed.

A hexagonal lead-pencil and a piece of ordinary wrapping-twine are good materials with which to practise the details of these windings and endings.

When making solid wrappings, press all the coils firmly together from time to time, with some suitable blunt instrument, as the edge of a paper-cutter or back of a table-knife; and when completed, before varnishing, rub them smooth with the rounding handle of a tooth-brush--all the better if it is of the old-time genuine bone variety. Also at this time you may apply a match- or candle-flame _for an instant_ to any fuzz or thread-ends that may be projecting in an unsightly fashion; but an alcohol flame is the best, being less likely to smudge light-colored silk. You readily can detect these ends by sighting lengthwise along the joint, as you slowly rotate it.

We are assuming, now, that all ferrules have been serrated or split and are cemented in position, that the diamond-whipping is in place, and that a preliminary thin coat of varnish has been applied to the joint and is dry. We have yet to bind on the line-guides and to put on the ferrule-wrappings. This is done with individual close-laid or solid circular-windings, and they constitute _all of the windings of this character that are needed on any rod-joints that previously have been wound as we have described_.

Naturally, we first must determine how many guides we shall use and just where they shall be located; also whether these solid wrappings shall be of the same color as the diamond-winding or of a contrasting color. To the writer’s taste, all-green windings, yellow touched off with red or green, or green touched with black make a strong appeal. Let us suppose that we have agreed upon the latter, and that we now are at work on the ten-foot fly-rod. Our winding-plan would be as shown in the accompanying diagram, the figures indicating the distances in inches from guide-center to guide-center, when the rod is assembled. The darker windings are those of the black silk, and these, beginning with the three bands grouped at the rod-butt, which are a scant one-eighth inch wide, should gradually diminish in width all the way to the rod’s tip, where they may consist of only four or five turns of thread. When making top-joints in duplicate or triplicate, it is a good plan to distinguish them by special arrangements of bands at their tips; you then can always identify the particular one in use.

After the positions of the guides are located, bands of black silk are wound around the joint, over the spiral-winding at each point where the guide-wrapping will come, and in such a way that each solid guide-wrapping of green will be set off at its ends with a narrow black border. When once these are in place, and in addition to the rest of the joint have had their _preliminary coat of varnish to hold the silk here, the spiral-winding is cut and unwound between them at each guide-site_; the guides then are bound on close against the wood, when their wrappings may receive a first coat of varnish.

_Note that a guide is placed at each ferrule-connection, at its lower and stronger side._ Some further detail is called for concerning the guide-windings at the ferrules and the ferrule-windings themselves, and reference to the accompanying diagram will materially aid in understanding about this. Before starting to wind on a guide at the end of a joint or to wrap a ferrule, first we place a smooth, permanent circular-wrapping (A) alongside and below the lumpy, temporary circular turns at the ends of the diamond-whipping; _we then cut away these unsightly coils of the first or spiral winding that were necessitated in applying it_. We now have a clear space from A to E, and we use the length of the guide (C), which is to be located here, as a measure for the exact extent of this space.

All guides are wound _solidly_ from end to end--that is, the winding extends underneath the elevated part of the guide; and the wrappings at the ferrules _cover in the serrated ends up to and lapping the solid metal, at_ E, _to prevent access of water or dampness at that end of the ferrule_. From A to E the winding consists of _three sections_. It is started at D--the point on the rod-joint where the shank or foot of the guide meets its standing part; then is carried to B, when the guide is placed in position and its proximal (lower or inner) shank is covered in, from B to A; and it ends with its last coil close up against the band at A. The other shank (distal, upper or outer foot) of the guide, C, _overlaps about half-way the ferrule-tooth_ that lies on the flat surface of the joint to which the guide is applied. The ends both of this shank of the guide and of the ferrule-tooth have previously been filed down thin with the little saw-file. The wrapping is completed by the wholly _independent section_ represented by D–E, starting at D; thus _this section alone must be removed for the purpose of re-cementing a loosened female-ferrule_, and the guide is not disturbed in its position.

_Before securing any guides to the rod_, it is most important that it should experimentally have been jointed up with different flat surfaces of its respective sections in alignment, in order _to determine what particular arrangement gives the best results_; and when this has been accomplished you should _mark the guide surfaces_ of each joint for future identification. However carefully you have endeavored to center the ferrules on the joints, you probably will be surprised to find when the rod is jointed up in certain ways that there will be produced quite a decided angular deflection at least at one of the junctions, but which a slight rotation of one of the connecting pieces may correct. If not satisfactorily remedied in this way, then joint the two rod-sections together in their best position and hold the union--both including ferrules and the wood within them--over the alcohol-lamp flame, heat all very carefully but thoroughly, and then very cautious but firm manipulation between the hands--one at either side of the ferrule-joint with thumbs extended--will solve the difficulty.

With due regard to what has been said above, you should try also to have any rod-joint which may show a slight long bend extending throughout its whole length, so placed that the flat side most identified with the convexity shall be the down or guide side when the rod is held in position of use--with reel underneath, for the fly-rod. In other words, the guides should line up when the rod-sections are jointed in the best possible position, looking to the truest alignment and best action of the whole rod.

It now remains to consider the guides themselves; what kind shall we use?

“Perfection” steel tip-guide for fly-rod (enlarged) ]

For both bottom- and tip-guides--points of greatest friction--we should select appropriate agate or phosphor-bronze guides; and some pretty good imitation-agate guides have been marketed, at a material reduction in cost from the price of the genuine. Very satisfactory, and by not a few anglers preferred even to agate, is what is known as the “Perfection” tip-guide; it is made in Denver, by the Perfection Tip Co., of file-proof tungsten steel with German-silver tube. It is light, neat, and practically indestructible and frictionless. It costs fifty cents. The same concern makes also of similar material splendidly efficient and durable butt-guides, and reel-guides that may be attached to a cross-bar. For the other (intermediate) guides on your fly-rod you want a standing form of guide that is called the “snake” guide, and these to be of steel and not of German-silver, which latter soon is grooved by the friction of the line. Snake-guides were once an English innovation but long have ceased to be a novelty, being almost universally used today on all makes of the highest-class rods; both in appearance and utility they are a great advance over the old ring-and-keeper device. The line is not so likely to foul them, and it renders much more freely through them, so that the cast as well as the length of life of the line both are thereby influenced favorably. There is one remaining convenient use for the ring with keeper--that is to attach one at the butt of your rod just above the handgrasp, _to hook your fly into when not in use_.

Our illustration shows how these snake-guides are numbered according to their gradation in size, from 3/0 up to 5. They may be purchased from almost any tackle-house for about twenty cents a dozen. Reference to a previous illustration, “Guide and winding layout,” will show that the fly-rods of nine feet and over carry twelve of these guides; and from butt to tip we use them in this order and in about these sizes: 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1/0, 1/0, 2/0, 2/0, 3/0. For eight-foot rods, use two guides less and space them as follows, beginning at the butt-end: Bottom-guide is 17¼ inches from butt of rod; from its center to center of bottom intermediate-guide, 9½ inches; next space, 9 inches; then 8½, 7½, 7¼, 6¾, 6½, 6⅛, 5⅝, 5, and 4½ inches respectively.

For the bottom-guide on the fly-rod, the author uses the light “Tournament” agate-guide, as pictured, which vom Hofe cataloged as size number 10, and which used to cost thirty-five cents (there was a smaller size, number 9); and for the agate tip-guide, vom Hofe’s tubular form, 5/64 inch in diameter, costing thirty cents.[7] Another neat English device is an agate angle tip-guide, with two legs, made to wind on instead of to be cemented. Abbey and Imbrie, 97 Chambers, New York, have carried these, at fifty cents. The same firm had also a similar device in a larger size, but all in bronze, the guide-ring turning within its encircling wire loop, which they sold for forty cents; they are nice for mounting bait- or trolling-tops.

For the short, bait-casting rod, we have adopted the layout shown below (Fig. 1), all of the guides being attached to the top-joint. The bottom-guide is of the same style as that selected for the fly-rod, but in the larger size, number 12. The agate tip-guide is vom Hofe’s “Western offset” style, 7/64 inch in diameter (number 2/0), priced at forty cents. The same size in the “Dowagiac” pattern was sold at thirty-five cents. The two intermediate guides are the same maker’s “Improved” or one-ring casting style, numbers 1 and 0 respectively; price nine cents each. Abbey and Imbrie used to stock phosphor-bronze revolving-center guides mounted like these one-ring casting-guides; the idea of the revolving-center feature is that the line will draw equally against all sides of the ring and so will eliminate grooving. They are quite as effective as agate-guides and much less liable to breakage.

Some anglers would prefer to locate the bottom-guide of the bait-casting rod a few inches ahead of the ferrule, rather than at the ferrule as shown in Fig. 1 above; and they would use only one intermediate guide between that and the tip, placing but three guides on this rod, in all.

In order to permit equalization of the strain on two sides of the top-joint, the guides may be attached in pairs, after the usual manner employed in the heavier, surf-casting rods (Fig. 2); in this case the tip-guide should not be offset but should be one of center alignment, stirrup pattern, as shown. Abbey and Imbrie sell it, size number 3½, for sixty-five cents, in agate; in imitation agate, thirty-five cents.

ROD-MAKING:

HANDGRASP AND REELSEAT