Chapter III: 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.

A--Cross-section of bamboo stalk B--Rough-split rectangular strip C--Split strip planed to triangular form ]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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