It all starts with a 12 foot culm of bamboo

Bamboo Rod Build, Part V, Strip Prep

Okay, my bamboo brethren, if you've stayed with me this long, you are either a glutton for punishment, lack any real life of your own, or you have a genuine interest in the process. I'll take a leap of faith and assume there's at least a few of the latter category remaining. If you can stick it out until the end, you may have what it takes to build your own rod. BTW, if you send me your Maine Fishing License number, I'll make sure you get your certificate for Continuing Educational Units.

The next portion of our process, node preparation, is easily the most tedious, but I promise if we can get through this work, it start to get interesting. Soon we'll be turning these high-grade tomato stakes into something resembling a fly rod.

In our last episode, I left you with 6 butt strips and 12 tip strips. Nodes were staggered and the strips were cut to length (1/2 rod length plus about 7"). The next few steps in the process will have a large bearing on outcome of our finished product. The more attention we spend on strip preparation now, the less problems (ie, glue lines) we'll encounter later.

Few things in life are as satisfying as planing bamboo with a finely tuned block plane. The only comparisons I can draw upon are the feeling hitting a baseball flush with a wooden bat, or perhaps the perfect loading of a bamboo rod. When it's right, there's almost no effort involved. BTW, the day MLB legalizes aluminum bats is the same day I'll go back to graphite.

Although I do my actual strip beveling with a Morgan Hand Mill, it is critical that the strip edges be square before beginning. The strip on the left has been squared:


Laying the strip on edge, I plan the sides of the strips until they are as close to square as I can reasonably achieve.


Once the strip has been squared, I move to my 1" belt sander and lightly touch the enamel side of the node to remove the nodual ridge:


Now I'll sand the node with 220 grit paper until the belt sander lines are removed:


Once all the nodes are sanded, I'll use a variable speed heatgun set on 500 F to heat the node. After about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, the bamboo will become pliable, almost rubberlike:


Now using a 4" bench vice, I place the strip with the enamel and pith sides against the flat metal sides of the vice and gently apply pressure. Too much pressure will crush the node and ruin the strip:


The strip is removed from the vice after 10 seconds, briefly reheated, and placed back into the vice with the enamel side up to straighten the node:


Side view of a node before flattening:


Side view of the same node after pressing:


Now I sight down the strip and take out any pronounced bends or sweeps by applying more heat and bending he strip in the opposite direction:


I repeat the same process to the other 17 strips (18 strips, 3-5 nodes each, 3-4 minutes per node, plus straightening time, do the math) then bundle the strips together.

Now I'm gonna let you in on a maker's dirty, or more accurately, "wet" little secret. The strips are then immerced in water for 24-48 hours, which will temporarily soften the bamboo, making the strips, and especially the nodes, much easier to deal with during the initial beveling phase:


While the strips are stewing, I'll start to work out the math of my chosen taper: