It all starts with a 12 foot culm of bamboo (Continued)

Bamboo Rod Build, Part XVIII, Dip Night

Dip night. Probably the most exciting night of the whole rod building process. Soon our rod will be ready for the first fishing trip This is when the beautiful grain of the bamboo will be highlighted by the gloss of spar varnish. As with most areas of cane rod building, it's a bit intimidating at first because of the ease at which it can be screwed up. But eventually most makers work out a routine that works for them.

While there are many different ways to apply varnish, including by brush, hand rubbed, or even with a turkey baster, I've settled on a dip tube and slow constant extraction by motor as my method. This allows the surface tension to "pull off" the varnish and the result is as close to "glass-like" as can be achieved, IMO.

My "extraction motor" is a simple single D-cell battery operated device that a friend robbed from an old liquor store display. It's second purpose in life was to serve as a drying motor for saltwater epoxy flies and it served that purpose nicely until I started building rods. The key is a slow (3" to 4" per minute) and steady extraction:


My "dip tube" is a simple 1" PVC pipe with a 1 1/2" reducer at the top. String is passed through an eyelet is the celling. This serves as my rod "gallow." The rod sections, including the varnished wraps, are now brushed lightly with OOOO steel wool:


Next, we wipe down sections with mineral spirits to clean them of any residue or fingermarks:


Ah, the markers mark! This better be neat because after people check the straightness of your rod, the second thing they'll look at is the marker's mark. I use the finest tipped pemanent marker I can find for this purpose:


The ferrules are then protected with masking tape:


The varnish is warmed to about 100 degrees by immersing the can into hot water. This makes the varnish less viscous, allowing it to flow better:


The varnish is then carefully poured into the dip tube:


The air bubbles are then allowed to dissipate:


I then mist the immediate area with water vapor to settle dust:


I hook up my butt section to a snap swivel and check the length against my dip tube to ensure that the cork grip will not be immersed in varnish:


The rod section is then carefully lowered into the varnish of the dip tube and the motor base will be moved forward until the winding check just touches the surface of the varnish:


The section is immediately and quickly extracted from the varnish, allowing the varnish to flow freely off the section's tip. Once the varnish starts dripping, the same process is repeated. :


On the third dip, the section is allowed to remain in the varnish for 2 minutes. Then the motor is started to begin the slow extraction process:



Once the section is fully extracted from the varnish, it is placed in a drying cabinet. A 100 watt buld provides enough heat to promote the varnish curing process for 24 hours before the second and sometimes third coat of varnish is applied. The same process is followed for the tip sections:


Once all sections are varnished and safely in the drying cabinet, I breath a sigh of relief, crack a Corona, and toast my good fortune: