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High Grade Bamboo Rods

The raw materials — unsplit bamboo, fittings and varnish — of a thirty-five dollar fly rod can be bought in the open market for about twelve dollars. The dif­ference represents profit, workmanship and selection. It requires not only considerable mechanical skill to produce a good bamboo fly rod but rare good judg­ment as well. From hundreds of pieces of unsplit " canes," all looking to the untrained eye pretty much alike, the rod maker must select a few coming up to his standard and likely, in his estimation, to produce the ideal he has in mind. Pieces with " shakes," borings, soft spots and other imperfections are discarded and the ones selected are then cut out roughly by machinery or split by hand with a dull knife, when other imperfections are often discovered. From what re­mains the skilled rod maker matches up as to toughness, resiliency, etc., enough pieces to make a rod. These pieces are carefully cured and then tied together in the form of a rod and again tested. At this critical stage unforeseen imperfections may come to light. If they finally come up to standard the pieces are glued up and the rod making proceeds. This, in a brief and general way, is the method of making a fine hand-made split bamboo rod. The pieces that were rejected in the various tests may go into cheaper rods. From this the prospective rod buyer can get an idea as to why bamboo rods vary so in price and why certain makers, who have reputations to main­tain, charge what appears to be a " stiff" price for their output which, so far as surface appearances go, is nothing extraordinary. A few makers also have secret processes for improving bamboo.

Related terms include flyfishing and fishing flyfishing.