[OhioOutdoorsman]

OK, I'm very intrigued about bamboo. I love slower graphite and fiberglass. I've built about 20 rods, and feel up to the challenge of building a boo from a premade pre-ferruled blank.

Got a couple of questions....

reel seat - i understand you fit the blank to the reel seat. How is this done?

do you use CP on silk thread traditionally in bamboo?

what finish is usually used and do you have to finish the whole blank, even with treated blanks?

who besides mike brooks, tim zietak, and matt west would you reccomend for a 7' 4wt 2 piece blank?

Any references that you would reccomend?

[wilhelm]

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

Got a couple of questions....

reel seat - i understand you fit the blank to the reel seat. How is this done?

The OD of the blank may be much larger than the ID of the bore hole through the insert. You can ream out the insert like a normal rod or chuck the blank into a lathe and turn it down at the reel seat. If you do the later, be sure to support the part of blank extending out of the spindle hole or else it will "explode" if you turn a too high of RPM. (whips about real good) With care you should also be able to do this by hand without a lathe.

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

do you use CP on silk thread traditionally in bamboo?

It is your choice. I prefer not to use CP. Buy a couple spools of silk that you think you would like and then wrap the rod in the area where the grip goes. Do two wraps for each color and CP one of them before putting some varnish on. That should give you an idea of what you want. I think the traditional CP is shellac or laquer I am not 100% sure which. I know some guys that don't fool with silk and use nylon instead.

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

what finish is usually used and do you have to finish the whole blank, even with treated blanks?

Spar varnish. I like Epiphanes and Last 'n Last. Others swear by Man o' War polyurethane vanish. You can also use a tung oil finish on blanks or Homer Formby's rubbing varnish which is a blend of tung oil, vanish and mineral spirits in equal portions. You don't need to varnish an impregnated blank, but it doesn't hurt. The traditional way is considered dipping after first putting a few coats on the wraps, but again I know folks that have done it a lot of different ways. (brush, spray, rub) I also know folks that have used epoxy, but you won't catch me.

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

who besides mike brooks, tim zietak, and matt west would you reccomend for a 7' 4wt 2 piece blank?

I have heard good things about A J Thramer. http://thramerrods.com/
At one time he offered blanks but I can't see where he does now. You also have near you someone I think is top notch and that is JD (Jeff) Wagner of Parma Heights. What I know of Jeff leads me to believe that if you call him he can help you find a good blank. The other option is to take Jeff's class at Sunnybrook Trout Club in Sandusky, Ohio.

http://www.wagnerrods.com/bamboorodmakingclasses.html

Good luck. If you go this way, be careful, you will never be the same. Dogs will start barking at you and small kids will run and hide in your presence.

wilhelm

[phg]

Wilhelm covered the basses pretty well....

One thing, if you have access to a lathe, you might want to consider turning your own reel seat. It's straight forward spindle work, and it allows you to make the bore the size you need. Generally speaking, 3/8" will be needed. If the bore is oversized, you just do the same as with graphite, build the blank up with tape. On a 7' 4-wt, you shouldn't have to take any material off the blank.

For thread, many rod builders use nylon. Since WW-II, when nylon became generally available, it has been widely used and generally accepted. If you want to try winding silk, go for it, but don't feel you have to.

Another widely used brand of varnish is Helmsman Poly from Minwax. Finishing the rod is like finishing any fine woodworking project. Prepare the surfaces, prime, sand lightly between coats, put on as many coats of finish as you can stand, or until it looks the way you want. Dip tubes are a fast way of getting an even coat, but if you only make a couple of rods a year, you probably don't want to mess with it. Just brush or wipe on the finish. It's more tedious, but if you take your time, it works just as well.

[flytire]

maybe this will help with blanks??

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

[bamboo10]

Wilhelm and PHG pretty well covered all of your questions, but a couple of things that I have found. If you use silk and no color preserver it will change the color, I like a green for wraps and if you use varnish it will turn it dark and in some cases even black. To hold the true color I have used Al's Premium Cane color rite preserver and it seems to work fine. I have also found that the Helmsman spar has a tendency to turn slightly brown which may or may not be a problem for you.
Some good sites for bamboo information are as follows:
http://www.bamboorodmaking.com/
http://www.powerfibers.com/
http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/

Welcome to the BOO club.
GJ

[zzdruid]

finish:

cut minwax poly : 1/3 finish and 2/3 VMP naphtha

wipe on two to four coats about 4 hours apart.


wipe on several more coats of full strength finish after letting these "priming coats" dry well . You may want to lightly rub with 0000 steel wool between the final coats....

easy but time consuming, gives a great finish that easily repairable.

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Well, thanks for all of the info guys. I will give Jeff Wagner a look-see first. He's literally 20 minutes from my house. Would be very interested in building my own blanks eventually......his rods look masterful and are the direction I want to take my rod building.

How hard is it to ferrule your own blanks.....could save $300 on blanks if I ferruled and fisnished my own......

I'm thinking my first build from a premade blank and then get some lessons on planing my own.

To be honest, I'm getting a bit bored with wraping graphite. I have zero interest in burled cork rings and feather inlays.....i'm more into craftmanship translating into a good fishing rod....an boo seems the logical next step.

[wilhelm]

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

How hard is it to ferrule your own blanks.....could save $300 on blanks if I ferruled and fisnished my own......

First off, you can’t save anything. It is a bottomless pit. Accept that, make bamboo rods and be happy!

Now to answer your question it’s not too hard, but it helps to have a lathe. If you want to spend the money you can buy a mini lathe from a couple of sources. Little Machine Shop has a good comparison of the various Chinese lathes. http://www.littlemachineshop.com/Inf...he_compare.php They are all made in the same plant in China and, besides color and price, the differences seem to be in the controller and in the acceptable failure rates specified by the vendors. (You know quality control, standard deviations, etc.) There is also some difference in the bed length and in my opinion longer is better.

Harry Boyd is a friend of Bamboo10 and also mine. Harry is a Baptist preacher in Winnsboro, LA and as Baptist preachers go, he is one fine individual. (That isn’t meant as a slam on Baptist preachers but instead real high praise of Harry.) Harry wrote a tutorial on bamboo rodmaking for flyanglersonline.com and you find it also on his website: http://www.canerods.com/rodmaking.html I don’t know if Harry sells blanks but Harry is also someone you can call and talk to. Harry also conducts a class, which I think are cheaper than Wagner, and is also one on one. I think it is lasts 3 to 4 days. (You know he can do it this way because he is a preacher and therefore only works one day a week.) If you call Harry, you are welcome to use my name and Gary’s (bamboo10) too, I’m sure.

Back to ferruling. If you don’t have a lathe, you need to do it by hand and it needs to be a slow, deliberate process. Take a stroke with a file or sand paper and rotate, take a stoke and rotate, over and over. You need to make sure that the bamboo is concentric to the center of the blank and that it doesn't become a dog leg to the blank. If you are impatient, you can’t do it but if you have a little patience you can.

I was hoping you were close to Wagner. I only met him once at the Grayrock Rodmakers Gatherin in Grayling, MI in 2001 (The 2007 gathering was 2 weeks ago). I think he is approachable, so call him. I was really impressed with what he did. His finishes are glasslike and he appears to be a real artisan. I have always been left with the impression that he does more in terms of presentation rods rather than rods you would want to fish with. Nevertheless, I think he is well respected by other makers and Ed Engle included him as one of the rodmakers he wrote about in his book.

Originally Posted by OhioOutdoorsman

I'm thinking my first build from a premade blank and then get some lessons on planing my own.

To be honest, I'm getting a bit bored with wraping graphite. I have zero interest in burled cork rings and feather inlays.....i'm more into craftmanship translating into a good fishing rod....an boo seems the logical next step.

You are at the same point I was in 2001. I didn’t want to buy a blank, wrap it and all and then find out whether I liked how it cast or not. Instead I wanted to make a blank, make the rod and then determine what I wanted different in the next. I have been sidelined a little in that goal by a rotten garage door and a heart valve replacement but I’m easing back into it.

My recommendation is to take the 1 to 2 years it takes most of us to accumulate tools and such and just make your own blank. Make your own planing form, binder, oven, dip tube, etc. There are plenty of tapers in the public domain. (Young, Payne, Dickerson, Leonard, Orvis, Hardy. Devine, Cross, you name it.) Go to a couple gatherings and meet the other guys that have decided to do this. The first one I’d recommend is the Southern Rodmakers Gathering in Arkansas in October. http://www.southernrodmakers.org/ Join the Rodmakers listserv http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/index.html or http://smtp.goldrush.com/mailman/listinfo/rodmakers and start associating with people that have the same illness as you. (Yep, it is an illness)

One final link is Todd Talsma’s site http://www.bamboorodmaking.com/

Best of luck,
wilhelm

[phg]

All excellent suggestions.

There is another way, though:
http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/inde...howtopic=15417

I'm working on #3 using this technique.

[TNfishnstixx]

Allen Thramer isn't doing any blanks right now due to the demand for rods from him, but a really good source for an excellent blank is Dennis Stone, D.R., Stone Rod Co....phone number is 503-702-8783, or email at stone_family@comcast.net.

His blanks are of excellent quality and the prices are the best I have found most anywhere with exception of some of the offshore boo blanks (try to avoid these at all costs!!!)