The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Thanks Olly, that'll do me just fine

OK then! Glad to be of help.

Chaps thank you for sharing that - I have pugged the measurements away in my taper spreadsheet.

My guess from the measurements Olly has shared is that the whole cane must taper from about 0.55"/0.60" down to about 0.50"

I grabbed some fairly clean garden cane a couple of years ago and stuck it in the loft to season - it's not perfect cosmetically (like me!) but good enough for my purposes and I reckon one of these is now on my "to build" list.

Thanks again
Cheers
Steve

I think that talking to some old rod builders, they used 'Japanese cane' for butt sections. Quite what this is and where it came from I don't know, but you certainly need a section that is as near to parallel as you can find and with very few leaf nodes....no more than two if possible, though one will be hidden by the cork of the handle. Just a very few, late Allcocks Wizards have a third, with two visible forward of the handle.

Fitting the ferrule to these butt sections is tricky too....invariable they were heated and banged onto the slightly tapered cane whilst still hot, thus expanding the brass into a slight bell-shaped taper, before removing it again, cleaning it up and finally gluing it on. Just how many split in the process I can't imagine but I bet anything other than brand new freshly-turned brass will split.


Quite why it was done this way don't know.....I've never seen a built-up ferrule station on a whole cane butt rod and with the near parallel sides of a whole cane butt, I'd have expected a simple tight sliding fit. But there must be a reason they did it that way.......

Hi Nobby,

As far as I can make out from my reading on the subject there were basically 2 reasons it was done.
One was to get the necessary steps in taper for the whole cane parts of the rod - hardly any of the whole cane I have measured has a particularly pronounced taper over the short lengths needed for rod sections. In fact what it tends to do is taper between nodes but slightly flare out again immediately after each node. Finding a piece that has a gradual taper over its length is actually quite tricky and no 2 pieces are the same.
Which leads into the other reason... the exact diameters of whole cane varies - even selected pieces have slight variations from inch to inch and none of it is round... so by belling the ferrules and contracting the cane they were able to get the steps in the taper that were needed for the intended action, as well as being able to use a fixed ferrule size for a particular rod design (important commercially). Otherwise you'd be trying to make a precision fitting ferrule for each piece of whole cane. With heat and brute force you know your ferrule size will do the job and you should get the steps in the action you are after without spending ages measuring everything umpteen times and faffing around for ages.
At least that's my interpretation anyway.

I'm planning on making a jig like Chapmans had with a hardwood block and a hole in it through cut into 2 pieces - I will then heat and clamp the cane and hopefully contract it neatly to the right size for a ferrule rather than just whacking it hard into a ferrule!

Japanese cane could be Moso bamboo which is very fast growing - however the nodes tend to be a lot more pronounced. You can build split cane rods with it but the power fibres are much finer and more densely packed than Tonkin which makes it stronger for a given diameter but a lot heavier.

Cheers

Steve

That makes sense!

In the book Rods : how to make them they make reference to building Rods using a butt of Japanese Tonkin Cane . Earlier in the book in the materials section they described Japanese female Tonkin as being not as dense texture or apearance as Chinese Tonkin and being thinner walled and thus lighter . Useful for longer and lighter freshwater rods butt and mid sections.
Edit to add... In the book it also states the nodes on the japanese bamboo are further apart.

Typical British workmen, confusing us with their parlance. Tonkin was 'supposed' to come only from one small and remote area of China :-)

Hi Nobby,
I'm not sure what the species of Tonkin Bamboo is, but where I live in Northern Thailand we have some beautiful types, Golden and Green types.
We are almost on the same latitude as Zhaoqing but about 900 kms to the West.
Here are a few pictures of the species, I have always wondered what the Golden Bamboo would be like on a split cane rod.
I have put some aside in case the opportunity arises to get someone to turn one into a rod.
The locals are pretty skilful in making all kinds of things out of bamboo, thatched huts,fences, wicker baskets,fishing nets,ladders etc
PS. The gentleman in the picture is my groundsman.

Best regards
Mem

It seems the locals call it Tea Tree Bamboo, as I've added to that Google Earth image above, but I'm darned if I can exactly locate the apparently small area it grows in. I have read that it can be several different colours which rather suggests more than one species to me....but I don't really have a clue.

Google is of little help as there is a Yunnan Province tea that is processed in bamboo culms! drat!

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