The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I agree Bumble, in fact most of mine have a degree of deviation from the straight, even if only a slight droop. This is not a problem, in fact in my honest opinion it gives the rod a character. What I could not accept, and this is back to my original mail on the subject, is that it happened to a £1000 plus rod after its 3rd outing of normal usage.
I'll get my coat!
Bob

Bob Brookes wrote:I agree Bumble, in fact most of mine have a degree of deviation from the straight, even if only a slight droop. This is not a problem, in fact in my honest opinion it gives the rod a character. What I could not accept, and this is back to my original mail on the subject, is that it happened to a £1000 plus rod after its 3rd outing of normal usage.
I'll get my coat!
Bob

Can you get mine too Bob

I have a Barbus Maximus II, which developed a slight set due to my incompetence. I was going to fish the Kennet and called in at Edward's nearby workshop, where he corrected the fault with his magic bunsen burner.


As far as big fish are concerned may I bring to your attention...


http://www.barder-rod.co.uk/news/news%2 ... urtin.aspx


Excellent chap Edward,


AS ever,


Hugo

'Ogu !

Caractacus Potts wrote:'Ogu !

Hugo

the rod finished at £560, which seems a good price, even if you had to put with the set in the tip!

Yep seems cheap looking at what other cane rods have been fetching recently

It is an idea when playing a decent fish on cane to turn it upside down during the fight, this goes a long way to even out stresses. Regardless of the maker and what they charge, bamboo is a natural product, a grass. Bend it and it will not bend back completely straight, fly rods manage to stay straighter in use as they are flexed back and forth on casting.

As a rod maker I do not use (neither do any of my aquantances) a bunsen burner, but a heat gun instead. Firstly a large and naked flame is a distinct fire hazard in a workshop envionment and also the chances of scorching/ burning the bamboo are greatly increased. The fine tip of a completed and varnished fly rod (with a slight set) is but a few millimeters across and would be set alight as soon as it touches a naked flame, even the heat close to it. Hard to believe but a flame can also actually infuse moisture into bamboo , strange but true. The heat gun, which may not be easily bestowed with magic qualities, is a controlled and dry heat, perfect for straightening as it does not easily scorch edges of pre planed bamboo. Mr Barder feeds his straightened and occassionally scorched around the edges (as seen in the Lost World of Mr Hardy film) through a milling machine which saws off the scorch marks. The sections need to be of a larger width in order to feed through. As a dedicated hand planer my strips are split finer as they sit in the form and are worked on with the plane, scorching edges contract making for troublesome planing. Commercial rod makers need to use machines in order to speed up production and save their joints.

For this rodmaker most of my hand work of straightening and planing go into the bamboo itself, the real heart of the rod.

It should be added that oven tempering is vital to a springy rod and there has been some very comprehensive research done in the US of the chemical changes that happen when bamboo is evenly heated at oven temperatures, a good temp. is 8 minutes at 375 degrees of the rough planed non tapered strips. Overdo it (as I have experienced) and the bamboo will be steely and hard to plane. R Walker used to temper his whole cane in front of an electric fire, which would I think be rather hit and miss. I do not know if Mr Barder heat treats his strips in an oven before final planing, if I owned one of his rods it would give me more confidence knowing that he does.

I have recently discovered that a lot of rod makers believe different things...and believe them vehemently!

Chapmans insist on using a gas flame because it has moisture in it, saying a heat gun is too dry.

The tip of a fly rod doesn't catch fire, by the way, because no cane ever goes in the flame, rather it is wafted above the flame for an appropriate time at an appropriate distance. Myself, I use a candle which is a little more gentle for my unskilled hands, but John Chapman uses a huge 16 inch diameter gas ring...turned up full!

I've watched him heat a huge section of cane with a long gentle curve, a 'spine', to it in one go and straighten it perfectly first time out.


Equally Chapmans bake their cane over-night to get it to the moisture level they deem correct, whilst nearby Ted Oliver insists this is wrong and cane must be tempered with a flame in just the correct manner to 'chase' ( his words ) the moisture out and not allow it to backtrack and get back in again.


My first thoughts were that they can't both be right, yet I've yet to hear a bad word about rods produced by either stable and Lord knows, between them, they've sold a few!

So I have to conclude that they are both right!


Not helpful, I know.......

Reference turning the rod round when playing fish,I do think you can do this on powerful rods but NOT with fine tipped rods like Perfection Roach and other similar roach rods .these are have stand of guides and in some instances the cane on the tip will want to twist which of course damages the fibres.