Splitting

Taking a relatively beefy bamboo culm and splitting it lengthwise into several narrow sections more or less starts the physical process of working a chunk of grass into a flyrod or two (I have heard of one maker squeezing seven out of a large diameter culm by being frugal and scarfing scraps together!). If I get the two I am after, I will be a pretty happy guy.



I first split the butt sections into quarter-inch wide strips. Moving on to the tip sections, I split a bit narrower in order to squeeze more strips out of the culm and reduce the amount of excess planing that I do. To make a split, I first mark the culm where I would like it to split. I then align a knife on the very end so that it is perpendicular to the outside of the culm's diameter. When I am happy with the alignment I rap the knife with a rubber mallet to initiate the split. I then remove the knife and more or less "rip" the bamboo apart using my fully-gloved hands (this stuff is SHARP!).

Before I made my very first rod I completely destroyed a culm of bamboo trying to learn to do this. It was frustrating, but with a bit of guidance I was able to do much better on the second culm. Now I don't find it difficult, but I remember how I felt looking at all of those splinters on the floor!

Perhaps more interesting (perhaps less) is the way in which I decided to number and
bundle the strips for each rod. Sometimes there will be a stronger and weaker "side" to a culm of bamboo having to do with the conditions it was grown under and who knows what else. This is the subject of great debate. Come to think of it everything is the subject of great debate among rodmakers.

Endeavoring to match the rods as closely as possible and keep the splines "balanced," I chose strips from all sides of the culm, first for Lisa's rod. In other words, if you were to divide a cross section of the bamboo into six parts, I took one strip from each part. Then I chose adjacent strips to those for my version. From this point on, all of the strips need to be kept in the proper order, so I numbered everything using a system that makes absolutely no sense to anyone but me. System is probably a strong word, actually.

Once I had chosen and labeled all of the strips I bound them into bundles to simply keep them managable. The next step (and post) will be to establish proper node staggering and cut all sections to working length.