The Lovely Reed: Part 3

…people tend to get the politicians, and the fishing tackle, they deserve.

John Gierach

I got on the elevator at the lovely old historic hotel I’m hiding out in completely exhausted, in old jeans and a fleece jacket, covered with bamboo shavings and sawdust. Inside the elevator was a handsome middle aged woman dressed to the 9’s, impeccably coifed, with a large pour of pinot noir in a crystal glass. When the door closed she looked at me and blurted out “You’re not here for the bridal show are you?’ I smiled, and when the door opened for my floor I told her “No honeybunch, I’m not.”

Comprehending the technical perfection of a finished bamboo rod is a little intimidating.  The differences between a five weight rod and a six weight rod are about 5 thousandths of an inch (less than the thickness of a sheet of typing paper). Similar tolerances apply to ferrules, silk wraps, and finishes. It turns out, the secret is approaching perfection in baby steps. The hand planeing of the strips proceeds through stages, each successively more fine grained, each relying on its predecessor. The final perfection does not become easier exactly, but it does become comprehensible. I could see, on day 3, how I will get there.

Today the strips passed through a router -powered mill that roughed them into triangular cross-sections (I did some of them by hand just for practice) and the careful adjustment of the planeing form and the secondary planeing began.  We also glued up the cork rings that will become the rod’s grip (right now they look like a camshaft).  Pics and a video follow!

A hexagonal bundle of strips

Adjusting the planeing form

Secondary planeing in 5 thousandths increments

Gluing and pressing cork rings into the beginnings of a handle