Chris Bogart
Having now built more than a dozen nodeless rods since my last article, I feel the time is right to consolidate and update the information on nodeless construction techniques. As I have perfected my nodeless construction techniques and methods I find even more reasons to stick with building nodeless rods. The use of nodeless construction techniques for building bamboo fly rods has many benefits for the rodmaker. Some basic benefits for the builder are as follows:
- Efficient utilization of the bamboo culm, especially for damaged culms and for 1 piece rods. - No special heat treating oven required. - Ease of splitting. - Spliced strips are straight. - Ease of planing. - Very little straightening is normally required.
Building a nodeless rod is no longer the Herculean Feat or Holy Grail Rodmaking that the Garrison book made it appear. The construction techniques required have been updated and simplified. The average rodmaker can easily accomplish a nodeless rod in the same time or even less than it takes him to build a rod now.
Nodeless construction allows the rodmaker to view the culm differently. The reason is that you manufacture your strips from short sections. My first rod was from a bad culm that had a serious burn mark from heat straightening done in China. The butt section would have been unusable for a noded rod. I cut this lower part of the culm off and discarded it. I now had a 9 culm. It was more than sufficient to build a rod.
You can opt for a flamed or blonde rod. I have built them both ways. A flamed nodeless rod will show bad splices more readily than a blonde rod. I did my flamed nodeless rod as a training exercise to help develop my splicing skills. If you choose flamed, then flame your culm as usual before any of the following steps.
Now cut out the nodes. Cut approx. 1 in. from the center of the node. The resultant scrap node will be about 2 in. long. Several helpful hints here: - A hacksaw is not the best implement to cut bamboo. I have found a Japanese Razor Saw to be the best hand saw to use. A world of difference, it really cuts fast and makes this an easy task. Use the fine tooth (22 - 24 tpi) side of the saw.
- A power bandsaw also works well. Remember to turn (rotate) the uncut culm into the blade instead of trying to saw straight through. Failure to do so can result in splinters in the bamboo where the blade comes out on the bottom.
- Mark the butt end side of each section piece as it is cut with a colored marker. Use a different color for each section. Record the color sequence order for future reference. A strip of masking taper for this purpose.
Heat treat the culm sections. I treat the sections for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. A normal kitchen oven can serve the purpose. Several helpful hints here:
- Always preheat the oven to given temp for at least 15 minutes.
- Use a high temp thermometer to double check the stove s thermostat. An inexpensive canning thermometer serves this purpose well.
- If the oven is small, you may treat the culm sections to be used for the tip and butt separately. I normally use the top 3 to 4 sections for the tip sections and then the next 2 to 3 sections for the butt depending on length of the finished rod.
- Halfway through the heat treating, flip the sections back to front to insure even heat distribution. If you have a convection oven, you may not need to do this.
Split each culm section. I split each section into 24 pieces. Some helpful hints here:
- Use a bamboo froe ,a wooden mallet, and a 6 in. square block of wood as a chopping block.
- Stand the culm sections on end longways as if you were splitting wood for the fireplace.
- Place the froe on the culm section perpendicular to the enamel where you want to split and strike with mallet. The section should split easily.
- To get 24 pieces from each culm section - split in half, then each half into thirds, each third in half, then each half in half (2 x 3 x 2 x 2 = 24).
- Wrap the 24 pieces for the section together with masking tape insuring all the colored ends are pointed in the same direction. Put aside and continue on till all sections are split.
Determine a strategy as to how the culm sections are to be spliced together to get strips long enough. To insure the spliced strip is long enough, take the desired finished length of the rod section plus 5 for scrap and at least 3 inches to stagger the splices. Helpful hints:
- For rough figuring of the length of a splice section from culm pieces use the total length of the pieces minus 4 per splice. For 3 pieces with a total length of 48 you can figure the glued spliced result will be approx. 40 .
- Tip sections can normally be done from consecutive culm sections. Normally tips can be done from the top 3 - 4 culm sections.
- Butt sections may require that two of the longer lower culm section pieces be used consecutively to get the length required without. I normally take the 2 - 3 culm sections below those I used for the tip section and because I only need 6 strips use 1 piece from the lowest culm section and 2 pieces each from the next two culm sections so that the finish strip is made up of pieces in the following order: 1-2-2-3-3. This gives me enough length and powerfiber in the sections for a butt section without making excessive splices from the lowest culm sections.
Prepare the culm section pieces to be spliced. Some helpful hints:
- Layout all the culm sections pieces for one strip at a time in order with the colored end pointing toward the butt end.
- Plane the rough pith off the back of each strip to insure a flat parallel surface to the enamel side being careful not to take too much material off.
- Mark the pith side of each section piece with pencil so after the splice is planed you know the order of the pieces in the strip and which side is the butt side if pieces get out of order.
Plane the splices for all the pieces in a strip. All pieces in a strip should be placed in the splice block with the enamel side facing the same direction. For a rod section, plane 3 strips with the enamel facing left and 3 with the enamel facing right. Helpful hints:
- Place each strip securely into the splicing block so the end of the piece just sticks out on the bottom side.
- Start planing the highest part of the piece sticking out taking off about .008 shavings .
- Plane flat to the block. If you are using a wooden splicing block, then finish the splice off using a mill bastard file even with the block.
- Flip the piece to splice the other end, keeping the enamel facing the same direction.
Dry fit the pieces in a strip together and mark a truth line on each splice in the strip. helpful hints:
- Pick up the first two pieces in the strip and check the splice joint to insure both planed surfaces are flat and you have a tight fit.
- Sight down the two pieces joined together and position them so you have a straight strip being formed.
- With a pencil, put a line across the splice to serve as your truth mark when gluing that insures the pieces are aligned.
Glue and clamp the strip together.
- Choice of glue for splices should be compatible with the glue you will glue the rod up with. Problem can exist with glues that are heat sensitive (Titebond and Hide glues) and a glue that requires a thermal set (Nyatex Epoxy).
- Put wax paper down on the area where you want to glue the pieces up. This serves as a good surface to glue on and doesn t absorb the glue as newspaper does.
- Lay out 3 clamps per splice joint.
- Glue the two pieces. For the first couple of times do one splice joint at a time. Later you can glue all the splice joints in a strip after you have become proficient at fitting the pieces together.
- The best way to get a good fit and insure the enamel surfaces are flush is to use your fingers. They will tell you if the two enamel surfaces are not flush. After a splice has been made run your finger over the splice to see if you can feel if they are offset. - Best way to clamp is to hold the two pieces in the middle of the splice and clamp one end, then clamp the middle, and lastly the remaining end.
- If you have good natural light through a window, hold the splice up to see if the surfaces are flush.
After the glue has dried, remove the clamps and dress the strips. Some helpful hints:
- First remove excess glue from the enamel side using a mill bastard file. I use the file to knock off the excess glue and also to smooth any splice where the enamel may not be totally flush. If you run your fingers the length of the strip you should feel no bumps on the enamel side of the strip. . This will give you a smooth flat surface for future planing.f
- Plane excess glue off the pith side at the splices. This also should produce a smooth surface.
- Turn the strips on edge and plane the side of the splice smooth. Plane in the direction of the splice and not against it. This means you will have to flip the strip for the second side. Also when you plane the side of the strip do so trying to maintain the 7 1/2 degree angle that you first form needs that results from normal splitting of the culm.
Layout the dressed strips putting the all splices that are in one direction together and those in the other direction in another group. Now offset the groups so the splices do not align up. The splices should be offset a minimum of two inches on center but can be more. I do this for structural strength of each splice. I do not recommend that splices should form a picket fence pattern when put together. Too many glue joints coming together at the same spot. Now measure and cut strips to desired length.
You should now have strips that are both straight, flat, and heat treated. You now can find your angles and proceed as normal. You will find planing is much easier and simpler not having to deal with nodes. The only minor planing problem I know off is a dull plane can cause a very minor chipout at the beginning of a splice when planing against the splice. When I am ready to do my final planing to dimension, I first do one pass with a sharp plane down the side against the splice to get it flat and then do the remainder of the planing required on the other side in the direction of the splice to avoid this problem altogether.
Although the remainder of the building of a rod is the same, I find there is a tremendous amount of time will be saved in all planing phases. Planing is easier and quicker not having to deal with nodes. Additionally, a nodeless rod usually comes out of the gluing process remarkably straight, requiring little or no straightening.
I wish you good luck in building nodeless rods and hope you will see the benefits this construction technique has.
