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EXCERPTS CHAPTER V

Hollow building bamboo fly rod

LIGHTENING

When examining a bamboo culm, one notes that when going toward the centre, the fibre density is lower, and therefore the bamboo stiffness. One could consider removing the "weak" fibres whilst keeping only the "strongest".

In fact, I don't believe that this approach would justify the operation. Where do the weak fibres begin? When you have a strip thickness lower than one millimetre at the tip head and, after lightening, little more at the butt, you are bound to have partly cut into the "flesh". This is not important however as what remains is more than sufficient and the canes designed that way are not weaker than others. It would even be the other way round when using polyurethane cement.

One thing in favour of strip gouging is in order to lighten. The corresponding weight saving however does not look significant: 15 to17 grams for a 120 centimetres butt, 5 to 6 for a tip of the same length. Actually the mass removed from a component is solely important in relation to the place it is removed from and those 5 to 6 grams of the tip "weight" count more than the 15 grams of the butt.

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF LIGHTENING

The most important drawback of the bamboo, "its original sin", is its mass. "Too heavy, too heavy".

That is the outcry of the fishermen's "vox populi". But the "vox populi" is not "vox dei". For the mass of a cane is its weight at the balance, but its real weight is what you feel in your hand when you use it.

I know there are some carbon fibre rods that are, in this respect, "heavier", with a lower mass than some split rods. Nevertheless it is not only the rod action, which creates the weight or feeling of lightness; its actual mass is also relevant.
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The guides contribute towards the total mass and especially the guide at the tip tip when the rod is working. This together with the wraps, which are often too long, the varnish and the grip, etc. As for the sole ferrule for the split rods, this represents between a tenth and an eighth of the total with regard to the hollow split rods. You will see later how to obtain the maximum lightening for these accessories.

It is however possible to lighten the bamboo element by gouging it before cementing. This is not a new idea, and various craftsmen, such as Winston in the United States, have tried it. In France Pezon & Michel designed hollow prototypes. All the hollow rods have the same abominable shortcoming of the hollow tubes: ovalisation. Even with a hexagonal cross section, which moderates the phenomenon, this shortcoming is real and leads to a weakening and softening of the rod.

However, the lightening is very useful: So what can we do?  Merely not to gouge all along, but to just gouge short sections and it was Daniel Brémond who first had that idea around 1978. There are two advantages, lightening on the one hand and more reactivity on the other. Everybody knows that a tube, provided it doesn't ovalise, is generally stiffer than a plain rod (Sketch 5.1).

THE STRIP GOUGING

Gouging process

The planed strips are placed side-by-side; bark face down, on a flat board. They are then secured by three or four transverse adhesive strips. The adhesive tape is the type used for coach building as that used for carpets is too much strong. It is this layout that will be followed for the cementing.

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