here is the plan. what do you folks think.

i ordered an 8' two piece 5wt blank from jeff fultz. (i have one of jeffs blanks already and it is a wonderful casting rod). my plan is to use modern materials in an unconventional (for bamboo) configueration. the departure will be in the guides. i want to build it with single foot ceramics. my concern is weight in the tip. i intend to use fuji titanium guides in the smallest size i can get away with, especialoly in the tip. i know one of the guys on the board here built a similar bamboo rod with single foot guides. any thoughts? caviats?
i will use a coventional seat (bellinger with black ash insert) .i also intend to use thin cork rings (1/8" ) with pigment in the glue to emphasize the glue lines. will use silk wraps and
varnish. this will be my fourth bamboo. all of the others have been very traditional.

Larry
I have redone several older bamboo rods[Fly,Spin and Cast] in this non-tradintional manner. One is a 6.5 ft. H-I Geneva that I converted to a 7ft. Fly. Another was a 9ft. Montague Combo.redone with Fuji gold cermats,purpleheart handle & reel seat w/gold hardware.Both owners are very pleased.I personally think that if the old masters would have had these modern items available to them they certainly would have used them.

Rich brings up a good point - if the old makers had had better components, they would certainly have used them. For instance, they could have used the traditional hook and ring guide, but they chose snakes guides because they were the best at that time. If ceramics had been around them, I think you would have seen them on their rods.

...........

does anyone have any opinions regarding the guide size, keeping in mind that bamboo rods tend recover slower than the typical graphite rod and i don't want to over weight the tip section.

I've had good results using a running guide as a tip guide on several light (2,3 and 4 wt.) fly rods. I reccomend the Forhan security wrap on all single foot guides, especially when used as a tip. Perhaps, #10, 8, then 6's to and as the tip. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2005 05:46PM by Ralph Jones.

Because a bamboo rod is already intrinsicly heavier, resulting in slower recovery time, the choice of guides, tiptop etc. with respect to weight is going to have proportionately less effect than the same guides on graphite rods with much faster recovery times. Said another way, the per cent increase in weight and recovery time is less for bamboo rods, because they are effectively heavier to start with. I'd say use whatever hardware pleases you.

Mike

Hi Larry,
Mr. Eden Bromfield did a bamboo fly rod with single foot ceramic guides - a very beautifull (thats an understatement) rod I would like to add and I think the ceramics just made it so much more interesting

[www.rodbuilding.org]

You might want to contact him to ask if he noticed any disadvantages.

Peter

I saw it a while back but could not find it in the archives. thanks. his handle work is amazing. the rod is
a museum piece!

Rod building and bamboo rod making is an art form.... so,,,,,, why don't YOU be the artist !!!

Art

i am an artist. one who is not afraid to learn from the work of others. this site helps take all of us to a higher level than if we were working in a vacuum. i really appreciate the input from you folks.

I have been spared this same decision until last week, when I ordered a 4 weight bamboo blank. One thing you will notice going to ceramics is that the guide side flat on a hex blank is much narrower than you are used to, and a radiused foot is of no use at all.

On some other rods, I did have the idea to use one or two PacBay XSGs to transition from stripping guide to snakes/SF wire. At least this keeps the line off the rod til it passes the mid-ferrule, and the wire matches the look of the ceramic stripper. I would really like to build a rod with one tip finished tradionally and one modern, but I haven't figured out how to deal with the 2 running guides on the butt section. They would have to be ceramic for the ceramic tip section to work, and this would clash a bit with the traditional tip.

if performance is the main concern i guess we can do anything to get us there. when you try to combine asthetics with performance the challenge has more elements. keeps it interesting doesn't it? with two tips it does present some possibilities. a true "dry fly" tip. and a "wet fly" tip maybe. the dry fly tip with the light components to enhance tip speed and the heavier components on the wet fly tip to slow it down and open up the loop. i don't know if that really would work in the real world, since true wet fly tapers in bamboo require a rod to bend deep into the butt section and a dry fly taper is more tip flex.

Exactly so for the wet and dry configurations. Doubt if it would make much difference casting but sounds good. I was looking at the H&H strippers and am thinking a 12, 10, and 8 on the butt. They are ceramic but still have the style of the older strippers. Course, 2 too many strippers for a traditional look.