Good Evening all,

My son-in-law has a friend who has a bamboo rod he brought me to see if it can be repaired. The cork grip was rotted away and the reel seat was badly damaged. There are no identification marks of any kind on the rod, but the customer has a strong sentimental attachment to the rod. I am guessing that it was a mass produced rod from the thirties or forties—or maybe made in Japan. The ferrules appear to be nickel silver rather than chrome plated brass. There was no stripping guide—just snake guides. In removing the loose female ferrules, I discovered the bamboo had been shaped to fit the ferrule rather than the ferrule chosen to fit the blank. The varnish is very old and chipping away and I have removed all guides and the ferrules. Rust has formed on all of the guide feet and has stained the bamboo where the guide feet touched the blank. There does not appear to be any rot at these places. I do have some questions for any who have experience with bamboo rods.

First, I plan to scrape the blank using the back of a knife to remove the old varnish and try not to do any sanding because I think that those surface fibers are important to the strength of the blank. Can any of you suggest any alternatives? I would like to redistribute the guides using the SDT, but don’t want the rust spots to show. My customer sys he likes the way the rod casts.

Second, One of the tips has a place near the tip top that has come unglued. However the last 3/4 inch at the tip top is intact. By flexing I can see a gap which I might be able to insert some rod bond. However, I don’t think that I will be able to force rod bond into all of the crevices. If I do this, I plan to use an alcohol dampened cloth to remove all of the rod bond squeezed out. I then planned to tightly wrap the area with wrapping thread until the rod bond is dried. Another alternative would be to cut off the 3/4 inch so that the split could be more easily filled with rod bond. This will alter the action of the rod slightly. I would appreciate any comments from those who have a better idea since in terms of working with bamboo I am a neophyte.
The owner is also buying a custom steelhead flyrod from me and I told him I would try to keep the repair costs down for the bamboo rod. The repair is basically a complete rebuild. Luckily I have sufficient parts purchased many years ago that I am happy to use up.

Any ideas that any of you might give me would be greatly appreciated. You can post them on this forum or send them to me by e-mail. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Mike Blomme

Use a single edged razor blade and an angle instead of the knife, will come off faster and with a nicer finish on the surface.
The ferrule stations are always rounded for the ferrule, except for the quads.
The delam you talk about near the tip, take the tip top off, and use pins or a tooth pick and finish opening the delamination. Use some gorilla type polyurathane type glue, and bind, wait a day and unbind and scrape the foam off.
The black marks from the snakes can be removed using wood bleach.
You can gently sand and not hurt the power fibers.
Remove and replace both cork and reelseat just as you would if it were a graphite rod. You may find that the bamboo is glued into a 5/8" dowel, if so, just work with it. (some production companies used this method for "whatever reason" but the grip and reelseat was built on the dowel, Southbend is know for this in some of their models)

Have fun

Fred, Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I removed the reel seat yesterday and it came off with gentle heating. The adhesive that had been used was very black. The butt end of the bamboo blank had been rounded to fit the reel seat--no sign of a dowel. I will try to open up the tip end. Why did you suggest the Urethane type glue over the rod bond epoxy?

Thanks again.

Mike Blomme

Michael, I do bamboo rods all the time. Fred's suggestions are right on. The reason for the gorilla glue are that it is easier to find a small tube of it as opposed to buying a whole can of URAC for one small repair. also Rod bond is too heavy and not flexible enough. If you can get your hands on some benzoyl perioxide that kids use for zits, try it on the rust spots. I did it as a test and it works great. I just have the boys ask for an extra sample from the doc. If you have any more questions drop me a line

Gary,
Thanks for your comments as well. I just finished scraping and all went well. I was also able to separate the last 3/4 inch of the tip that was delaminating. The rod also came with a hosel made from chrome plated brass, but is is round rather than hexagonal so I will need to order a winding check. I have mounted a new reel seat and will begin making a cork grip. If all goes well, this guy is going to have very nice looking and expensive cheap bamboo rod. One thing I am learning is that working on bamboo rods is a heck of a lot more labor intensive. If I can overcome sticker shock, I might build a bamboo rod for personal use. I wanted to e-mail my thanks to you, but your e-mail is hidden. Thnaks for you help and that goes for fred as well. If this turns out well, I will post a picture.

Mike Blomme