A friend of mine gave me a very old bamboo rod to "re-do" . I think, in it's day this was a very nice rod and don't want to mess it up for sure!

I need a good way to remove the old flaky varnish that is on the rod without hurting anything.

Any help would be GREAT! And thank you in advance!

Lee

I have removed old varnish by taking a utility knife blade and. Carefully pulling it towards me while I hold it at a slight angle that slopes towards me.

Scraping it probably the safest method. Just be sure not to slice into the rod blank. Keep the blade at 90 degrees to the blank. A single edge razor blade is what I normally use for this, although a true scraped with a good burr would no doubt be faster, but could plane away some of the bamboo material at the same time. A blade held at 90 degrees doesn't run the risk of doing that.

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I would go with a dedicated scraper with a burr edge. A razor blade to me is just asking for cuts in the bamboo. A scraper held at an 85 degree angle with a proper burr will do what you want. Done it many times.

Ok, thanks, I'll do some experimenting on an old one I have that was broke and see how I do!

Thanks again for the fast answers!!

Simple

Do a search on the net on something like Building bamboo or rebuilding a bamboo rod You will come up with a lot of info and sites from pros who have done it many years

Bill - willierods.com