'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

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Canewrap
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#21

Post by Canewrap »

Don, how old were the culms you did HT on? If they were age cured, which was how it was in the old days, then Heat Treating would probably not effect strength, but it does seem to still affect how the bamboo reabsorbs moisture.
Last edited by Canewrap on 09/12/21 14:06, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#22

Post by 3creeks »

Theoretically, shouldn't different culms with different characteristics (albeit subtle) negate any ill effects when mixing them on a rod? For example, The last 3 rods I've built consisted of strips from two different culms. All had a 3-3 node stagger with the even strips from one culm and the odd strips were from the other. Both tips should perform identically if the taper was closely adhered to on all 12 strips. Right?

I'm here to learn so please correct my assumptions if they are incorrect, but it seems like introducing a variable like this in a controlled manner actually gives you more control. It's kind of like when I was learning to play golf and my teacher told me that hitting the ball dead straight wasn't possible on a consistent basis, so you either learned to hit a draw or a fade. Am I all wet?

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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#23

Post by penta-spey »

3creeks wrote:
09/12/21 13:53
... different culms with different characteristics (albeit subtle) negate any ill effects when mixing them on a rod ...
I think so; Yes, my thoughts exactly.

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Don Andersen
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#24

Post by Don Andersen »

The tests were done on cane purchased in 1980 from Demerast.
How old was the culms?
Well, at least 6 years at my end.

Don

PT48
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#25

Post by PT48 »

Members might find the following quote of interest:

"Kojiro uses one bamboo cane for one bamboo rod, and never mixes them. He believes that each cane has its individual character, and does not want to blend them. It sounded like single malt whiskey to my ears."

Page 76, Mostly Bamboo by Yuki Bando

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BigTJ
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#26

Post by BigTJ »

Winston purposely mixes their strips from different culms so their rod models have actions that are as similar as possible. The thought is that using a single culm will have its own characteristics. But maybe we are all just thinking too much.

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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#27

Post by PT48 »

TJ, I believe it is the rod makers who do most of the thinking. Gierach also talks about single culm makers in Fishing Bamboo. You will forgive me for finding this a fascination subject and very much at the heart of the mystique of bamboo fly rod construction.

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Tim Anderson
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#28

Post by Tim Anderson »

I make each rod out of a single culm. That is not because I think it is a better way to build a rod, but because it is convenient for me. I bought a lot of cane some time ago and the cost of the bamboo is not a major problem. Then again, I don't sell rods and make only limited numbers.

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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#29

Post by LeeO »

When I make rods for myself, I use leftover strips. I have a big pile and would have even more but I gave a bunch away. It takes only a little sorting to get node staggers that are acceptable.
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#30

Post by DonT »

Both Garrison and Wolfram Schott have addressed variability within a culm and some potential approaches to minimize this. Wolfram's paper on heat treating is must read for any serious maker as far as I'm concerned and he has an addendum in it that talks about within-culm variability in detail.

http://www.powerfibers.com/assets/files ... RATORY.pdf

I need to be clear that I don't think this really matters much if you pay attention to power fiber density and also spline your rods but stacking culm to culm variability on top of within-culm stirp stiffness variability is by definition going to give you a wider span of potential outcomes in the blank stiffness.
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BigTJ
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#31

Post by BigTJ »

PT48 wrote:
09/26/21 19:04
TJ, I believe it is the rod makers who do most of the thinking.
I resemble that remark.

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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#32

Post by bluesjay »

Hi Guys, "What are you incinerating."

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penta-spey
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Re: 'Made from a Single Culm' - anyone not convinced?

#33

Post by penta-spey »

Bamboo culms are thought to have a weaker side and a stronger side. The more I read about this the more I am wondering how bamboo rods even work at all sometimes. >:( One could get syked out by reading the expert's treaties. According to Milward we do not even know if the weak side of a culm extends the full length top to bottom; or me reading between the lines - does the weakness rotate around the culm to the 'strong' side?


But the proof is in the pudding and tonkin seems to be a very designer friendly material that responds quite well to even very small dimension changes.

Yes, the obviously weaker strips and those with visually less power fiber depth or density should be culled. But how can one be sure visually since power fiber density varies from top to bottom in a strip and its noticeably less near a node, you can only judge power fibers at the strip cut ends, correct?
When culling what one thinks are weaker strips is done, there still could be stiffness variabilities between culms with the strips that are left, and just maybe the single culm you have is one of the weaker ones. For those reasons I believe strips from multiple culms will produce a more consistent result from rod to rod.

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