I just put the finishing touches on a batch of beautiful figured English Walnut reel seats for my bamboo fly rods. You never quite know how they will look from the starting blocks of walnut when you turn them down on the lathe and then apply the finish. Here is the “before” and “after” look.
Figured English Walnut Blanks Ready to be Turned on the Lathe
And the finished product
At the request of several folks, I’m now conducting one-on-one bamboo fly rod building classes at my shop. I recently completed a class with Charlotte, a local Bend resident. She worked very hard throughout the class and finished with a fantastic 8′ 0″ 6 wt bamboo fly rod from my Signature Series of rods. Here is her entire rod building process documented in photos.
Getting started selecting the bamboo
Marking the culm for splitting
Making the first split
Making big strips into small strips
Running Bamboo Strips through the Bellinger Beveller
Hand planing strips to final dimensions
Gluing the cork rings on the finished blank for the grip
Wrapping the winding check and guides
And the finished bamboo fly rod
Testing her new bamboo fly rod out on the Fall River
I had a great group of area bamboo rod builders get together at my shop today, Randy Beard, Skip Hosfield, Claude Darden, and Jeff Smith. We had a great time casting bamboo fly rods, sharing techniques, and “Talking Bamboo”. We don’t get the chance to do this very often, so we’re all hoping to have more of these get-togethers in the future.
Bamboo Rod Builder Get-Together
What do rod builders do when they get together….cast each other’s rods!
I just finished a new rod for Shawn from Portland. He’s a great angler, and this is the third bamboo fly rod I’ve built for him. He already has a 3 wt and a 4 wt rod, and this time he chose a 7′ 6″ 5 wt Signature Series Rod. I really enjoyed building this for him, and this week I joined him on the Metolius River to present the new rod to him….and fish a few hours. Lots of bugs were hatching and we were able to find quite a few rising fish, but, matching their dinner choice was difficult. We managed to tempt a few fish to our flies and had an absolutely great afternoon on the river. Here is Shawn with his new rod.
Getting ready to fish our 5 wt bamboo rods.
Shawn concentrating on a rising trout.
I spent some time this week with Charlotte, my newest rod building class student. She’s making great progress, and keeps proclaiming “This is way too much fun!”. Here she is running bamboo strips through the Bellinger Hand Planers Friend. Next up for her…straightening strips and starting the hand planing process. Here is Charlotte in action:
Running the Bellinger Beveler