The angler's workshop

Front matter

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Bosion Public Library

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I—A REVIEW oF FISHING Rop History... 1 II—Fisuinc Rop MATERIALS............. 19 III—MounTInG AND FINISHING MATERIALS. 4I IV—Toots NEEDED IN RODMAKING........ 62 V—tTypes or Bait-CastTine Rops........ 68 VI—OneE-Pitce Bait-CastTine Rops...... 73 VII—One-Piece Bait-Castinc Rops WitTH SEPARATE HANDGRASPS............. OI VIII—Two-Pirece Bait-Castine Rops...... 97 IX—TuHRrEE-PiEcE Rops................... 104 X—SPLitT BAMBOO RODS..............006- 109 DmRETONY ATER: RODS: ...... 00s csp en eos 131 XII—Bass AND Trout Fiy-Rops........... 138 Dt teesALMON ELY-RODS....6. (06 s/s cs ows 144 MEME IVINDING RODS ......-02. 000s devncvn 152 XV—VARNISHING Rops .................. 170

Introduction

THERE are so many anglers who take pleasure in making and repairing their own rods and fishing tackle that I have set down some simple hints that may be of use to anglers who are not as yet skilled in work of this character. Like most of them, I have worked with few and simple tools. The methods I shall describe may seem amateurish and crude to the skilled professional rodmaker, but the novice who is guided by them will pass many a pleasant hour, and will turn out rods of which he should be proud.

The work described is that which the novice can perform with the plainest tools, principally file, sandpaper, jackknife and plane.

Perry D. FRAZER.

New York City,

January, 1908.

CHAPTER I A Review of Fishing Rod History

When we speak of fishing rods to-day, reference is invariably made to those rods that consist of two or three parts fitted with splices or ferrules for greater convenience in carrying to and from the fishing grounds.

Without question the best rod is one made of a single piece, or of strips rent and glued, but with no joint or ferrule to interfere with its resilience and action.

That it is next to impossible to carry a full length rod on trains and in other conveyances is obvious; hence the skill of amateur and professional rodmakers is constantly directed toward the task of making the two and three joint rods as nearly perfect in every way as is possible under the circumstances. That they succeed very well indeed is evident in the beautiful rods now used in fishing and in tournament casting.

For several centuries all of the best fishing rods were made in Great Britain. There solid wood rods were the favorites; in fact—with the exception of rods made with spliced cane and whalebone tips—the only rods used until a comparatively short time ago, when the rent and glued cane rods invented and made by Ameri- ‘cans were adopted abroad. Even to-day solid wood rods are very extensively used in Great Britain. Their manufacturers have never been very successful in competing with the best American hexagonal split bamboo rods, and some of their fly-rods are made up from split-and-glued material purchased in the United States and sold as English rods. High grade American split bamboo rods, too, are well known and liked over there.

Hickory has been largely used in England for parts of medium and heavy fly-rods, the material being shipped from the United States and Canada in billet form. Other materials are: Ash, lancewood, whalebone and cane combined; ash and lancewood in combination; willow, blue mahoe, washaba (our bethabara), whole cane, greenheart, and greenheart and whole cane combined. For a number of years greenheart alone, or greenheart in combination with whole cane, was a standard rod material there, but this is of comparatively recent adoption, as angling writers of fifty years ago seldom refer to greenheart. Alfred Ronalds, writing in 1836, said:

“The best materials are, ash for the stock, lancewood for the middle, and bamboo for the top.

Mr. Ronalds had in mind the whole bamboo which, according to later writers, was first imported into England by army officers returning from India. They, however, looked on it with favor because it was ideal for lances, and perhaps their preference for the thick-walled canes, now called “male’’ bamboos, led to the belief that was prevalent for many years, that this was better for rod making purposes than the thin-walled ‘female’ canes. Exhaustive tests with scientific instruments have proved the thin-walled bamboo better for the purpose. Theophilus South, in his “Fly-Fisher’s Text Book” (London, 1845), prefers ash to willow 3 for butts, hickory for middle joints, and favors tips made from lancewood, cane and whalebone, spliced together—four and even five pieces in a tip. D

The African greenheart, obtainable in the yards of the importers in Stanley road, Liverpool, is probably much better material for fishing rods than the greenheart sold in the United States, which comes from various places in the tropics. That which comes through Liverpool is picked over by the British buyers, and our importers must take what is left. This probably accounts for the growing scarcity of first class greenheart. Not a few of our rodmakers decline to guarantee this material, which is most excellent for the purpose when it is good.

Early fishing rod materials in the United States were: ash and lancewood in combination; hickory, mahoe, greenheart, washaba (bethabara), snakewood, beefwood, cedar, osage orange, shadblow, ironwood, dagama, peppercane, Calcutta bamboo,-our Southern canes, jucara prieto and many others.

Years ago it became a common practice to saw or rive strips of wood, plane these square, glue four pieces together and plane round to form rod joints. The belief was that joints so made were much stronger and less likely to break than would be the case with a joint made from a single piece of wood. This method was followed by splitting strips of bamboo, planing two sides of each strip and gluing four of them together to form a joint, then planing the latter ia SV round. This was made possible by placing the enamel side of the bamboo within the strip, as shown by the shaded lines in Fig. 1.

The enamel surface being slightly convex, it was difficult to work and glue these strips to form nice joints, and this method, which seems to be ideal in other respects, gave way to one in which the enamel was placed on the outside, and the section made almost octagonal in form by means of planing off the corners, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. This method is still followed to a certain extent by amateurs in making tips, and for the beginner at split bamboo rod making, it has many points of excellence. The principal ones are that it is easier to make a joint of four than six pieces, and if these are carefully fitted, glued and varnished a fairly good rod is the result.

It is possible the manufacture of these fourstrip rods of solid wood or cane, and the difficulty in keeping water out of them with the inferior glue and varnish then available, resulted in the method often followed of winding joints solidly with silk thread or narrow silk tape. This made the rod soft or logy and was discarded finally, to be revived in recent years, and again discarded.

The four-section cane rods gave way to Ssixstrip rods, and these have come to stay. They have been used successfully for the past generation and have outlived their offshoots, the eight-strip, the seven-strip and the steel-centered single and double-built rods, showing that they are based on very sound principles.

It is the belief among rodmakers that in a hexagonal rod the upper and the lower strips are called upon to perform the greater part of the work of casting and playing a fish, but the strain on the upper strip is supported, not by the lower strip alone, but by the three lower strips, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. FIG. 4.

When the greatest strain falls on the lower strip, the three upper strips support it, as pictured in Fig. 4. This seems to be borne out ‘by the fact that in tournament casting—the hardest work a fly-rod is called upon to perform—it frequently occurs that the lower strip is fractured, but the strength of the rod is but little impaired, and turning the rod so that the break comes on the side leaves it in good shape for further use, if the point where the strip is fractured be wound with silk and varnished. Our English friends, not satisfied with plain hexagonal split cane rods, have resorted to double built rods, to steel cores, and to winding in double spiral form with ribbons of steel, but

FIG. 5.

Hexagonal cane rod, steel wire Hexagonal cane, center and steel tube center. double built.

while these methods are moderately successful with them, the result is to overload the rod, making it top heavy or logy. Sectional views of these are shown in Figs. 5 to 9 inclusive. Frederic M. Halford, in his book, ‘“Dry-fly Fishing’? (London, 1902), says of American fly-rods that, judging from those he has seen, they

“are too whippy for our insular ideas and seem 8 generally to lack backbone. They are also rather light in the point, the effect of which is to render it difficult if not impossible to recover a long line with them. The fashion of the present day is to use a rod that is slightly topheavy, and although this is more trying on the wrist, yet, considering all points, is a fault the right way.”

FIG. 6.

Octagonal cane rod. Nonagonal cane rod. Both steel center and double-built.

His preference then was for a rod 9% to II feet long, so it must be assumed that he referred to American rods of light weight. This seems to be true, for he quotes Francis Francis who, in his “Book on Angling,” told of making a cast of twenty-six yards with a 10% foot rod. No American five-ounce rod of the present time 9 would be accepted as a gift if it failed to lay out seventy-eight feet, and the average six-ounce rod, in the hands of an angler of ordinary skill, will send the fly yards further, if the need arises.

Mr. Halford says there are only three materials worth considering: split cane, greenheart and whole cane, in the order given. Aside from its fault of occasionally snapping off short, he likes greenheart, but gives double enamel split cane the preference.

FIG. 7. é Steel-ribbed split-bamboo rod,

I quote Mr. Halford at some length, for of all modern English angling literature his books on “Dry-fly Fishing,’ ‘“Dry-fly Entomology” and others, and his numerous papers on angling are, to me at least, the most impressive. Among other things his clearness of expression and his habit of giving more than full credit to his friends for angling hints show his sincerity and fairness.

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But Mr. Halford had no patience with steel-centered rods; in fact, he says that the controversy in the English press anent the inventor of the method was a waste of ink and paper, as steel-centered rods were of no practical use. “Consider,” says he, “the effect of rigidly fastening the two materials together. The one with

Fic. 8. FIG. 9.

Eighteen-strip rod, and method of forming each of the three-piece strips.

the quicker action must of necessity tend to hurry the slower material, and the one with the slower action must equally of necessity tend to retard the action of the quicker material. What must be the effect? A tendency to disintegrate their union. For me,” he continues, “they have not cast better; they have not cast more easily; they II have not cast more accurately, than the ordinary split cane by the same maker. They are certainly more tiring to the wrist, and when killing a fish I do not think that they give any real accession of power.”

In 1889 Hardy Brothers employed an engineer who tested specimens used in rodmaking. All were 24 inches long, .32 of an inch in diameter for round rods and .16 of an inch on each side of the triangular sections of glued-up hexagonal rods. The tests were for resilience, deflection, number of vibrations before coming to rest with various weights, specific gravity and breaking strain. The best results obtained, in the order given, follow: double enamel glued cane, steel centered; double enamel glued cane; hexagonal glued cane, steel center; hexagonal glued cane; greenheart, built up; hickory built up; round greenheart; lancewood.

In theory at least it would seem that in a rod wound with narrow steel wires, these would constantly shift with the spring of the rod, relaxing in hot weather and contracting on cold days, the general effect being to shear windings and varnish, and to rust. Certain it is that one of the British firms which adopted steel ribbing some years ago, now advocates a braided silk sheath to cover the steel.

A Frenchman has made rods in which flat steel strips have been let into the wood, and my impression is that a British manufacturer has adopted the invention.

Some years ago a Scotchman invented a similar method, but he used fine piano wires instead, one being let into each of the six strips and wound with silk. Unfortunately he died before succeeding in his efforts to interest a manufacturer in his work.

In America not much attention has been paid to steel centers or steel whipping for rods. One firm makes a steel center rod, and another one winds both wood and split bamboo rods with copper or bronze ribbons in much the same manner employed abroad in winding with double spirals of steel. I have one of these metalwhipped rods, and must say that it has merit, for with it a fly can be cast very prettily in trout fishing, and it is no doubt strong, but to one accustomed to an ordinary split bamboo it has an action which, while pleasant, is peculiarly its own. Without wishing to disparage these methods of strengthening rods, for my own use I prefer plain whipping with narrow bands of fine silk at intervals of three-fourths to one and one-half inches, and believe these are sufficient for any rod of the class generally made in the United States.

As previously stated, attempts to strengthen rods by winding them solidly with silk have been made here during the last half century, but while it is claimed for these rods that they seldom break and will withstand severe strain, I would not advise the amateur to attempt solid winding. Rods wound solidly with silk on a machine are bound in all places with equal pressure, and if this winding gives strength, as claimed, the strengthening medium is uniform. In winding by hand you will at first lay the silk on with the greatest tension you can exert, but it is tedious work, and after a few minutes your fingers will begin to cramp and ache and you will wind less carefully. When you stop to rest the tension is relaxed, then you resume with vigor, and so on until the long contract is finished. The result must be that the silk is wound so tight in places that it will cut into the wood when the preserving medium causes it to shrink; elsewhere there will be loose spots, followed by tight places—anything but uniform winding, giving you a soft rod.

In this way you may defeat your purpose, yet never know where the real fault lies. Ten to one the wood will be given the blame, as being poor, and you may try the same thing with another rod, to be again disappointed.

It can be said with perfect safety that six-strip split bamboo is to-day the favorite fishing rod material in the United States. More rods of this sort are used in fly- and bait-casting for fish and in tournaments than all other materials combined. They are even replacing solid wood to a certain extent in salt water fishing. Many great factories have been working steadily to their full capacity for several years, turning out split bamboo rods for the markets of the world, and the best of them have been for a long time and are now far behind with their orders. It is a good trade, that of a first class fishing rod maker; one in which steady employment is certain.

While our British friends are still experimenting with rod materials, using cane and wood and steel in combination, our makers are plodding along with their work, turning out the best hand made split bamboo rods the world has ever known, and satisfying their patrons. In years they have not added to their rods any features of startling importance, but they have instead constantly endeavored to produce perfect rods, until to-day the best hand made rods are indeed works of art, yet powerful and durable withal.

Only one change from the regulation six and eight-strip rods is prominent. This is a method patented several years ago by the late Fred D. Divine, consisting in twisting the six strips slightly while the glue is still fresh, so that the joints are spiral, the theory being that a rod so treated is stiffened and that the work does not fall on the upper and lower strips alone, but on each one of the six. The method is highly spoken of by anglers, and I myself have used such a rod with pleasure and satisfaction. Atone time I tested two fly-rods that were exactly alike in length, caliber and weight, one spiral, the other plain six-strip. They were held on a table side by side while a half-ounce weight was suspended from each tip. The spiral rod sagged very little, whereas the other drooped four inches lower.

The steel rod, that has become so popular in the Middle West and South for. hard use, is now often employed for bait-casting.

On salt water bethabara, ash and lancewood, dagama, lancewood and greenheart are the favorite materials, although, as stated above, split bamboo is coming into more general use.

In fly-casting there has been very little change in types of rods during the past decade, but in bait-casting a complete change has taken place, and to-day the bait-caster’s methods are more nearly like those of the fly-caster’s than ever before, in that both use artificial lures in preference to live bait wherever success is at all possible. Both are working toward finer tackle and are following more sportsmanlike methods in fishing as a pastime.

Until quite recently angling for game fish in fresh waters consisted in casting the fly; in casting with medium weight rods and minnows or other live bait, sometimes attached to a spoon or spinner; in still-fishing with minnows, worms, grubs or other insects; in trolling with live or artificial lures. There were other forms, but these will suffice for the present. Nearly all rods were long and heavy. In order to make one of these, skill of no mean order was required, and amateurs who made attempts were more often disappointed than satisfied.

Then came the change in the methods of using the bait-casting rod. Extremists went from rods of eight and nine feet to those of six, five, four, even less than four feet in length, but as time passed and experience has been gained, many of them have settled on five or six feet as a very satisfactory length for the superb little rods with which they cast a long line and some form of artificial lure, using a free-running multiplying reel.

It is possible to make these new rods as light and almost as graceful as the trout fly-rods. Angle worms and live minnows and doodlebugs are no longer considered necessary by way of lure, and the methods of the bait-caster may be made as cleanly and as skillful as those of his brother of the fly-rod.

Chapter II

THERE are many anglers who are fond of doing things themselves, and to such of them as fancy bait-casting, the idea of making their own rods appeals strongly. And while it is beyond most of them to make a passable rod nine feet in length, such as was used years ago, there are very few persons possessed of ordinary skill who cannot make a short rod of the type that is popular to-day.

To give assistance to those who would like to try this fascinating pastime is the purpose of this book. I disclaim any scientific knowledge in the art. Rather, I have simply plugged along at the work, making mistakes and correcting them, doing things topside down, perhaps, as a professional rodmaker might say, but attaining the end sought, after a fashion, in time.

During the past decade I have made almost every type of rod, and have worked split bamboo, dagama, lancewood, hickory, ash, greenheart, washaba (bethabara), jucara prieto and other materials, but in no part of my rodmaking have I had any better facilities for working rapidly and easily than the average busy man commands, hence I feel confident in telling the novice how he can do this and that part of the work,.for I am giving the results of my own experience, backed by the sage advice of some of the best known professional and amateur rodmakers and anglers, to many of whom I am greatly indebted for friendly criticism in my efforts to assist beginners.

One thing which this slow and methodical hand work has taught me is this: To take advantage of everything which will simplify the work of rodmaking and finishing. I would have you bear this in mind in reading the chapters that are to come. Some of my methods may seem clumsy to those of you who have access to machine tools, or who have been advised by professional rodmakers; but the average beginner at rodmaking will work with even poorer facilities, perhaps, than I have commanded, and for him the methods described may be of some value. Above all things I wish to make all steps plain and simple. They are not scientific, but are practical.

It is folly for the beginner to attempt to make his first rod of split bamboo, or even to obtain glued-up stock and fit it. Instead, he should obtain that material which is easiest to manipulate, and carry the work through to some sort of conclusion. Then, and only then, will he master the first step in rodmaking and begin to realize how easy and yet how difficult it is to make a good rod.

Without question split bamboo is the best material known to-day. If you can obtain the material in butts, joints and tips, glued-up, so that the “making” consists merely in finishing it and fitting handgrasp, ferrules and trimmings, if care is exercised a very good rod will be the result. But I would strongly advise the novice not to attempt to make a split bamboo rod complete; at least not until he has had ample practice in making all-wood rods. Instead, pay a visit to some professional rodmaker, if this be possible, at a time when he is making split bamboo rods, and ask permission to watch him at work for a little while. If you do, my word for it, you will go away a wiser if not a sadder man, for you will be convinced that you lack the skill necessary to finish the six slender strips and fit them together perfectly, even if you can secure bamboo that will prove to be worth cutting up.

This is one of the difficulties encountered in rodmaking, for not all of the material that looks good will be worth the labor of cutting. I know one old rodmaker who, on splitting out his material, tests each slender strip by bending until the ends meet, then examining the circlet for weak spots, and if any appear he smashes the whole piece and tries again—a severe test, but one that will show defects before further labor is wasted. Not that this is the correct test, but it is one of several, the most important one being an examination based on long experience.

Some of the best rodmakers will supply you with glued-up butts and joints, and if you are determined to make your first rod of this material, select these somewhat longer than the joints of your rod-to-be, so that you can pick out the best part of each piece when you come to fitting the ferrules. Take only hand made stock, for machine made material is not always worth using. The hand made stock will cost more than you anticipate, but it is much cheaper in the end. If glued-up split bamboo is to be the material, the method of performing the different parts of the fitting will be the same as described further on for all-wood rods.

Next to split bamboo in the woods easily obtainable in the open market comes washaba, or, as it is known in the trade, bethabara. This is a heavy wood, but it is nicely adapted to short bait-casting rods, and one can be made to weigh five to six and one-half ounces, and very slender, that will be exceedingly powerful and full of ginger. Hence the weight of bethabara does not signify. Bethabara slightly resembles butternut or a light grade of black walnut in color; with this exception, that when freshly sawed the surface is covered with greenish yellow dust, very heavy and a bit sticky to the touch, giving one the impression that the wood has been sprinkled with yellow ochre. The wood being so hard, the rough saw marks hide the grain, and it is difficult to tell a good piece from a bad one. Look closely at all sides, or better, scrape two sides until the grain will show, and if there are any knots or if the corners show splinters that may be broken off short, discard it and look further. Pound the sticks smartly on the floor and examine closely for worm holes, which, although very small, are fatal to good material.

I have said that the wood shows dust of a greenish-yellow color, but this seems partially absent in some bethabara. I prefer the grade which shows this characteristic, and which the English rodmakers call green washaba; but the brown washaba, the grade that does not, is much harder and has a closer and longer grain in the perfect pieces, although it seems more difficult to get perfect pieces in this grade. Hence it is well to stick to the green or dusty grades, which run nice as a rule and can be planed from both ends and on all sides with impunity. Some dealers sell other varieties of imported woods for bethabara, and some try to supply very poor greenheart instead; but reliable men may be depended on to give you what you ask for. The fine shavings from bethabara are so wiry and tough that a handful of them can be used for a long time in polishing finished joints. They cling together totally unlike those from greenheart, which are short and very brittle.

Bethabara logs are sawed into planks which go to the rodmakers in thicknesses of seven-eighths of an inch, sometimes more. Generally the lumbermen cut logs into pieces seven-eighths by one inch and three feet long, but you can get other lengths. These pieces must be ripped. If, however, they will cut the material to your order, it will be well to have the butt five-eighths of an inch and the tips three-eighths for a two-piece rod; There is a good deal of cutting before you can be satisfied with the squared stock; and another thing, you must decide which end of your stock is to be the butt, or large end, before you begin to taper it.

There are two or three peculiarities about this wood that will astonish you at first. Stock that is cut thin may be very crooked. I have worked pieces so crooked that it seemed a waste of time to do anything with them, but after they were finished and the rod hung up by the top on a brad driven into the wall, all the kinks soon disappeared and the rod became as straight as a perfect arrow.

This method of straightening is advisable with any rod, and especially tips. Where rods are put away in tackle cabinets or closets, with all parts tied up in a cloth partition case, it very often happens that one of the strings of the case is tied more securely than the others, thus bending the tips slightly; and, if left in this shape for long, with perhaps some heavy object resting against all, a very crooked rod may be taken out later on. Even standing joints on the floor with the tops resting against the wall may warp them. Better hang tips up, and the whole rod, too, if practicable. Dealers who handle the finest wood rods often suspend them all from the tops in cases made for this purpose.

Bethabara as a rule does not warp or take set easily, but cut any wood into thin strips and throw it about and it will warp out of shape. Varnish puts an end to this, as it prevents rapid changes of temperature from affecting the wood easily.

In preparing to work bethabara, put on a pair of overalls or a long apron. The dust is very penetrating and somewhat sticky, and there is an _ oily substance that adheres to the edge of the plane, dulling it until removed. Wash your hands with soap and water, and you will be surprised to see the water turn a deep salmon color, and the lather from the soap just like so much red paint. No stain need be feared, however, although old rodmakers tell me that after continued working of this wood, their hair takes on a slight pinkish shade, due, evidently, to the action of the alkali in the soap.

Dagama in perfect pieces is even more easily obtainable that bethabara, and of all the rod materials known I strongly advise the beginner to make his first rod of dagama. He will have less difficulty in working it, is more likely to get first-class stock of nice straight grain, and it will give him good satisfaction. Having in mind the disappointing experiences I had in my first attempts to work bethabara, due for the most part to poor material, I asked several of the best known firms of rodmakers for their opinions, and these agreed perfectly with my own, which is that while first-class bethabara will give better satisfaction, dagama of good quality is more easily obtained, can be worked to better advantage by the novice, and will make a good rod.