YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, FISH CANE ………..
Trout rods have a long and storied past. The first rods were built out of Calcutta Cane back to 1846 by a gunsmith and violin maker by the name of Samual Philippe, and were first made using four strips. By 1860 Samual’s son, Solon, started making rods utilizing 6 strips. In 1882 Hiram Lewis Leonard was building 6 strip Calcutta cane rods in his shop in Maine. Many of whom we consider “The Greats”, learned their craft under his mentoring and came out of his shop only to begin building their own rods.
Tonkin Cane, or called by it’s Latin name of Arundinaria amabilis (translated The Lovely Reed), is the material used for almost all modern cane rods and has been so since the 1930’s. This amazing material is grown along the Sui River in the provinces of Kwangsu and Kwantung, China. The entire country of The Republic of China consists of approximately 3,700,000 square miles. The entire growing area of tonkin cane consists of only a 20 to 30 mile square area. These stalks can grow to lengths of nearly 40 feet and have the properties that are best suited to creating a wonderful fishing rod. This material was first classified by Professor F. A. McClure in 1927, and has been the material used going forward as the standard for making the highest quality fishing tools.
The cane poles are then cut into 12′ poles, cleaned, sorted and prepared to ship. The culm consists of a hard outer surface or enamel to protect it from insects and/or disease. This enamel will be removed during the build process. Below the enamel are layers of power fibers that run parallel along the culm. These power fibers are what create the strength, soul and power of the rod. There is also a layer of pith that is planed away as part of the build process. Part of creating an amazing fishing rod is choosing the right culm for each desired taper. This is the critical process of understanding how power fibers relate to the action of the rod and produce the finished product.
So …… here is a loose overview of the process of how a Custom Cane Rod by David L. Reid is made. The first and probably the most important (and by the way, each meticulous step is the “most important”), is choosing the right culm for the taper and finished rod that you desire. So many rods have used the wrong culm of bamboo only to end up with an inferior product after investing all of the hours needed to produce these rods. For example, a good spey rod can not be made out of a lighter culm with low power fiber numbers. This same culm might make a wonderful trout rod but trying to use a culm not suited for that style of rod will in the end produce an inferior product. A culm is then chosen based on the criteria of node spacing, power fiber density, weight of culm and presentation (colour of the cane and surface imperfections) to match the desired taper. Once those items have been decided upon it’s time to decide the age old question of flamed or blond …………
Time to decide that age old question of blond or brunette. If a flamed rod is chosen the outside enamel is essentially burned or altered to turn the cane a colour scheme that runs from carmel goodness to dark, warm chocolate brown.
If you are a fan of the flamed rods …… it’s time to darken up the outer enamel or outer skin of the culm. This exterior outer enamel will be scraped off at a later time. There are many ways of accomplishing it. Paul Young had his “Ring of Fire”. Others used an ammonia treatment to alter and darken the colour of their cane, quite a few termed this “browntone”. Thomas first used that term around 1919, but others like Edwards (FET – quite possibly the originator of this style of tempering), Ed Payne, Heddon and many others of that time also used and claimed this technique as their own. . Others like myself use a torch to darken the culm. This does a few things that are very positive and creates a pleasing tone to the eye. This process in the build changes the molecular structure of the cane. One of the benefits of this is by flaming the cane it greatly minimizes the tendency of the tips to get sets. This is a problem that builders from the last century dealt with in cane rods that received heavy use. The modern builders of today don’t have to deal with this. Modern glues have also equally been an advantage in this area. If a blond rod is chosen the culm is flipped over and the pith is flamed to receive the same benefit of the flamed rod while still retaining the beautiful straw colour of the natural cane.
The next step in the process is to divide and measure the culm to get the best node spacing and usage of power fibers for the taper that has been chosen. This is also a very important step which is reflected in the final rod. Nodal dams are a source of frustration for the maker in addition to being the origin of most twists and bends in the strips. They also have weak spots that need to be dealt with through sanding, heat treating, and pressing of these nodes. The strips are spaced in patterns to retain the strength and integrity of the finished rods.
The strips are split into individual sections in preparation for the node work. At Custom Cane Rods by David L. Reid we make our rod from one single culm. We do not split a bunch of culms at one time and then make rods that are pieced together from multiple culms that have similar nodal distances. We believe that this builds a more cohesive and matching finished rod.
Once the strips are split, it is time to deal with the nodes on both side of the Individual strips. These nodes need to be sanded flat without filing into the power fibers on the top of the strips. This can affect the integrity and strength of the strips. This picture shows the nodes on the bottom of the strip. This picture was taken before the strips had been spaced and sized for the rod section to be made.
We build what is called a hex, the most commonly used cane rod design, which is made up of 6 hexagonal or 60 degree triangle strips glued together.
Next up, and the longest and most tedious steps or stages of the process. Heat treating and pressing nodes as well as straightening the individual strips takes up a majority of the rod build. This is a never ending process…… and truly the most important part of the entire build. The attention to detail at this point is what separates the good from the Great. And in the end ……….. you will straighten, straighten and then straighten more through the entire build.
Once the strips have been straightened and the nodes have been pressed, the next step is to cut the strips into 60 degrees to prepare and prep the strips to final plane to the prescribed taper. This is essentially a recipe that determines the action and feel of the finished rod. There are multiple ways of accomplishing this and some builders use a mill and cutters to turn the strips into triangles.
Some use two wheels and sandpaper to sand them into 60 degrees. Some use a beveler and although there may be some time savings available with these tools I prefer to go old school and hand plane them into shape. I just feel it makes the process more pure. I try and make the build as much of a bench craft as I possibly can and take every opportunity to make these rods by hand. There are way too many things in this world automated and/or CNC’d. I feel that it takes out some of the artistry and personal touch to our craft. Newer is not always better …….
The strips are then bound together, checked for consistency and prepped to be heat treated ……
Next up in the build process is heat treating the cane. This will chemically alter and change the properties of the cane…….. two of the most important results to the cane strips from this step is the speeding up of the recovery of the blank as well as lowering the overall weight of the finished rod.
Once the strips have cooled down from their heat treatment it’s time to scrape and sand off the surface enamel and check nodes for straightness. If there are still some nodal dams remaining it’s time to take the file out again and touch them up. This is where accuracy and patience pays off. Usually the strips will need a little bit more straightening to get them flat and straight which affects the final accuracy of the planed strips.
Once all of these steps are completed it’s time to set the planing form up to produce the taper for the rod that is being created. Once you’ve checked a couple of times for accuracy the final planing starts for each strip. This continues one at a time until the exact measurement of the taper is met. The strip is checked throughout this step multiple times ensuring that the proper action of the rod being made is achieved. Once done, if hollow building is part of the build, this is the time to begin that process.
If hollow building is part of the rod build the next thing to accomplish is to hollow the strips once they have been planed to the final dimension that the taper requires. The benefit and the reason why we hollow build some of our rods is not only to reduce weight in our rods, but more importantly to increase the speed of recovery of the cast. This is probably, along with the advent if modern tapers, where these new rods excel over the cane rods of old. The cane spey rods of old were designed for lifting line, whereas these faster and lighter rods really surprise people when they cast them. All of our Two Handed Spey Rods and Trout Spey Rods at Custom Cane Rods by David L. Reid are hollow built in construction using spliced joints to connect the rod sections. Our Trout rods are constructed with ferrules unless otherwise requested by the customer to utilize spliced joints in their build.
The sections are then glued, bound together and staged in the heat box to dry and cure.
Once the glue has been scraped off the next step is to sand the blanks using a progression of descending grits of sandpaper. Once the blank has had all of the excess glue residue sanded off it’s time to polish the blanks with 0000 steel wool and then apply some tung oil to ensure excess moisture isn’t allowed back into the blank.
When the sanding is done it’s time to move on to polishing the sections ……
At this point, it’s all finishing work. Ferrules need to be cut and fitted on the lathe or the section will have spliced joints cut into them.
The reel seat is next up on the docket. This is an area that really separates a custom cane rod build from all the others. We offer a wide variety of hard woods to choose from for our reel inserts. One other advantage of commissioning a custom rod is the ability to fit the beautiful and classic click and pawl reels of yesteryear to your setup. The longer reel seats that adorned vintage pre-war reels like Hardy, Dingley, Farlows and JW Young are now not a hindrance to fish these Classics. The ability to put these classics into use only adds to the overall enjoyment of your time on the river. The reels fish just as Amazing and Effective as they did when they were first hand crafted. This definitely brings an angler another pleasing way to be drawn back to an era when these works of art were being produced ……
Next up is gluing cork rings to the grip and then turning the desired cork grip shape which is trued and spun to uniquely fit the rod. The cork rings are drilled to fit the blank, glued and then turned on the lathe to achieve the proper diameter of grip requested.
The wraps will receive multiple coats of varnish with sanding in between each coat. Once the wraps have been finished it’s time to varnish the rod and then let her dry in the drying cabinet. After detailed sanding she is ready to find her forever home. For me in the end it’s all of these tiny steps that create this personal rod. To know that it was crafted and then given to an angler to enjoy on his or her stream brings a human connection that drives this passion for me. There is something so old-timey about the crafting of these rods, so enchanting, and definitely so right and personal that harkens back to better times. It gives it more value and translates feeling into an item creating a personal connection. I’ve always been drawn to items that people create or re-purpose with their own hands. I just don’t feel you get the same thing built by a machine. It’s what makes buying art so personal in the end you’re not just buying a rod ……….. you’re sharing in the makers time, heart and craft.
And then, it’s off to the river for me …….